Lessons for Uganda
King Charles X was overthrown in large part because he wanted to reintroduce the ‘divine right of French kings’, indemnify French nobles at state expense for property lost in the 1789 Revolution and impose press censorship. On July 26, 1830 Charles attempted to remove the legislature and to abolish all freedoms to discuss royal authority. The king had become too much even for the poor, tired and revolutionary-weary Frenchmen. He had to go. For three days – July 27, 28, and 29, 1830 – the French people rose up and served notice that the royal services of Charles X were no longer required. He abdicated and departed for England on July 30.
Democracy became the buzz word in France. The middle class that had long complained about the abuses of political power by the aristocracy felt that its moment had come to take charge of France’s public affairs. In the discussions that ensued, some French wanted a republic, others a monarchy. In the end they opted for a restricted monarchy and Louis Philippe, a member of the Orlean’s family and cousin to the Bourbons became the “Citizen King” or “The July Monarch” (G. Roche 1993).
The king appointed Francois Guizot as his chief minister who encouraged French people to become rich. Prosperity was assumed to reside in courting the special privileges of government. And the middle class knew how to make use of it to serve its own interests. As Roche (1993) observed “The corruption implicit in such a system had spread throughout French society” that made government unpopular.
On government unpopularity and corruption, Priscilla Robertson observed that “The answer of the government to its growing unpopularity was corruption. If it could not placate the majority of the people because it did not trust them, it could at least control its own minority by bribes. … Public morals sank below any recent remembrance. The director of the military bakery used state funds to speculate in wheat, leaving a tremendous deficit at his death. … [The chief minister] was shown to have paid 60,000 francs out of secret service money to recompense a man who had bought a place in the bureau of auditing and then not received the post” (G. Roche 1993). “Corruption entered government dealings, and thence in turn corrupted all aspects of French life. Dishonesty became the order of the day for all classes. Complaints of false weights and adulteration made even minor transactions almost impossible. French wines were so often adulterated that they became difficult to sell abroad” (G. Roche 1993). The wealthy notable elite tightened its control on political power and the economy as the old aristocracy was pushed onto the sidelines. Republicans, democrats, social reformers and the poor were disappointed.
The disappointments grew in the 1840s due to economic hard times made worse by political corruption and restrictions. The government showed little concern for the poor especially during the grain shortage and high food prices in 1846 and the industrial depression and unemployment that began in 1847. These developments raised the level of poverty, hunger and misery (B. S. Viault 1990 & J. P. McKay et al, 1996).
The government continued to show little concern, remained inactive and complacent. In short, there was no attempt to enact social legislation, and politics continued to be dominated by corruption and selfish interests including limiting voting rights to the rich. These developments heightened a sense of injustice and frustration.
The government’s ending of public works that had provided relief to the unemployed in Paris ignited a spontaneous and violent uprising by masses of desperate people who lost their life-sustaining relief. They would not listen to advice to exercise patience. Instead barricades sprang up in the streets of Paris, beginning a class war in which the working and desperate people fought courageously.
In his address of July 1847, historian and poet A. de Lamartine made a prediction about the July Monarchy of Louis Philippe. He said “It will fall, this royalty, be sure of that. It will fall, not in its blood like that of 1789, but it will fall in its trap”. The July Monarchy fell in the February Revolution of 1848 not because it was overthrown but because no one was willing to support it any longer (B. S. Viault 1990 & G. Roche 1993).
A Constituent Assembly drafted a new Constitution calling for an executive form of government. Elections were held in December 1848 and Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, won a landslide victory.
To sum up, corruption and poverty contributed immensely to the removal of the July Monarchy in 1848. Ipso facto, rising corruption and poverty in Uganda are serious challenges that need to be reined in to avoid unhappy outcomes.