Source: BBC
2016 has been a momentous year. The UK’s Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump confounded the expectations, while the wars in Syria and Yemen caused more bloodshed. BBC Radio 4’s Today programme asked top historians for their assessment of the year. The nearest historical equivalent for the year 2016 is 1848, when a series of revolutions broke out one after the other, many of which were similar to each other but each of which was also subtly different, according to local circumstances.In 1848 a revolution in France overthrew King Louis-Philippe and the July Monarchy, forcing the king into exile.The mob broke into the Tuileries Palace in Paris and the message was picked up in Vienna, where the Chancellor, Prince Klemens von Metternich, had to escape from the city dressed as a washerwoman. Similarly, the example of the shock news of Brexit provided Americans with the example that establishments could be overthrown.ž
Categories: Europe and Australia