French Revolution Dbq

During the Enlightenment period, many thinkers and philosophers advocated for equality among people as well as abolishing the Catholic Church and the monarchs that ruled countries with an iron fist. One philosopher in particular, John Locke, believed in the concept of natural rights; an idea that stated all men are born with the rights of life, liberty and property and whenever government policies appropriate these rights, it is in the people’s hands to rise up against the government. This controversial idea of rights and equality traveled around Europe until it reached France. The French Revolution was influenced by the way the American colonists were able to stand up for their rights and fight for their freedom. The only people who wanted

to overthrow the French government were the people of the Third Estate because they were the only ones who found themselves chained tightly to the life of slavery by the laws inflicted upon them by the king and the first two estates. The French Revolution (1789-1799) was caused by the inequality among the social classes, financial debt that consumed the government, the droughts that caused deep hunger and tension amongst the social classes, and the people’s desire to abolish the French monarchy.
France’s social hierarchy during the eighteenth century was based on a system called the Ancien Regime; each person in society belonged to a class known as an “estate.” These estates were the First Estate, Second Estate, and Third Estate. Members of the First Estate were the king and queen and those who worked in the church; nuns, monks, priests, bishops, pope, and church workers. These people made up one percent of the French population, they owned twenty percent of the land, and they were exempt from paying taxes. The Second Estate consisted of the nobility of the land and people of the royal court; they made up about four percent of the entire French population and they too were exempted from paying taxes towards the national government. The third and final estate was everybody else that resided in France; this group made up about ninety five percent of the French population. This class, unlike the other two, was divided into two parts; the bourgeoisie─wealthy doctors, lawyers, and business people who weren’t noble─and the non bourgeoisie─teachers, farmers, merchants, and peasants. The Third Estate paid all the taxes to the government and as a result their resentment towards the First and Second Estates grew by ten fold. This system of social classes and inequality is what caused tension among the people and as a result the Third Estate rose up against the monarch.
At the time of the revolution, France was under major financial debt due to the deficit spending of the king and queen, taking part in the Seven Year’s War as well as the American Revolution, and borrowing money from other countries. Louis XIV, grandfather of Louis XVI, used a lot of money building the Palace of Versailles and Louis XVI spent the country’s money on things to please himself and his wife. Because the French helped out America during their fight of independence from Great Britain and they were one of the participating countries in the Seven Year’s War, they found themselves under a plethora of debt. To fix this problem they decided to borrow money from other countries and increase the taxes paid by the Third Estate. This tactic only proved to be a failure because not only did France accumulate even more debt than they had before, they also succeeded in making Third Estate Frenchmen infuriated with the monarch and how it had tyrannized their society.
Droughts and famine that had overtaken the land caused another rift between the people of France and the monarch. The prices of bread soared incredibly and members of the Third Estate were dying of starvation and malnutrition as evidenced by the quote “June 10, 1789: The lack of bread is terrible. Stories arrive every moment from the provinces of riots and disturbances, and calling in the military, to preserve the peace of the markets...The price of bread has risen above people’s ability to pay. This causes great misery.” from the book Travels in France by Arthur Young. However, even though this was going on with the Third Estate, the First and Second Estate civilians lived without a care in the world because they could just take the food whenever they wanted. The simple fact that the First and Second Estate would take the food that the Third Estate worked hard to grow through the harsh weather conditions and only added to the straining relationship between the classes.
Throughout his time on the throne, King Louis XVI continually proved that he was unworthy of the throne and leading his people due to the many crimes he committed and the way he oppressed the Third Estate citizens of France.

He would keep prisoners at the Bastille for however long he wanted without getting questioned for his behavior, he didn’t possess the qualities of a wise and just leader, and he lacked proper knowledge of how to run the military and the finances of the country. He and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were common criminals who were convicted of many crimes, one of them being high treason against the state. Louis XVI was very hypocritical in his way of ruling the people of France; he claimed to be someone of high values and ethical standards, when in reality he never lived up to those standards and expected everyone to just bow down to

him.
When King Louis realized the extent of the amount of problems that had faced his country, he called together a meeting of the Estates General. At this meeting representatives of each estate were asked to bring in cahiers; special notebooks that stated the grievances France was facing. A few excerpt from the cahiers stated, “In order to assure the third estate the influence it deserves because of its numbers...its votes in the assembly should be taken by head…” and “That the taille (a tax on land) be borne equally by all classes….” Most of the grievances that proposed an actual change that should’ve been added to France came from the Third Estate because they were fed up with the way rulers of France were treating them. When the three estates voted, the First and Second Estates always had the same votes and the odd one out was the Third Estate. This just emphasized the point that the three estates were not in perfect union with each other. The Third Estate then created the National Assembly and Tennis Court Oath; on this oath they pledged, “all members of this Assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established and consolidated upon firm foundations; and that, the said oath taken, all members and each one individually shall ratify this steadfast resolution by signature.”
In conclusion, there were many causes that led the people of France to revolt against the brutality of their monarch. Among those causes were the unjust social classes, financial debt of the government, drought and famine, and the people’s desire to destroy the monarch. These causes can be seen evidently when the people created the National Assembly and devised up the Tennis Court Oath, Stormed the Bastille, and even during the Great Fear. The quote, “Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death,” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau form the Enlightenment period mirrors exactly how the people felt when they realized that they wouldn’t be given any opportunities for equality unless they took matters into their own hands and make the change that they wanted to see happen in France, even if it was at the cost of a few people’s lives.
After the revolution, a new figure rose to power; this person’s name was Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon is credited with the way he reformed France for the better because he was a lot more lenient and intelligent with how he led the people of France unlike Louis XVI. He rose through military ranks quickly and was loved dearly by the people of France. His tactics were perfectly timed when he waged wars with countries for dominion over their lands. Some of his strategies for how he became ruler of France and almost all of Europe included: letting the peasants of France receive their properties that were taken from them by the First and Second Estates, driving British Forces out of France, and making friends and relatives in charge of ruling the lands he conquered. However, every emperor has a downfall and Napoleon’s came in the form of his soldiers dying due to the harsh and terribly Russian winter of 1812 when he led them against Tsar Alexander I for his decision to leave the Continental

System.