In 1848 a wave of liberal, democratic and nationalist uprisings spread across Europe, beginning in France with the fall of the July Monarchy and igniting revolts in the German and Italian states and the Habsburg Empire. Revolutionaries demanded constitutions, representative government, civil liberties and national unification or independence. Most risings were suppressed by conservative monarchies and armies within about a year.
Although largely defeated in the short term, the revolutions entrenched lasting demands for constitutional rule and national self-determination, and in cities such as Paris they fed the case for boulevards and reordered streets that were harder to barricade.
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