After the bourgeois revolutions won, Europe's situation did not improve. Instead, it grew even worse.
The capitalists who had just risen up and become masters had not even secured their foothold before revealing their greedy nature.
The newly established bourgeois governments not only failed to honor their previous promises, but intensified their exploitation of the common people.
Wherever there was oppression, there was resistance. Worker and peasant movements began to flourish.
In Lombardy, Marshal Radetzky had requisitioned vast quantities of grain before withdrawing. After the Kingdom of Sardinia occupied the region, Milan faced a grain shortage. To gather provisions, it borrowed grain from the local people as an emergency measure.
Borrow and repay; then borrowing again is no hardship.
Unfortunately, the Kingdom of Sardinia seemed to have forgotten about the grain it had borrowed from the people, sparking local resentment.
That alone might have been tolerable, since only a small number of people had their grain borrowed. But then, to raise funds for the war, the Kingdom of Sardinia began levying a war tax.
After being inflated layer upon layer by the bureaucrats, the war tax had long surpassed what the common people could bear.
On April 21, 1848, the Brianza peasants, unable to bear the crushing taxes, rebelled. The uprising quickly spread to Salerno, Calabria, and other regions.
The rebel forces occupied noble estates, seized granaries, distributed food to ordinary people, burned promissory notes and documents, and in some places even divided up the land.
The actions of the peasant rebels terrified the capitalists and nobles. The Lombardy government immediately dispatched troops for a violent suppression. This spontaneously organized peasant uprising was crushed in less than a week.
The peasant uprising was only the beginning. After the Kingdom of Sardinia occupied Milan, prices began to soar wildly. Taking bread