The Rioters Who Cried “Bread or Blood”

Name: The Rioters Who Cried “Bread or Blood”
Genre: Documentary

Failed European harvests drive food prices upward until hunger spills into the streets with weapons and a chilling ultimatum.

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Transcript

In July, snow fell across New England—and the crops began to fail.
One New England farmer said, 'The field is white again.' The field is white again.
The trigger was far away: Tambora erupted on Sumbawa in 1815.
Smaller particles reached the stratosphere; ash reduced incoming sunlight at Earth’s surface.
Across Europe, crop failures drove food shortages, soaring prices, and civil unrest.
In England, hunger moved from the market stalls into the streets. Rioters carried spiked sticks and demanded, “Bread or Blood.”
Historians call this the last great subsistence crisis in the Western World.
By 1817, Germany called the new reality “the year of the beggar.”
In Switzerland, deaths outnumbered births in both 1817 and 1818.
Malnutrition prevailed nationwide. Typhus and dysentery were rampant in Europe.
A Banyuwangi account said candles needed by 1 p.m. April 11th, 1815.
By midday on April 11th, 1815, ash-darkened skies chilled the home.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports 100,000-plus deaths from food shortages next decade.
In 2004, scientists discovered village remains on Tambora.
Two adults remained beneath about 10 feet, or 3 meters, of ash.
For survivors, hunger opened the door to typhus and dysentery.

Europe’s hunger was weakening millions of bodies—and typhus and dysentery were waiting to enter them.

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