Economic crises and the European revolutions of 1848

Recent historical research tends to view the 1848 revolutions in Europe as caused by a surge of radical ideas and by long-term socioeconomic problems. However, many contemporary observers interpreted much of the upheaval as a consequence of shortterm economic causes, specifically the serious shortfa ll in food supply that had shaken large parts of the Continent in 1845-1847 , and the subsequent industrial slump. Applying standard quantitative metho ds to a data set of 27 European countries, we show that it was mainly immed iate economic misery, and the fear thereof, that triggered the European rev olutions of 1848.