List of food riots

An illustration of the Women's March on Versailles, 5 October 1789

Food riots

17th century

18th century
  • Boston Bread Riot – the last of a series of three riots by the poor of Boston, Massachusetts, between 1710 and 1713, in response to food shortages and high bread prices. The riot ended with minimal casualties.
  • Flour War – occurred in 1775, this was an uprising caused by the excessive price of bread in France before the French Revolution. Early in the season for wheat harvesting and flour production, the government enacted fewer price controls than later in the year, leaving prices to the free market. This caused the price of flour to climb, and the working classes could not buy bread.
  • Women's March on Versailles was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who, on the morning of 5 October 1789, were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread. Their demonstrations quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries who were seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France.

19th century
Irish Potato Famine: Rioters in Dungarvan attempt to break into a bakery (The Pictorial Times, 1846).
An illustration of the Bread riots in Richmond, Virginia
  • Grain riots took place in Ennis, Ireland on 6 June 1842, with Irish Constabulary police shooting at the crowd, killing three and wounding twelve; a policeman also lost an eye.[2]
  • Great Famine (Ireland) – several food riots took place, for example, in Dungarvan in 1846 and at Bantry in 1847.[3]
  • Southern bread riots – events of civil unrest in the Confederacy, perpetrated mostly by women in March and April 1863. During these riots, which occurred in cities throughout the South, women and men violently invaded and looted various shops and stores.

20th century
  • Meat riots occurred in the Chilean capital Santiago in October 1905, and was a violent riot that originated from a demonstration against the tariffs applied to the cattle imports from Argentina.[4][5]
  • 1917 Potato riots – a food shortage during the WW I caused a food rebellion in the Dutch capital city Amsterdam in July 1917.
  • Rice riots of 1918 – a series of popular disturbances that erupted throughout Japan from July to September 1918, which brought about the collapse of the Terauchi Masatake administration. A precipitous rise in the price of rice caused extreme economic hardship, and rural protests spread to the towns and cities.
  • 1939 Nupi Lan Revolt of Manipur, India - Nupi Lan –which means women’s war in Manipuri- is one of the important movements in the history of Manipuri women. It sowed the new seeds of economic and political reforms for a new Manipur in the early 1940s. It was started in 1939 as an agitation by Manipuri women against the oppressive economic and administrative policies ruled by the Manipur Maharaja and the Political Agent –Mr. Gimson- of the British Government (1933–45) in Manipur, and later on, evolved into a movement for the constitutional and administrative reform in Manipur.[6]
  • Novocherkassk massacre was events tied to the labor strike of a locomotive building plant in Novocherkassk, a city in the Soviet Union, (now Russia). The events eventually culminated in riots of June 1–2, 1962 when reportedly 26 protesters were killed by the Soviet Army troops, and 87 were wounded. The riots were a direct result of shortages of food and provisions, as well as the poor working conditions in the factory.
  • 1970 Polish protests – sparked by a sudden increase of controlled prices of food.
  • Food riots in the Middle East – several food riots occurred in the Middle East during the 20th century.
  • 1977 Egyptian bread riots – affected most major cities in Egypt January 18–19, 1977. The riots were a spontaneous uprising by hundreds of thousands of lower-class people protesting World Bank and International Monetary Fund-mandated termination of state subsidies on basic foodstuffs. As many as 79 people were killed and over 550 injured in the protests,[7] which were only ended with the deployment of the army and the re-institution of the subsidies.

21st century

See also

References
  1. "The 1830 Limerick Food Riots – The Irish Story".
  2. Ruxton, Dean. "When the RIC opened fire on a crowd in Ennis during the Clare grain riots". The Irish Times.
  3. "FOOD RIOT AT BANTRY". September 10, 1847.
  4. (in Spanish) Primeros movimientos sociales chileno (1890-1920). Memoria Chilena.
  5. Benjamin S. 1997. Meat and Strength: The Moral Economy of a Chilean Food Riot. Cultural Anthropology, 12, pp. 234–268.
  6. "Nupi Lan – the second Women's War in Manipur". themanipurpage.tripod.com.
  7. "Egyptians hit Soviet reaction". Bangor Daily News. 24 January 1977. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  8. Talley, Ian (18 July 2016). "Venezuela's Inflation Is Set to Top 1,600% Next Year". WSJ.com. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  9. Brodzinsky, Sibylla (20 May 2016). "'We are like a bomb': food riots show Venezuela crisis has gone beyond politics". Retrieved 16 June 2017 – via The Guardian.
  10. "'We want food!' Looting and riots rock Venezuela daily". 12 June 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2017 – via Reuters.
  11. Casey, Nicholas (19 June 2016). "Venezuelans Ransack Stores as Hunger Grips the Nation". Retrieved 16 June 2017 – via NYTimes.com.
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