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A: Paris, Île-de-France, France

The French Revolution of 1848 in Europe's Year of Revolutions

2/1848
"Liberty Leading the People" by Eugène Delacroix. This painting actually commemorates the French Revolution of 1830 (July Revolution) on 28 July 1830. It was painted by Delacroix in 1830. Louvre.

"Liberty Leading the People" by Eugène Delacroix. This painting actually commemorates the French Revolution of 1830 (July Revolution) on 28 July 1830. It was painted by Delacroix in 1830. Louvre.

Like the French revolutions of 1789 and 1830, the economic crisis in France leading to the French Revolution of 1848, sometimes known as the February Revolution, began in agriculture. Failure of the potato crop in 1846, and a poor harvest of grain in 1847 increased the price of bread and other foodstuffs. The food shortage— not limited to France—was exacerbated by an increase in population that had occurred in France and other European countries since the beginning of the eighteenth century. Inhabitants of rural areas crowded into towns where they found few factories to employ them. During this crisis, in some instances, people who had low-paying jobs had to work an entire day to earn enought to pay for a loaf of bread. As a result of widespread hunger, in 1848 revolutions occurred in almost every European city with more than 50,000 inhabitants. But within a year reactionary forces won out and the revolutions collapsed.

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