From the end of the 18th century through the beginning of the 19th century, changes occurred in Europe that would greatly affect the lives of the French and the people of Corsica. With the Second Industrial Revolution, many former agricultural workers began to move to the larger cities with hopes of finding better-paying jobs and making better lives. A widespread crop failure took place because of long periods of drought and crop diseases (e.g., the Phylloxera epidemic destroyed the Corsican wine industry and much of the French). A cholera epidemic had high mortality and there was a general deterioration of economic conditions. Many of the farms in Corsica began to fail.