In 1848, conditions were pretty awful for the peasantry;a potato blight swept across Europe, grain yields were low and prices for bread and other staples rose in the cities - the initial impetus for revolt was aggravated everywhere by the social conditions yet it wasn't socialism or even liberalism that seemed to play the larger role but an unlikely alliance of nationalism and monarchy.

The French Revolution though was the pre-eminent model which mobilised support for the 1848 disturbances....