The French Revolution: Avoidable Or Inevitable?

Divya Narayanan
Ms. Lahey
Period 4
19, November 2014
The French Revolution, Avoidable or Inevitable? There are many things in history that could have been avoided under the right circumstances, but was the French Revolution one of them? The French Revolution lasted from 1789 all the way through 1799. It captured the decline of the monarchy and the rise of the republic by the people. It abolished strict class systems and gave the society of France hope. There was a lot of chaos occurring in France during the time of the revolution, yet it could have been avoided if the government spread the taxes equally between all three estates, if the estates generals voted by head rather than order, and if the French government granted equal rights such as granting jobs based on merit rather than status, to all three estates.

The social differences in France were very unreasonable. People openly argued that “social differences should not be defined by law, as they were in the old regimes order” (2). In France, much of the inequality came from the social class system. It led to angry peasants and tons of revolting. This could have been avoided if France maintained equality for all estates, as it would have been rational. In addition, the clergy and nobles were given many rights which “included top jobs in government, the army, the courts, and the Church” (109). This was very biased as they were able to get the highest jobs, not because they earned it, but because of their social stature. Meanwhile, commoners or bourgeoisie, were not granted those jobs even if they had the ability to do them. This caused much of the third estate to become mad which led to uncivilized manner in France. If the government had just given equal rights and granted jobs by merit opposed to social class rankings, there would have been less drama between the estates and everything would have been