... An economic depression added to the hardship, spreading discontent among the poor and the middle class alike. The view that the 1848 revolts were the result of not just one crisis but a combination of several is particularly supported by the French historian Ernest Labrousse1. These disasters brought about the need for constitutional change in line with the evolving social transformations of the time. The British had recognised and responded to this need for change much earlier because the industrial revolution was occurring much quicker in Britain than on the European mainland, save Belgium. The economic and social changes - namely the rise in the educated middle classes necessitated some sort of amendment in legislation. This problem was never addressed in France and led to the rise in proposed alternative systems of government. In both Italy and Germany, uprisings were brought about by liberals demanding more freedom. In Germany, nationalists ...

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