The unification of Germany, c1840–71 - 1 Popular pressure and causes of…

The idea

The 1846–47 economic crisis began with harvest failures that raised food prices and reduced demand for manufactured goods, causing unemployment and hunger. Popular unrest grew through food riots, strikes and demonstrations, often suppressed by troops. Middle-class nationalists and liberals demanded representative government, civil liberties and German unity, organising in associations and the press. In Baden, a constitutional crisis arose in 1846 when the liberal parliamentary majority rejected the government's budget to force liberal concessions, prompting protests. News of the February 1848 revolution in France inspired radicals and alarmed rulers, accelerating the outbreak of revolution in the German states.

What earns the marks

• Explains how harvest failures and food-price rises in 1846–47 caused hunger, unemployment and industrial distress across the German states.
• Describes the growth of popular unrest through food riots, strikes and demonstrations, and the authorities' use of troops to suppress them.
• Analyses the demands of middle-class nationalists and liberals for representative assemblies, civil liberties and German unity, and their methods such as associations, petitions and the press.
• Explains the constitutional crisis in Baden as a conflict where the liberal parliament rejected the government budget to demand reforms, showing how it mobilised liberal opposition.
• Assesses the impact of the February 1848 revolution in France in inspiring radicals and alarming rulers, thereby accelerating revolution in the German states.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Treating the economic crisis as only a rural problem.

  Put it right: Link harvest failures to urban unemployment and food riots, showing the interconnected nature of the crisis.

• Assuming that middle-class liberals and nationalists wanted a republic.

  Put it right: Most sought constitutional monarchy, representative government and German unity, not necessarily a republic.

• Conflating the 1846 Baden crisis with the later Prussian army budget crisis.

  Put it right: The Baden crisis involved the liberal parliament rejecting the general government budget to secure liberal ministers and reforms.

Exam tips

• Use precise dates and examples, such as the 1846–47 harvest failures, the Baden budget dispute, and the February 1848 Paris revolution, to support causal analysis.
• Distinguish between short-term triggers and longer-term pressures, and explain how they interacted to produce revolution.