86-406: " Let them eat cake " is the traditional translation of the French phrase " Qu'ils mangent de la brioche ", said to have been spoken in the 18th century by "a great princess" upon being told that the peasants had no bread. The phrase "let them eat cake" is conventionally attributed to Marie Antoinette , although there is no evidence that she ever uttered it, and it is now generally regarded as
172-593: A backdrop of conventional interventions through the state or markets, alternative initiatives have been pioneered to address the problem of food security. One pan-African example is the Great Green Wall . Another example is the "Community Area-Based Development Approach" to agricultural development ("CABDA"), an NGO programme with the objective of providing an alternative approach to increasing food security in Africa. CABDA proceeds through specific areas of intervention such as
258-478: A country where xenophobia and chauvinism were beginning to exert major influence in national politics. While the causes of France's economic woes extended far beyond the royal family's spending, anti-monarchist polemics demonized Marie Antoinette as Madame Déficit , who had single-handedly ruined France's finances. These libellistes printed stories and articles vilifying her family and their courtiers with exaggerations, fictitious anecdotes, and outright lies. In
344-737: A famine carries no binding obligations on the UN or member states, but serves to focus global attention on the problem. The scarcity of food refers to a situation where the availability of food is insufficient to meet the demands of a population, often resulting from factors like poor agricultural productivity, climate change, political instability, or economic crises. This shortage can lead to widespread hunger, malnutrition, and social unrest, especially in vulnerable regions. Food scarcity affects not only individual health and well-being but also contributes to greater inequality and economic decline as prices for essential items rise dramatically, further limiting access for
430-474: A famine created by human rights abuses is the 1998 Sudan famine . AIDS is also having long-term economic effects on agriculture by reducing the available workforce, and is creating new vulnerabilities to famine by overburdening poor households. On the other hand, in the modern history of Africa on quite a few occasions famines acted as a major source of acute political instability. In Africa, if current trends of population growth and soil degradation continue,
516-489: A journalistic cliché. The French phrase mentions brioche , a bread enriched with butter and eggs, considered a luxury food. The quote is taken to reflect either the princess's frivolous disregard for the starving peasants or her poor understanding of their plight. The phrase can actually be traced back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau 's Confessions in 1765, 24 years prior to the French Revolution , and when Marie Antoinette
602-404: A network of granaries . Its famines generally occurred immediately after El Niño-Southern Oscillation -linked droughts and floods. These events are comparable, though somewhat smaller in scale, to the ecological trigger events of China's vast 19th-century famines. Qing China carried out its relief efforts, which included vast shipments of food, a requirement that the rich open their storehouses to
688-406: A period of famine throughout history. During the 19th and 20th century, Southeast and South Asia , as well as Eastern and Central Europe , suffered the greatest number of fatalities due to famine. Deaths caused by famine declined sharply beginning in the 1970s, with numbers falling further since 2000. Since 2010, Africa has been the most affected continent in the world by famine. According to
774-502: A series of government guidelines and regulations on how to respond to famines and food shortages called the Famine Code. The famine code was also one of the first attempts to scientifically predict famine in order to mitigate its effects. These were finally passed into law in 1883 under Lord Ripon . The Code introduced the first famine scale : three levels of food insecurity were defined: near-scarcity, scarcity, and famine. "Scarcity"
860-503: A strategy of generating employment for these sections of the population and relied on open-ended public works to do so. During the 20th century, an estimated 70 to 120 million people died from famines across the world , of whom over half died in China, with an estimated 30 million dying during the famine of 1958–1961 , up to 10 million in the Chinese famine of 1928–1930 , and over two million in
946-481: A worldwide problem with hundreds of millions of people suffering. These famines cause widespread malnutrition and impoverishment. The famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s had an immense death toll, although Asian famines of the 20th century have also produced extensive death tolls. Modern African famines are characterized by widespread destitution and malnutrition, with heightened mortality confined to young children. Against
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#17328698288901032-616: Is 9.5 to 13 million people. The largest famine of the 20th century was the 1958–1961 famine associated with the Great Leap Forward in China. The immediate causes of this famine lay in Mao Zedong's ill-fated attempt to transform China from an agricultural nation to an industrial power in one huge leap. Communist Party cadres across China insisted that peasants abandon their farms for collective farms, and begin to produce steel in small foundries, often melting down their farm instruments in
1118-407: Is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war , natural disasters , crop failure , widespread poverty , an economic catastrophe or government policies . This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition , starvation , epidemic , and increased mortality . Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced
1204-701: Is believed to have been a major cause of the collapse of the Old Kingdom . An account from the First Intermediate Period states, "All of Upper Egypt was dying of hunger and people were eating their children." As for recorded examples about more recent centuries: in the 1680s, famine extended across the entire Sahel , and in 1738 half the population of Timbuktu died of famine. In Egypt , between 1687 and 1731, there were six famines. The famine that afflicted Egypt in 1784 cost it roughly one-sixth of its population. The Maghreb experienced famine and plague in
1290-506: Is increasingly problematic: the Sahara reportedly spreads up to 48 kilometres (30 mi) per year. The most serious famines have been caused by a combination of drought, misguided economic policies, and conflict. The 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia, for example, was the outcome of all these three factors, made worse by the Communist government's censorship of the emerging crisis. In Capitalist Sudan at
1376-530: Is taken, lives will be lost. The responsibility to address this lies with states", they added. In November 2021, the World Food Programme reported that 45 million people were "teetering on the very edge of famine" in 43 countries and that the slightest shock would push them over the precipice. This number had risen from 42 million earlier in 2021, and from 27 million in 2019. The slightest shock — be it extreme weather linked to climate change, conflict, or
1462-618: The 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel caused the Gaza Strip famine . This includes a full ban on all shipments for a short time after the attack, later extremely restrictive security checks on aid attempting to go through the blockade, and Israeli protesters blocking aid . In 2024, famine conditions struck Haiti as a result of the ongoing Haitian crisis , resulting in a reported 6,000 people suffering from starvation and 5.4 million civilians— almost half of Haiti's population— suffering from "crisis levels of hunger or worse". While food insecurity
1548-576: The Chinese famine of 1942–1943 , and millions more lost in famines in North and East China. The USSR lost 8 million claimed by the Soviet famine of 1930–1933 , over a million in both the Soviet famine of 1946–1947 and Siege of Leningrad , the 5 million in the Russian famine of 1921–1922 , and others famines. Java suffered 2.5 million deaths under Japanese occupation during World War Two. The other most notable famine of
1634-530: The Netherlands had one of the most commercialized agricultural systems in Europe. They grew many industrial crops such as flax , hemp and hops . Agriculture became increasingly specialized and efficient. The efficiency of Dutch agriculture allowed for much more rapid urbanization in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries than anywhere else in Europe. As a result, productivity and wealth increased, allowing
1720-575: The Poor Law , the latter through soup kitchens . A systematic attempt at creating the necessary regulatory framework for dealing with famine was developed by the British Raj in the 1880s. In order to comprehensively address the issue of famine, the British created an Indian Famine commission to recommend steps that the government would be required to take in the event of a famine. The Famine Commission issued
1806-468: The article wizard to submit a draft for review, or request a new article . Search for " Qu'ils mangent de la brioche ! " in existing articles. Look for pages within Misplaced Pages that link to this title . Other reasons this message may be displayed: If a page was recently created here, it may not be visible yet because of a delay in updating the database; wait a few minutes or try
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#17328698288901892-547: The rinderpest epizootic , introduced into Eritrea by infected cattle, spread southwards reaching ultimately as far as South Africa . In Ethiopia it was estimated that as much as 90 percent of the national herd died, rendering rich farmers and herders destitute overnight. This coincided with drought associated with an El Niño oscillation, human epidemics of smallpox , and in several countries, intense war. The Ethiopian Great famine that afflicted Ethiopia from 1888 to 1892 cost it roughly one-third of its population. In Sudan
1978-462: The 16th and 17th century, the feudal system began to break down, and more prosperous farmers began to enclose their own land and improve their yields to sell the surplus crops for a profit. These capitalist landowners paid their labourers with money , thereby increasing the commercialization of rural society. In the emerging competitive labour market, better techniques for the improvement of labour productivity were increasingly valued and rewarded. It
2064-437: The 1870s to the 1970s, great famines killed an average of 928,000 people a year. Since 1980, annual deaths had dropped to an average of 75,000, less than 10% of what they had been until the 1970s. That reduction was achieved despite the approximately 150,000 lives lost in the 2011 Somalia famine . Yet in 2017, the UN officially declared famine had returned to Africa, with about 20 million people at risk of death from starvation in
2150-508: The African crisis has been interested in the political aspects of the continent, especially the liberation of the occupied parts of it and the elimination of racism. The organization has succeeded in this area but the economic field and development has not succeeded in these fields. African leaders have agreed to waive the role of their organization in the development to the United Nations through
2236-514: The Economic Commission for Africa "ECA". Chinese scholars had kept count of 1,828 instances of famine from 108 BC to 1911 in one province or another—an average of more than one famine per year. A major famine from 1333 to 1337 killed 6 million. The four famines of 1810, 1811, 1846, and 1849 are said to have killed no fewer than 45 million people. China's Qing dynasty bureaucracy devoted extensive attention to minimizing famines with
2322-577: The International Council of Voluntary Agencies and the World Food Programme said: "Girls and boys, men and women, are being starved by conflict and violence; by inequality; by the impacts of climate change; by the loss of land, jobs of prospects; by a fight against Covid-19 that has left them even further behind". The groups warned that funding had dwindled, while money alone would not be enough by itself. Governments should step in to end conflicts and ensure humanitarian access, they said. "If no action
2408-533: The Netherlands to maintain a steady food supply. By 1650, English agriculture had also become commercialized on a much wider scale. The last peacetime famine in England was in 1623–24. There were still periods of hunger, as in the Netherlands, but no more famines ever occurred. Common areas for pasture were enclosed for private use and large scale, efficient farms were consolidated. Other technical developments included
2494-647: The Portuguese wrote of African raids on Portuguese merchants solely for food, giving clear signs of famine. Additionally, instances of cannibalism by the African Jaga were also more prevalent during this time frame, indicating an extreme deprivation of a primary food source. A notable period of famine occurred around the turn of the 20th century in the Congo Free State . In forming this state, Leopold used mass labor camps to finance his empire. This period resulted in
2580-570: The Prime Minister. The government hoped that they would not "stifle private enterprise" and that their actions would not act as a disincentive to local relief efforts. Due to weather conditions, the first shipment did not arrive in Ireland until the beginning of February 1846. The maize corn was then re-sold for a penny a pound. In 1846, Peel moved to repeal the Corn Laws , tariffs on grain which kept
2666-508: The Queen notes, it was a particularly powerful phrase because "the staple food of the French peasantry and the working class was bread, absorbing 50 percent of their income, as opposed to 5 percent on fuel; the whole topic of bread was therefore the result of obsessional national interest." Rousseau's first six books were written in 1765, when Marie Antoinette was nine years of age, and published when she
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2752-667: The Sudan and Sahelian regions of Africa. This caused famine because even though the Sudanese Government believed there was a surplus of grain, there were local deficits across the region. In October 1984, television reports describing the Ethiopian famine as "biblical", prompted the Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia, which raised large sums to alleviate the suffering. A primary cause of
2838-495: The United Nations World Food Programme , famine is declared when malnutrition is widespread, and when people have started dying of starvation through lack of access to sufficient, nutritious food. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification criteria define Phase 5 famine of acute food insecurity as occurring when all three of the following situations exist at the same time: The declaration of
2924-564: The century was the Bengal famine of 1943 , resulting both from the Japanese occupation of Burma , resulting in an influx of refugees, and blocking Burmese grain imports and a failure of the Bengali provincial Government to declare a famine , and fund relief, the imposition of grain and transport embargoes by the neighbouring provincial administrations, to prevent their own stocks being transferred to Bengal,
3010-566: The continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to United Nations University (UNU)'s Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa. Famines in the early 21st century in Africa include the 2005–06 Niger food crisis , the 2010 Sahel famine and the 2011 East Africa drought , where two consecutive missed rainy seasons precipitated the one of the worst droughts in East Africa in 60 years. An estimated 50,000 to 150,000 people are reported to have died during
3096-428: The crisis deepened. Russell's ministry introduced public works projects, which by December 1846 employed some half million Irish and proved impossible to administer. The government was influenced by a laissez-faire belief that the market would provide the food needed. It halted government food and relief works, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through
3182-443: The date of the saying's origin. According to Antonia Fraser , the notorious story of the ignorant princess was first said 100 years before Marie Antoinette in relation to Maria Theresa , the wife of Louis XIV , citing the memoirs of Louis XVIII , who was only fourteen when Rousseau's Confessions were written and whose own memoirs were published much later. Louis XVIII does not mention Marie Antoinette in his account, but says that
3268-420: The dates surrounding the attribution is that when the phrase first appeared, Marie Antoinette was not only too young to have said it, but living outside France as well. Although published in 1782, Rousseau's Confessions were finished thirteen years prior in 1769. Marie Antoinette, only fourteen years old at the time, would not arrive at Versailles from Austria until 1770. Since she was completely unknown to him at
3354-465: The deadly interplay of both hunger drivers — could push tens of millions of people into irreversible peril, a prospect the agency had been warning of for more than a year. Afghanistan was becoming the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with the country's needs surpassing those of the other worst-hit countries — Ethiopia , South Sudan , Syria and even Yemen . In 2023 and 2024, the Israeli response to
3440-672: The death of up to 10 million Congolese from brutality, disease and famine. Some colonial "pacification" efforts often caused severe famine, notably with the repression of the Maji Maji revolt in Tanganyika in 1906. The introduction of cash crops such as cotton, and forcible measures to impel farmers to grow these crops, sometimes impoverished the peasantry in many areas, such as northern Nigeria, contributing to greater vulnerability to famine when severe drought struck in 1913. A large-scale famine occurred in Ethiopia in 1888 and in succeeding years, as
3526-408: The draining of marshes, more efficient field use patterns, and the wider introduction of industrial crops. These agricultural developments led to wider prosperity in England and increasing urbanization. By the end of the 17th century, English agriculture was the most productive in Europe. In both England and the Netherlands, the population stabilized between 1650 and 1750, the same time period in which
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3612-664: The drought was brief the main cause of death in Rwanda was due to Belgian prerogatives to acquisition grain from their colony (Rwanda). The increased grain acquisition was related to WW2. This and the drought caused 300,000 Rwandans to perish. From 1967 to 1969 large scale famine occurred in Biafra and Nigeria due to a government blockade of the Breakaway territory . It is estimated that 1.5 million people died of starvation due to this famine. Additionally, drought and other government interference with
3698-434: The escalating disaster was effectively suppressed. When the leadership did become aware of the scale of the famine, it did little to respond, and continued to ban any discussion of the cataclysm. This blanket suppression of news was so effective that very few Chinese citizens were aware of the scale of the famine, and the greatest peacetime demographic disaster of the 20th century only became widely known twenty years later, when
3784-545: The failure to implement India wide rationing by the central Delhi authority, hoarding and profiteering by merchants, medieval land management practices, an Axis powers denial program that confiscated boats once used to transport grain, a Delhi administration that prioritised supplying, and offering medical treatment to the British Indian Army, War workers, and Civil servants, over the populace at large, incompetence and ignorance, and an Imperial War Cabinet initially leaving
3870-446: The famine (one of the largest seen in the country) is that Ethiopia (and the surrounding Horn) was still recovering from the droughts which occurred in the mid-late 1970s. Compounding this problem was the intermittent fighting due to civil war , the government 's lack of organization in providing relief, and hoarding of supplies to control the population. Ultimately, over 1 million Ethiopians died and over 22 million people suffered due to
3956-609: The famines in France during the reign of her husband, King Louis XVI . But it was not attributed to her until half a century later. Although anti-monarchists never cited the anecdote during the French Revolution, it acquired great symbolic importance in subsequent historical accounts when pro-revolutionary commentators employed the phrase to denounce the upper classes of the Ancien Régime as oblivious and rapacious. As one biographer of
4042-536: The famines of the 20th century served the geopolitical purposes of governments, including traumatizing and replacing distrusted ethnic populations in strategically important regions, rendering regions vulnerable to invasion difficult to govern by an enemy power and shifting the burden of food shortage onto regions where the distress of the population posed a lesser risk of catastrophic regime de-legitimation. Until 2017, worldwide deaths from famine had been falling dramatically. The World Peace Foundation reported that from
4128-533: The food supply caused 500 thousand Africans to perish in Central and West Africa. Famine recurred in the early 1970s, when Ethiopia and the west African Sahel suffered drought and famine . The Ethiopian famine of that time was closely linked to the crisis of feudalism in that country, and in due course helped to bring about the downfall of the Emperor Haile Selassie . The Sahelian famine was associated with
4214-955: The 💕 Look for Qu'ils mangent de la brioche ! on one of Misplaced Pages's sister projects : [REDACTED] Wiktionary (dictionary) [REDACTED] Wikibooks (textbooks) [REDACTED] Wikiquote (quotations) [REDACTED] Wikisource (library) [REDACTED] Wikiversity (learning resources) [REDACTED] Commons (media) [REDACTED] Wikivoyage (travel guide) [REDACTED] Wikinews (news source) [REDACTED] Wikidata (linked database) [REDACTED] Wikispecies (species directory) Misplaced Pages does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for Qu'ils mangent de la brioche ! in Misplaced Pages to check for alternative titles or spellings. You need to log in or create an account and be autoconfirmed to create new articles. Alternatively, you can use
4300-616: The introduction of drought-resistant crops and new methods of food production such as agro-forestry. Piloted in Ethiopia in the 1990s it has spread to Malawi, Uganda, Eritrea and Kenya. In an analysis of the programme by the Overseas Development Institute , CABDA's focus on individual and community capacity-building is highlighted. This enables farmers to influence and drive their own development through community-run institutions, bringing food security to their household and region. The organization of African unity and its role in
4386-755: The issue to the Colonial administration to resolve, than to the original local crop failures, and blights. A few of the great famines of the late 20th century were: the Biafran famine in the 1960s, the Khmer Rouge -caused famine in Cambodia in the 1970s, the North Korean famine of the 1990s , and the Ethiopian famine of 1983–1985 . Approximately 3 million died as a consequence of the Second Congo War . The Ethiopian famine
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#17328698288904472-525: The late 18th century and early 19th century. There was famine in Tripoli in 1784, and in Tunis in 1785. According to John Iliffe, "Portuguese records of Angola from the 16th century show that a great famine occurred on average every seventy years; accompanied by epidemic disease, it might kill one-third or one-half of the population, destroying the demographic growth of a generation and forcing colonists back into
4558-484: The mid-19th century and the onset of the Industrial Revolution , it became possible for governments to alleviate the effects of famine through price controls , large scale importation of food products from foreign markets, stockpiling, rationing , regulation of production and charity . The Great Famine of 1845 in Ireland was one of the first famines to feature such intervention, although the government response
4644-544: The mid-19th century, the system broke down. Thus the 1867–68 famine under the Tongzhi Restoration was successfully relieved but the Great North China Famine of 1877–78, caused by drought across northern China, was a catastrophe. The province of Shanxi was substantially depopulated as grains ran out, and desperately starving people stripped forests, fields, and their very houses for food. Estimated mortality
4730-576: The middle part of the 20th century, agriculturalists, economists and geographers did not consider Africa to be especially famine prone. From 1870 to 2010, 87% of deaths from famine occurred in Asia and Eastern Europe, with only 9.2% in Africa. There were notable counter-examples, such as the famine in Rwanda during World War II and the Malawi famine of 1949, but most famines were localized and brief food shortages. Although
4816-500: The new money to purchase manufactured goods. The agricultural and social developments encouraging increased food production were gradually taking place throughout the 16th century, but took off in the early 17th century. By the 1590s, these trends were sufficiently developed in the rich and commercialized province of Holland to allow its population to withstand a general outbreak of famine in Western Europe at that time. By that time,
4902-683: The northern part of Nigeria, in South Sudan , in Yemen , and in Somalia . On 20 April 2021, hundreds of aid organizations from around the world wrote an open letter to The Guardian newspaper, warning that millions of people in Yemen , Afghanistan , Ethiopia , South Sudan , Burkina Faso , Democratic Republic of the Congo , Honduras , Venezuela , Nigeria , Haiti , Central African Republic , Uganda , Zimbabwe and Sudan faced starvation. Organizations including
4988-503: The number of deaths by famine markedly. That said, many African countries are not self-sufficient in food production, relying on income from cash crops to import food. Agriculture in Africa is susceptible to climatic fluctuations, especially droughts which can reduce the amount of food produced locally. Other agricultural problems include soil infertility , land degradation and erosion , swarms of desert locusts , which can destroy whole crops, and livestock diseases. Desertification
5074-532: The period. In 2012, the Sahel drought put more than 10 million people in the western Sahel at risk of famine (according to a Methodist Relief & Development Fund (MRDF) aid expert), due to a month-long heat wave. Today, famine is most widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa , but with exhaustion of food resources, overdrafting of groundwater , wars, internal struggles, and economic failure, famine continues to be
5160-488: The poor, and price regulation, as part of a state guarantee of subsistence to the peasantry (known as ming-sheng ). However the Taiping Rebellion of the 1850s disrupted the granary relief system such that 1850 to 1873 saw the population of China drop by over 30 million people from early deaths and missing births. When a stressed monarchy shifted from state management and direct shipments of grain to monetary charity in
5246-536: The poor. Addressing food scarcity requires sustainable agricultural practices, improved food distribution systems, and coordinated global efforts to alleviate poverty and inequality. The cyclical occurrence of famine has been a mainstay of societies engaged in subsistence agriculture since the dawn of agriculture itself. The frequency and intensity of famine has fluctuated throughout history, depending on changes in food demand, such as population growth , and supply-side shifts caused by changing climatic conditions. In
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#17328698288905332-558: The price of bread artificially high. The famine situation worsened during 1846 and the repeal of the Corn Laws in that year did little to help the starving Irish; the measure split the Conservative Party, leading to the fall of Peel's ministry. In March, Peel set up a programme of public works in Ireland. Despite this promising start, the measures undertaken by Peel's successor, Lord John Russell , proved comparatively "inadequate" as
5418-471: The process. Collectivisation undermined incentives for the investment of labor and resources in agriculture; unrealistic plans for decentralized metal production sapped needed labor; unfavorable weather conditions; and communal dining halls encouraged overconsumption of available food. Such was the centralized control of information and the intense pressure on party cadres to report only good news—such as production quotas met or exceeded—that information about
5504-440: The prolonged drought, which lasted roughly 2 years. In 1992 Somalia became a war zone with no effective government, police, or basic services after the collapse of the dictatorship led by Siad Barre and the split of power between warlords. This coincided with a massive drought, causing over 300,000 Somalis to perish. Since the start of the 21st century, more effective early warning and humanitarian response actions have reduced
5590-432: The purge function . Titles on Misplaced Pages are case sensitive except for the first character; please check alternative capitalizations and consider adding a redirect here to the correct title. If the page has been deleted, check the deletion log , and see Why was the page I created deleted? Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qu%27ils_mangent_de_la_brioche_! " Famine A famine
5676-543: The quote to one of Marie Antoinette's favourites, the Duchess of Polignac . The Book of Jin , a 7th-century chronicle of the Chinese Jin Dynasty , reports that when Emperor Hui (259–307) of Western Jin was told that his people were starving because there was no rice, he said, "Why don't they eat porridge with (ground) meat ?" (何不食肉糜), showing his unfitness. Qu%27ils mangent de la brioche ! From Misplaced Pages,
5762-509: The river valleys." The first documentation of weather in West-Central Africa occurred around the mid-16th to 17th centuries in areas such as Luanda Kongo, however, not much data was recorded on the issues of weather and disease except for a few notable documents. The only records obtained are of violence between Portuguese and Africans during the Battle of Mbwila in 1665. In these documents
5848-519: The same date, drought and economic crisis combined with denials of any food shortage by the then-government of President Gaafar Nimeiry , to create a crisis that killed perhaps 250,000 people—and helped bring about a popular uprising that overthrew Nimeiry. Numerous factors make the food security situation in Africa tenuous, including political instability, armed conflict and civil war , corruption and mismanagement in handling food supplies, and trade policies that harm African agriculture. An example of
5934-488: The slowly growing crisis of pastoralism in Africa, which has seen livestock herding decline as a viable way of life over the last two generations. Famines occurred in Sudan in the late-1970s and again in 1990 and 1998. The 1980 famine in Karamoja , Uganda was, in terms of mortality rates, one of the worst in history. 21% of the population died, including 60% of the infants. In the 1980s, large scale multilayer drought occurred in
6020-401: The story was an old legend and that the family always believed that Maria Theresa had originated the phrase. However, Louis XVIII is as likely as others to have had his recollection affected by the quick spreading and distorting of Rousseau's original remark. Fraser also points out in her biography that Marie Antoinette was a generous patron of charity and moved by the plight of the poor when it
6106-698: The sweeping changes to agriculture occurred. Famine still occurred in other parts of Europe, however. In Eastern Europe , famines occurred as late as the twentieth century. Because of the severity of famine, it was a chief concern for governments and other authorities. In pre-industrial Europe, preventing famine, and ensuring timely food supplies, was one of the chief concerns of many governments, although they were severely limited in their options due to limited levels of external trade, infrastructure, and bureaucracy generally too rudimentary to effect real relief. Most governments were concerned by famine because it could lead to revolt and other forms of social disruption. By
6192-470: The tempestuous political climate, it would have been a natural slander to put the famous words into the mouth of the widely scorned queen. The phrase was attributed to Marie Antoinette by Alphonse Karr in Les Guêpes of March 1843. Objections to the legend of Marie Antoinette and the comment centre on arguments concerning the Queen's personality, internal evidence from members of the French royal family and
6278-548: The time of writing, she could not have possibly been the "great princess" he mentioned. Another hypothesis is that after the revolution, the phrase, which was initially attributed to a great variety of princesses of the French royal family, eventually stuck on Marie Antoinette because she was in effect the last and best-remembered "great princess" of Versailles. The myth had also been previously attributed to two of Louis XV ’s daughters: Madame Sophie and Madame Victoire . In his 1853 novel Ange Pitou , Alexandre Dumas attributes
6364-419: The veil of censorship began to lift. The exact number of famine deaths during 1958–1961 is difficult to determine, and estimates range from 18 million to at least 42 million people, with a further 30 million cancelled or delayed births. It was only when the famine had wrought its worst that Mao reversed agricultural collectivisation policies, which were effectively dismantled in 1978. China has not experienced
6450-463: The words of a "great princess": At length I remembered the last resort of a great princess who, when told that the peasants had no bread, replied: "Then let them eat brioches." Rousseau does not name the "great princess", and he may have invented the anecdote altogether, as the Confessions is not considered entirely factual. The phrase was supposedly said by Marie Antoinette in 1789, during one of
6536-663: The year 1888 is remembered as the worst famine in history, on account of these factors and also the exactions imposed by the Mahdist state . The oral traditions of the Himba people recall two droughts from 1910 to 1917. From 1910 to 1911 the Himba described the drought as "drought of the omutati seed", also called omangowi , the fruit of an unidentified vine that people ate during the time period. From 1914 to 1916, droughts brought katur' ombanda or kari' ombanda 'the time of eating clothing'. For
6622-676: The year before the French Revolution . The 1775 shortages led to a series of riots that took place in northern, eastern and western France, known at the time as the Flour War ( guerre des farines ). Letters from Marie Antoinette to her family in Austria at this time reveal an attitude largely contrary to the spirit of Let them eat brioche: It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The King seems to understand this truth. Another problem with
6708-476: Was 26, eight years after she became queen. The increasing unpopularity of Marie Antoinette in the final years before the outbreak of the French Revolution also likely influenced many to attribute the phrase to her. During her marriage to Louis XVI, her critics often cited her perceived frivolousness and very real extravagance as factors that significantly worsened France's dire financial straits. Her Austrian birth and her sex also diminished her credibility further in
6794-470: Was brought to her attention, thus making the statement out of character for her. This makes it even more unlikely that Marie Antoinette ever said the phrase. A second consideration is that there were no actual famines during the reign of Louis XVI and only two incidents of serious bread shortages, the first in April–May 1775, a few weeks before the king's coronation on 11 June 1775 , and the second in 1788,
6880-442: Was defined as three successive years of crop failure , crop yields of one-third or one-half normal, and large populations in distress. "Famine" further included a rise in food prices above 140% of "normal", the movement of people in search of food, and widespread mortality. The Commission identified that the loss of wages from lack of employment of agricultural labourers and artisans were the cause of famines. The Famine Code applied
6966-759: Was first noted in March 2024, a 30 September report released for the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IFSPC) officially declared the presence of famine in Haiti as a consequence of gang conflict preventing transport of food while also preventing civilians from being able to find food outside of their homes. In the mid-22nd century BC, a sudden and short-lived climatic change that caused reduced rainfall resulted in several decades of drought in Upper Egypt . The resulting famine and civil strife
7052-633: Was in the farmer's interest to produce as much as possible on their land in order to sell it to areas that demanded that product. They produced guaranteed surpluses of their crop every year if they could. Subsistence peasants were also increasingly forced to commercialize their activities because of increasing taxes . Taxes that had to be paid to central governments in money forced the peasants to produce crops to sell. Sometimes they produced industrial crops , but they would find ways to increase their production in order to meet both their subsistence requirements as well as their tax obligations. Peasants also used
7138-475: Was nine years old and had never been to France. The quote was only attributed to her decades after her death, and historians do not believe that she said it. The phrase appears in book six of Rousseau's autobiographical Confessions , whose first six books were written in 1765 and published in 1782. Rousseau recounts an episode in which he was seeking bread to accompany some wine he had stolen. Feeling too elegantly dressed to go into an ordinary bakery, he recalled
7224-407: Was often lackluster. The initial response of the British government to the early phase of the famine was "prompt and relatively successful", according to F. S. L. Lyons . Confronted by widespread crop failure in the autumn of 1845, Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel purchased £100,000 worth of maize and cornmeal secretly from America. Baring Brothers & Co initially acted as purchasing agents for
7310-447: Was organized by Bob Geldof and featured more than 20 pop stars. The Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia raised even more funds for the cause. Hundreds of thousands of people died within one year as a result of the famine, but the publicity Live Aid generated encouraged Western nations to make available enough surplus grain to end the immediate hunger crisis in Africa. Some of
7396-471: Was reported on television reports around the world, carrying footage of starving Ethiopians whose plight was centered around a feeding station near the town of Korem . This stimulated the first mass movements to end famine across the world. BBC newsreader Michael Buerk gave moving commentary of the tragedy on 23 October 1984, which he described as a "biblical famine". This prompted the Band Aid single, which
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