French urban workers, moved by their misery and by the powerful social myths engendered by the Great Revolution, have for a decade or more been increasingly drawn toward socialism in its various utopian forms.

An unprecedented flowering of socialist thought marks the years 1840-48 in France: this is the generation of Barthélemy-Prosper Enfantin, Charles Fourier, Auguste Blanqui, Louis Blanc, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Étienne Cabet, and many others.

Most of these system builders preach persuasion rather than violence, but they stimulate the hopes of the common man for an imminent transformation of society.

Within the bourgeoisie as well, there is strong and vocal pressure for change in the form of a broadening of the political elite.

Bills to extend the suffrage (and the right to hold office) to the middle bourgeoisie are repeatedly introduced in parliament but are stubbornly opposed by François Guizot, King Louis Philippe's unpopular Premier.

Even the National Guard, the de facto honor society of the lesser bourgeoisie, becomes infected with this mood of dissatisfaction.
1848 is the year of revolution all over Europe.

There are outbreaks in Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, and Poland, but they are particularly widespread in Germany.

In France, the revolutionary activity takes place in Paris throughout most of the year, and ends with the assumption of the presidency by the nephew of nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince Louis Napoleon, the "Man of December." Three years later, he stages a coup d'etat, overthrows the Republic, and declares himself Emperor Napoleon III.
Much of the chronology that follows is drawn primarily from Karl Marx on Revolution, Saul K. Padover, Editor (McGraw Hill, New York, 1971) and supplemented by information from "France, history of" Encyclopædia Britannica.