The uprising in Paris in February 1848 that toppled the throne of Louis Philippe was the fuse that lit the fires of revolution throughout Germany. For years there had been many signs of restlessness in the educated classes, but in the middle 1840s there was added to it acute social misery among the poorer sections of German society. Artisans and craftsmen had for long been under pressure from the beginnings of industrialism. The competition between older and more modern methods of production was particularly evident in the manufacture of textiles. The proverbial hardships experienced by those involved in home handicrafts like weaving were now further aggravated by a general economic downturn. The peasants, still the most numerous class in society, experienced a succession of poor harvests in the years immediately before 1848.