Event of 1839: Socialist activist Louis Auguste Blanqui and the Société des Saisons begin an up

Background. Louis Auguste Blanqui was a pivotal figure of the 19th-century French radical left, an advocate for communism and of the revolutionary theory known as Blanquism. In 1838, Armand Barbès returned to Paris and joined with Blanqui and Martin Bernard to form a republican secret society described as very proletarian: the Society of Seasons. Its founding led directly to the insurrection of 12 May 1839, in which the Republicans tried to overthrow the king, Louis Philippe.

The Uprising. On 12 May 1839, the Society of Seasons, feeling strong enough with approximately nine hundred members, attempted a coup d'état in Paris. Blanqui led the society in this insurrectionary attempt. Historians have described the event as a 'tragic and absurd farce' that lacked any prospect of success from the beginning.

Aftermath. Barbès was sent to Mont-Saint-Michel on 17 July 1839 with three other convicts, including Martin Bernard, who left a detailed account of their imprisonment; Blanqui and five other insurgents joined them on 6 February 1840. Blanqui, having initially evaded capture, was arrested in January 1840 and sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison. The events led to a divorce between Barbès and Blanqui, and in April 1848 the "Taschereau Document," implying Blanqui had betrayed his comrades after the 1839 uprising, caused a permanent split between him and Barbès.