Geneva Revolution of 1782
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The Geneva Revolution of 1782 (French: La révolution genevoise de 1782) was a short-lived revolutionary attempt to broaden voting rights and include men of modest means in the republican government of the oligarchic Republic of Geneva.
In 1782, the constitution of Republic of Geneva, a small Swiss city-state, limited the franchise to 1,500 well-to-do male burghers, (upper middle class citizens, mostly merchants.) About 5,000 lower middle-class "natives"—male Genevans born to long-standing Geneva families—lived in the city but were excluded from voting or serving in office. These men worked as artisans and craftsmen in various trades, principally watchmakers. Also excluded from the franchise were a larger number of "habitants": residents whose roots lay in the republic but outside the city, or whose families had immigrated to Geneva from elsewhere.[1]
For two decades the city's politics had opposed the Négatifs, who supported the traditional aristocratic and oligarchical governance by a closed corporation, to the Représantants of more democratic views.[2]