Four Causes Of The French Revolution

The French Revolution took place between 1789-1799. During these years the government and beliefs on how the government should run changed numerous times. The ordinary people of France wanted a larger say in how the government should be run.

The four main causes of the revolution were:

1. Under the reign of Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI the country came under national debt. The reason for bankruptcy is because of their presence in the American Revolution and the Seven Years War. They were involved with the war for the desire to weaken the British, the French adversaries for a long period of time.

2. The Catholic Church (owning most of the land in France), decided to put a tax on crops. This affected the poorest and most malnourished

The National Assembly now had control over Paris. The president of the National Assembly became the mayor and by the end of July the revolution had spread over France.

The National Assembly began to make many changes. Firstly they put a stop to the ‘special’ rights to the nobles and took away the taxes the church created. On 26 August the “Declaration of Man and of the Citizen” was written. The king received a “suspensive veto” over law, meaning he can only delay law not put a halt to it. In October 1789, the King and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were attacked at the palace of Versailles by 7,000 peasant women because of rumours they were hording precious grain. He was told to move to Paris by the mob.

One year after the storming of the Bastille, large crowds gathered in the Champ de Mars to celebrate in mass. Nobles were unhappy with the revolution and many decided to flee France. They were known as “e`migre`s”, (emigrants).

The National Assembly was still working hard to create the constitution, but along the way changes were needed to be made, nobles could no longer pass their status along to their offspring and unions and worker groups were banned, hence no

It was bicameral (split into two houses), they had a lower house and an upper house. They were disliked by the people and ignored anything disagreeing with what they wanted.

As expected a riot against the Directory took place however they used the army under Napoleon Bonaparte to quell the attempt of uprising. On 9 November, 1799 Napoleon established yet another government with himself in charge.

The French Revolution wasn’t all that revolutionary. The end result was the leadership of a dictator that was even worse than Louis XVI. But it is how the French Revolution shaped the modern world that really matters. The French Revolution shaped the modern world in more ways than one.

Firstly, the French Revolution involved the abolishment of a monarchy for a period of time. Today royals either have little power in our western culture or they are just a figure head for something regarded as important.

Secondly, in the revolution towards the end with the Directory, it was structured into a bicameral. That is how the Australian Parliament is structured today with the House of Representatives and the Senate both of which function similar to the Directory’s