Title: What Caused the 1848 Revolutions?
Headings: What Caused the 1848 Revolutions?
What Caused the 1848 Revolutions?
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Content: The European Potato failure was a food crisis that struck Europe in the mid-1840s and it definitely had a huge impact. This created immense suffering for those living in Europe as it led to a great number of deaths. It is estimated that roughly 40,000-50,000 died in Belgium and Prussia due to a great famine outbreak. A further 10,000 people also died in France. As a result of these crop failures, prices began to rise significantly; many people’s income were spent on high priced food which ultimately led to unemployment, creating an atmosphere of severe discontent in Europe. France was going through a rough phase as populations began to increase in rural areas, forcing people to live in the main cities, which was not easy as inflation was very high. Historian Jonathan Sperber proclaims, ‘in the mid-1840s, the high-prices, followed by indebtedness, poor business conditions and wide spread-unemployment reflected the poor economic conditions in Europe’ [2]. Fundamentally, the fact that Europe faced such harsh conditions during the mid-1840s is able to provide a fair reflection to why the revolutions took place in 1848. Discontent among peasants during the 1840s was high since they lost their communal lands.