Introduction
The French Revolution was nothing less than any revolution before or anyone after it: radical change in the institution that was known as the ordinary lifestyle. What began as a dispute between the people and the monarchy quickly turned into a violent and demandingly rapid movement to change the government that was more representative of the people of France. With many examples around them, the French people had many examples and inspiration that motivated them to revolt. The British had lived with some governmental relief knowing that the Monarchy had not all the power with Parliament making some of the major decisions. Across the Atlantic, the Americans had already begun and ended their revolution, becoming a nation independent of Great Britain. Furthermore, these two examples were only recent endeavors made by the citizens of their nation: The creation of British Parliament would happen within an English revolution. The Enlightenment would strike the world in the Eighteenth Century with new ideas and ways of thinking, ways that influenced the American and French Revolutions. All of this would soon affect the French enough to rebel against the monarchy and take over the government.
At the conclusion of the French Revolution, King Louis XVI and absolutist monarchy would be found headless, Republicanism would be found instilled into the government of France, and, soon after, the French people would be under not a king but an emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. While some would argue that there was not any significant progress accounting that going from a king to an emperor is no different, change within the financial system of France remains to stand noteworthy, putting into context the substantial situation the country w...
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...he only reason) create change in their country.
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The French Revolution, also known as the revolution of 1789, was a movement that helped shape France into what it is today. The Revolution may have started in 1787 but it wasn’t till 1789 when the revolution actually started to become worse. The Revolution had many reasons for why it started, but it was only a few major things that really made it happen.
The unfair ways of how common people were treated compared to royalty and nobility formed the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity, leading to the French Revolution. Unfair taxes that were only directed to the commoners, high society positions that were only to be obtained by nobles, food scarcity that only affected the poor and the royals having power over all caused the c...
In June 1789 the French revolution had begun. For the next five years there would be bloodshed throughout France, the country was going through a radical change, the change in sovereignty and the failure of the constitutional monarchy being two examples of this. But to what extent was all this caused by economic distress? Before being able to answer the question, one would have to establish the definition of 'economic distress' it could be defined as the misery people (especially the peasantry) faced due to low income and tax inflation or the misery that the entire country was in due to the enormous debts, which had accumulated due to the wars, which were fought. The economic situation was only one of the elements that caused the people to question the monarchy in pre-revolutionary France. France was in great debt and almost bankrupt but this did not stop them from fighting wars. The debt -- an economic problem -- turned into a social one, when the peasants were taxed heavily in order to pay for the debt, this caused them to question greatly their position in society and the effectiveness of their monarchy. Drought and other natural disasters ruined crop production, causing food prices to rise dramatically. With taxes rising and prices too, peasants were living in famine and in poor living conditions. The enlightenment was able to inspire revolutionary thoughts within the people. People began to abandon their beliefs in divine right and focused more on the thoughts of equality and society being run for the benefit of all. The economic situation only made people realize other problems concerning politics and society. A revolution (The complete overthrow o...
The French revolution was also caused by a bad ruler and a bad economy. During the early 1780's a big percent of annual budget went towards king Louis XVI's lavish estate at Versailles. France also had no central bank, no paper currency, no ways of getting more money, and an out-dated tax system which only taxed the poor who had no money to begin with. Signs of revolution first appeared when the peasants stormed the fortress known as the Bastille looking for gun powder.
The Real Cause of the French Revolution For hundreds of years historians have tried to find out the real cause
The French Revolution was a period of political upheaval that occurred in France during the latter half of the 18th century. This revolution marked an end to the system of feudalism and the monarchy in France and a rise to democracy and new Enlightenment ideas. By 1789, when the revolution began, France was in a deep financial crisis due to the debt they had obtained over many years of reckless spending and France was nearly bankrupt. These financial issues fell almost completely on the bottom social class or the Third Estate which made up a majority of the country. Because of this financial trouble the common people were heavily taxed leaving many of them in poverty. In addition to the economic issues, France also held an Estate System that led to heavy
Furthermore, the segregation of the assembly’s members into their classes did not allow the largest and most oppressed class to have much say, and only further enforced the clergy and nobility’s power. However, Louis XVI, hearing the public opinion for more representation in the Third Estate, granted them double to the number of representatives as the First and Second Estate and a “list of grievances.” These lists, states The Choices for the 21st Century Program, “... Did not call for revolution. The most repeated themes were calls for fairness in taxation, a limit to the privileges of the nobility, and an end of tithes to the church” (“The French Revolution” 17). At the Estates General’s first meeting, it was apparent the groups would not improve France’s financial problems, as they all met separately and disagreed on matters of voting. Moreover, the first two estates refused to comply with the third, and when they finally did, all powers were so aggravated by the lack of progress and blinded by the interest of their party, no progress was made. The long-held and deep-rooted beliefs of the French proved to restrain the advancement of any policies, even when meeting as the National
During the eighteenth century, France was one of the most richest and prosperous countries in Europe, but many of the peasants were not happy with the way France was being ruled. On July 14, 1789, peasants and soldiers stormed the Bastille and initiated the French Revolution. This essay will analyze the main causes of the French Revolution, specifically, the ineffectiveness of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the dissatisfaction of the Third Estate, and the Enlightenment. It will also be argued that the most significant factor that caused the French Revolution is the ineffective leadership of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
The first underlying cause of the French Revolution was the Old Regime. The people of France were divided into three estates. The first estate was composed of the highest church officials. They held about ten percent of all the land in France. They paid no direct taxes to the royal government. The second estate was made up of nobles. They were only two percent of France’s population, but owned twenty percent of the land. They paid no taxes (Krieger 483). The third estate accounted for ninety-eight percent of France’s population. The third estate was divided into three groups; the middle class, known as the bourgeoisie, the urban lower classes, and the peasant farmers. The third estate lost about half their income in taxes. They paid feudal dues, royal taxes, and also owed the corvee, a form of tax paid with work (Krieger 484).
France was about to collapse due to imbalance, bankruptcy, and a new way of thinking. In France, feudalism was still practiced where the nobles and clergy had exceptional benefits over the commoners and lower class. For example, the nobles and clergy did not have to pay taxes; they owned most of the land, and they had the most political power in France. However, the ...
Governments have always struggled to keep currency in stability throughout history. Governments have an almost impossible task of managing the raising of taxes and borrowing capitals. Usually the result is perpetually turned to printing paper money to finance their increasing expenses. The subsequent inflations will damage the social construct, ruin economy’s, bring about revolution and, will bring dictatorship in them to their fall. The political economy of the French Revolution is a catastrophic sample of this process. With the many calamities in the world's history this one gained the attention of historians and writers as the French Revolution took its place in world history infamy. While attempting to study problems of the
Ferguson, Niall. The Ascent of Money: a Financial History of the World. 1st ed. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.
Nardo, Don. A. The French Revolution. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999. Print.
The French Revolution was spread over the ten year period between 1789 and 1799. The primary cause of the revolution was the disputes over the peoples' differing ideas of reform. Before the beginning of the Revolution, only moderate reforms were wanted by the people. An example of why they wanted this was because of king Louis XIV's actions. At the end of the seventeenth century, King Louis XIV's wars began decreasing the royal finances dramatically. This worsened during the eighteenth century. The use of the money by Louis XIV angered the people and they wanted a new system of government. The writings of the philosophes such as Voltaire and Diderot, were critical of the government.
From the 1830s, the power of capitalism in both France and Britain got success in their countries. The capitalist regime increasingly got consolidated and developed. In the 1830s, the French July Revolution broke out, and the big b...