ABSTRACT
The first sign of revolution came from Switzerland in November, 1847. The industrial crisis which had made Europe ripe for revolution was particularly severe in Belgium, where economic development was relatively high. In the winter of 1847-8 unemployment in the textile areas rose from week to week, and in the workers' quarters, which were accustomed to privation, famine stalked abroad. The 1847 elections had brought the Liberals into power. In the winter of 1847-8 three great democratic demonstrations on behalf of Poland took place in Brussels. On February 14 Belgians, Poles and Germans demonstrated in honour of the heroes of the 1830 revolution and the martyrs of the rising of the Russian Dekabrists. Hitherto the Belgian police and the Belgian Conservatives had not paid any particular attention to the German Communists. The Communists left Paris. Four and a half years before Marx had transplanted himself from the Prussia of Frederick William IV to the Paris of Louis Philippe.
