The Baker Who Started a Revolution Over a Baguette

In 1775, a massive shortage of flour led to a wave of riots across northern France known as the Guerre des Farines (The Flour War). In one famous incident near Paris, a local baker tried to charge a exorbitant price for a single loaf of bread. A crowd of angry villagers marched into the bakery, seized the dough, and forced the baker to bake it under guard at a government-capped "fair price." This uprising directly foreshadowed the French Revolution 14 years later.