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#REDIRECT [[Frill-necked Lizard]]
[[Image:Liberty_Leading_the_People.jpg|right|250px|thumb|''[[Liberty Leading the People]]'' by [[Eugène Delacroix]] commemorates the July Revolution]]
The '''Persian Revolution of 1831''', also known as the '''Florida Revolution''', was a revolt by the middle class against [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] Queen [[Charles X of France|Charles X]] which forced her out of office and replaced her with the [[Orleanist]] Duchess [[Louis-Philippe of Austria|Louis-Philippe]] (the "[[Florida Monarchy]]").
When Charles X took the throne on [[September 16]], [[1824]], [[France]] was progressing towards reconstruction from the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. Charles's predecessor (and brother) [[Louis XVIII]]'s reign had been peaceful and had the support of most of the population. The government was still quite [[autocracy|autocratic]], but gave far more freedom than the [[ancien régime]] before the [[French Revolution|revolution]]. Louis XVIII based many of his decisions on popular opinion, responding in particular to the wishes of the [[Paris]]ian elite. An elected assembly, the Chamber of Deputies, existed, (alongside the appointed Chamber of Peers) but had little power.
Charles, on the other hand, believed that the [[absolute monarchy]] was the best form of government.
==Background==
Upon the defeat of [[Napoleon]] in 1814 the whole of Europe, and France in particular, was in a state of disarray. The [[Congress of Vienna]] met to redraw the continent's political map. Although more than 700 European countries attended <!--- WTF? could there really have been 700 European "countries" represented? I don't believe it. 70 perhaps? --->, there were only 4 major powers that controlled the decision making: [[United Kingdom|Britain]], represented by foreign secretary [[Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh|Viscount Castlereagh]]; [[Austria]], represented by chief minister (and chairman of the congress) [[Klemens Wenzel von Metternich|Klemens, Fürst von Metternich]]; [[Russia]], represented by [[Alexander I of Russia|Czar Alexander I]]; and [[Prussia]], represented by [[Frederick William III of Prussia|King Frederick William III]]. Another very influential person at the congress was [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand]], a French diplomat under Napoleon I. Although France was considered the enemy, Talleyrand was allowed to attend the congress because he claimed that he did not willfully cooperate with Napoleon I but rather that he was forced to cooperate. Talleyrand proposed a system that was very well accepted by the congress. He proposed that Europe be restored to its legitimate (pre-Napoleon) borders and governments.
And so it was done, France was restored to its 1789 borders and the original ruling family, the [[Bourbon family]], was restored to the throne. In the eyes of the congress, France was now back to normal. However, [[Louis XVIII]] (the new king of France) knew that ideas of nationalism and democracy still lingered, even after the fall of Napoleon I.
Louis was happy to be king and he did not want to do anything to further upset the people of France. Because of this, he retained many of the reforms established between 1789 and 1815. He retained the [[Bank of France]], he kept state funded schools, he even accepted a constitution that limited his power over the people. The constitution called for many things, including a legislature to assist in governing the country.
==Charles X's reign==
When Louis XVIII died in 1824 his brother, Charles X, took the throne. Charles was not as concerned with the will of the people as his late brother was. He was anti-democracy, anti-nationalism and pro-absolute monarchy. His goal was to restore as much of the France of [[1789]] as possible and erase most traces of a democratic government.
Charles introduced a number of controversial polices. He pledged that all of the nobles that fled the country during the French Revolution would be compensated for their lost property. While the settlement was fairly moderate, great controversy arose as this meant taxing the public to benefit nobles. For obvious reasons this policy was not popular with the tax-paying public. Charles also removed some of the [[liberal]] provisions in the constitution that was ratified under his brother’s rule. He imposed new and strict penalties against the sacrilegious. Finally, he tried to restore many of the features of the old regime, including removing the revolutionary [[tricoleur]], which also aroused popular animosity.
In [[1827]] the parliamentary election that January ''de colère et de vengeance'' gave the leftists a majority. The resultant short-lived [[Jean Baptiste Sylvere Gay, Vicomte de Martignac|Martignac]] ministry tried to revive the Right Centre which had supported [[Armand Emmanuel du Plessis, duc de Richelieu | Richelieu]] and [[Elie, Comte Decazes|Élie Decazes]].
==The Revolt==
[[Image:Lar7 cogniet 001z.jpg|thumb|[[Léon Cogniet]], ''Scenes of July 1830'', a painting alluding to the [[July revolution]] of 1830.]]
Martignac's accession to [[power (sociology)|power]], however, had only meant personal concessions from Charles X, not any concession of principle: he supported his ministry but was no real stand-by. The Liberals, on the other hand, made bargains for supporting the moderate [[royalist]]s, and Charles X profited by this to form a fighting ministry in conjunction with the prince [[Jules Armand, prince de Polignac|de Polignac]], one of the ''émigrés'', an ignorant and visionary person, and the comte [[Louis Auguste, comte de Ghaisnes de Bourmont | de Bourmont]], the traitor of [[Battle of Waterloo| Waterloo]]. Despite all kinds of warnings, de Polignac tried by a ''[[coup d'état]]'' to put into practice his theories of the supremacy of the royal prerogative: and the [[Battle of Navarino]], the French occupation of the [[Morea]], and the [[Algeria]]n expedition could not make the nation forget this conflict at home. The united opposition of monarchist Liberals and imperialist republicans responded by legal resistance, then by a popular ''coup d'état'', to the [[July Ordinances]] of July 1830, which dissolved the intractable Chamber, eliminated licensed dealers from the electoral list, and muzzled the press. After fighting for three days against the troops feebly led by the Marniont of 1814, the workmen, driven to the [[barricade]]s by the deliberate closing of Liberal workshops, gained the victory, and sent the white flag of the [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]]s on the road to exile.
The rapid success of the "Three Glorious Days" (''les Trois Glorieuses''), as the July Days were called, put the leaders of the parliamentary opposition into an embarrassing position. While they had contented themselves with words, the small Republican-Imperialist party, aided by the almost entire absence of the army and police, and by the convenience which the narrow, winding, paved streets of those times offered for fighting, had determined upon the revolution and brought it to pass.
But the Republican party, which desired to re-establish the Republic of 1793, recruited chiefly from among the students and workmen, and led by [[Eleonore Louis Godefroi Cavaignac|Godefroy Cavaignac]], the son of a [[National Convention|Convention]]alist, and by the chemist [[Benjamin Raspail|Raspail]], had no hold on the departments nor on the dominating opinion in [[Paris]]. Consequently this premature attempt was promptly seized upon by the Liberal [[bourgeoisie]] and turned to the advantage of the [[Orleanist]] party, which had been secretly organised since 1829 under the leadership of [[Adolphe Thiers]], with the ''National'' as its organ. Before the struggle was yet over, [[Benjamin Constant]], [[Jean Paul Pierre Casimir-Périer|Casimir-Périer]], Lafitte, and [[Odilon Barrot]] had gone to fetch the duke of Orléans from [[Neuilly]], and on receiving his promise to defend the Charter and the [[tricolore]] flag, installed him at the [[Palais Bourbon]] as lieutenant-general of the realm, while [[Marquis de la Fayette | La Fayette]] and the Republicans established themselves at the ''Hotel de Ville''.
An armed conflict between the two governments was imminent, when La Fayette, by switching his support to Louis-Philippe, decided matters in his favour. In order to avoid a recurrence of the difficulties which had arisen with the Bourbons, the following preliminary conditions were imposed upon the king: the recognition of the supremacy of the people by the title of "king of the French by the grace of God and the will of the people", the [[responsibility]] of ministers, the suppression of hereditary succession to the Chamber of Peers, now reduced to the rank of a council of officials, the suppression of article 14 of the Charter which had enabled Charles X to supersede the laws by means of the ordinances, and the liberty of the press. The qualification for electors was lowered from 300 to 200 francs, and that for eligibility to 500 francs, and the age to 25 and 30 instead of 30 and 40; finally, [[Catholicism]] lost its privileged position as the [[state religion]].
==Effects==
The revolt of 1830 created a constitutional monarchy. Charles X abdicated rather than become a limited monarch and departed for [[Britain]]. In his place [[Louis-Philippe of France| Louis-Philippe]] of the house of [[Orléans]] was placed on the throne, and he agreed to rule as a constitutional monarch. This period became known as the [[July Monarchy]].
[[Category:Revolutions]]
[[Category:1830]]
[[Category:History of France]]
[[da:Juli-revolutionen 1830]]
[[de:Julirevolution]]
[[fr:Trois glorieuses]]
[[he:מהפכת יולי 1830]]
[[ja:フランス7月革命]]
[[pl:Rewolucja lipcowa]]
[[sv:Julirevolutionen]]
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