July Monarchy in nineteenth-century French history

¶ … Monarchy primarily refers to a period of time from approximately 1830 through 1847. The era was one of excess, merriment and parties throughout Paris, especially in regards to the Bourgeoisie, and as one recent article espoused, "the July Monarchy would be a somewhat more liberal regime than the Bourbon monarchy of Charles X that fell during the Trois Glorieuses" (Merriman, 2004, pg 147). The July Monarchy was more liberal due in no small part to the residual ecstasy still evident from the Revolution. Yet, "riots (still) rocked Paris" (Merriman, pg 147).

Many of the commoners at that time were slow to realize that even though the number of voters had doubled, little else had changed in France. The citizens were still ruled by a 'citizen-king' who in everything except title was still a monarch. That fact was a primary reason for the uprising in Lyons in both 1831 and Paris/Lyons in 1834. The cholera epidemic was also a primary concern and in fact may have been at the center of everything. A journal entry from that era wrote "you do remember it: cholera was everything; it had absorbed everything, politics, uprisings, theater, intrigues" (Delacroix, ca 1832).