2. Populations from rural areas migrated to the cities to live in overcrowded slums.

3. In towns, small textile producers who worked in homes or small workshops, faced stiff competition from cheaper machine-made imports from England.

4. Where the aristocracy still enjoyed power, peasants struggled under feudal dues and obligations.

5. The rise of food prices in a year of bad harvest led to widespread pauperism in town and country.

6. In 1848 people of Paris came out on the roads to protest food shortages and unemployment and Louis Philippe was forced to flee. A National Assembly proclaimed a Republic, and guaranteed suffrage to adult males and the right to work through national workshops.

7. In 1845, weavers in Silesia led a revolt against contractors who gave them orders for textiles but drastically reduced their payments. A crowd of weavers marched to the contractor's mansion demanding higher wages. They were met with scorn and threats. Following this, some of them forced their way in, smashed the houseware and plundered the cloth supplies in the storehouse.

8. The contractor fled to a neighboring village which, however, refused to shelter such a person. A day later he returned with the support of the army. In the exchange that followed, eleven weavers were shot.