What Caused the French Revolution?

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The Causes of the French Revolution

My Take on the Causes

What really caused the French Revolution? Well no one seems to be able to agree on a definitive answer, but really the answer is simple. The main causes for the French Revolution? Finances, Law, and the Dividing of the Population.

Law and the French Revolution

The French government was a complete monarchy. At the time France had thirteen different regions. Each of these thirteen regions made up their own rules. What did that mean? France didn't have a unified law system, basically a government, to make up the rules; everyone made their own through Parliament. The Parliament had the jurisdiction to make laws in their own region. Each individual Parliament had between 50 to 130 members made up of judges and “legal elites” in that region. This was the only government in France. The Parliament were the ones set prices on foods, and held trials including murders and thefts. Even though they served as the government of the region, they were hated by everybody, including the king. The King had people called intendents who “curbed the power of nobility” who were hated even more than Parliament.

Before the Revolution, a constitution was trying to be made. The National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism in the August Decrees (made in August of 1789), however it had already almost been abolished by successful peasant revolts. On August 26, 1789 the Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which made principles, instead of a constitution, with legal effect. The National Constituent Assembly also drafted a new constitution, along as served as a legislature. Finally, a unified legislative chamber was established to make all the ...

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... be divided into three parties: the bourgeoisie, the sans culottes, and the peasants.

-The Bourgeoisie were comprised of merchants, doctors, lawyers, etc. and were the middle class of France. They had high incomes, sometimes even higher than that of the nobles. However, this did not give them any sort of status or power. They were blocked by the aristocracy in an attempt to keep the social system the same that they were used to.

-The Sans Culottes were workers who worked in cities like Paris. They didn't make nearly as much money as the bourgeoisie, and suffered the most when food prices went up and their wages did not. They were also the primary radical revolutionaries.

- The peasants, or “everybody else”, were the poorest out of everybody and worked for the nobles. They spent their lives only trying to survive, and were weighed down with tithes and taxes.

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