Europe endures hard times during much of…

Europe endures hard times during much of the 1840s.

A series of bad harvests culminating in the potato blight of 1845-46 brings widespread misery and some starvation.

An economic depression adds to the hardship, spreading discontent among the poor and the middle class alike.

A popular uprising in Paris in February 1848 turns into a revolution, forcing the French king Louis Philippe to flee to Britain.

The success of the revolution sparks revolts elsewhere in Europe.

Numerous German cities are shaken by uprisings in which crowds consisting mainly of the urban poor, but also of students and members of the liberal middle class, storm their rulers' palaces and demand fundamental reform.

Berlin and Vienna are especially hard hit by what comes to be called the revolutions of 1848.

The rulers of both cities, like rulers elsewhere, quickly accede to the demands of their rebellious subjects and promise constitutions and representative government.

Conservative governments fall, and Prince Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, flees to Britain.