1830s യൂറോപ്യൻ സമ്പദ് വ്യവസ്ഥാ പ്രതിസന്ധി

1830s European Economic Crisis

• Europe faced severe economic hardship in the 1830s.
• Rapid population growth across Europe led to a labor surplus.
• Unemployment was widespread, especially in urban areas.
• Rural to urban migration intensified the job crisis.
• Local producers struggled against cheaper, machine-made imports from England.
• Peasants in areas with remaining feudal systems suffered under high dues and obligations.
• Food price hikes and poor harvests amplified poverty in cities and countryside.

Significance of 1848 in Europe

• 1848 witnessed widespread revolts across Europe, starting with those of the disenfranchised.
• A French revolution in February 1848 led to the monarchy's downfall and a republic based on universal male suffrage.
• Liberals across Europe combined calls for constitutionalism with national unity.
• Liberals sought national unification based on parliamentary principles (constitution, press freedom, association freedom).
• Women's involvement and efforts to gain political rights sparked controversy within the liberal movement.

German Liberal Movement of 1848

• German middle-class professionals, businessmen, and artisans formed political associations.
• They convened and elected an all-German National Assembly in Frankfurt in May 1848.
• The Frankfurt Parliament drafted a constitution for a German nation, with a monarch accountable to a parliament.
• King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, along with other monarchs, rejected the constitution.
• The Assembly lost support due to its neglect of the working class.
• The Assembly was ultimately disbanded using military force.