In the 18th century King Louis XVI's spendings on the American Revolution practically bankrupt the country which had brought 2 decades of poor cereal harvest, cattle disease, and higher bread prices. Angry peasants showed their desperation by joining groups/clans that were against high taxes, those groups could not provide getting rid of taxes on how they always had riots and looted people homes.
King Louis XVI's controller general (Charles Alexandre de Calonne) came up with an solution to there financial problems which would make the eligible class of people no longer taxed and would tax the wealthy more. To support or help with this act the king summoned the Estates-General a sponsor of the clergy, the meeting was scheduled for May 5th, 1789.
Frances population had changed dramatically since 1614, the percentage of the non-autocracy people was now 98% but still was over voted by the other bodies. Approaching the May 5th meeting the Third Estate started to get across they wanted equal support, they wanted voting by head not status. After all the people wanted the same thing, they gave in they got the voting rights. The Estate-General had got everyone together at once in Versailles. But people started fighting and things turned hostel in between the three orders.
On June 12th, the National assembly continued to meet at Versailles. By this time fear and violence consumed the capital. All though people were enthusiastic about the break down of royal break down, Parisians became panicked as rumors of an impending military coup began to go around. A well known insurgency climaxed on July 14th, when rioters stormed the Bastille fortress in attempt to get gun powder and weapons, this is now a holiday in France called Bastille da...
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...t. Royalists and Jacobins fought the new regime but were shut down by the army led by Napoleon Bonaparte.
Within four years of the directory being in power they started facing financial crises, popular discontent, inefficiency, and above all political corruption. By the late 1790s the directory was falling apart and needed the army to keep them in power because without the army making them powerful the people would take them down. the directors gave most of their power to the generals in the field. November 9th, 1799, as frustrations with their leadership reached a fever pitch, Napoleon staged a revolution taking down the directory and placing himself Frances "first consul." Which put an end to the french revolution and started the Napoleonic era
Works Cited
history.com Staff. "French Revolution." history.com. A&E Television Network, 2009. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
This oppression of the Third Estate along with the financial problems that fell on the common people would lead to the French Revolution. Overall, the people of France revolted against the monarchy because of the unsuccessful estate system and the inequality it led to, because of the new enlightenment ideas that inspired them, and because of the failures of the monarchy.
In the book Travels in France by Arthur Young, he states that “There is an injustice in levying the amount each person must pay. Lands held by the nobility are taxed very little. Lands held by commoners are taxed heavily…”. This line is important because yes, it is easy to see that only the middle class but Arthur is English, not French. From the website Encyclopedia Britannica they state he is an “English writer on agriculture, politics, and economics. Besides his books on agricultural subjects, he was the author of the famous Travels in France. The book is especially valued for its vivid descriptions of the French Revolution and of the conditions that produced it”. If an English man can see that French have a financial crisis because the king is in debt, then there is a financial crisis. The clergy and the nobles were not being taxed even though they had lots of money. Even the nobility went against their own people, the website Bastille Day and The French Revolution state that “Faced with all these problems, Louis XVI needed more funds to govern is country. His financial advisers, inspired by Turgot, decided to turn to the nobility and tried to pass a law that would make them pay more taxes. The nobility opposed the king 's decision. By a clever game of persuasion, they even rallied part of the third estates at their side to denounce the power of the King”. As can be seen taxes were
Louis' ministers Turgot, Necker and Calonne all agreed that France needed reforming if it was to get out of the massive debt it had accumulated. In February of 1787, Louis called the Assembly of Notables as France was in dire need of tax reform due to its debt. Louis suggested tax reforms to bring government expenditure in line with government income but because he had lost his authority as a king, he could not persuade the first and second estates to agree with a tax reform and they did not wish to bear the burden of increased taxation. This showed Louis to be weak and unable to make decisions about France's future. Shortly afterwards on the 5th May 1789, the Estates General was called and Louis' absolute power over France was all but over. This was one of the main events that led to the start of the French revolution an...
...nd the republic nature of France.) and The Royalists (Who wanted a return to the system of monarchy).
Prior to the French revolution France was in great debt. This was due to both King Louis XIV’s and Louis XVI’s extravagant spending. Maintaining the palace at versailles took a large toll on their funds, to make matters worse Marie Antoinette’s spending was anything, but modest. In an attempt to solve the debt problem King Louis XIV the king’s appointed finance ministers Turgot and Malesherbes set a new financial reform. Although Turgot’s new financial reform was . Even after a few more attempts and a few more ministers hired, the king failed and even more debt was added because of Jacques Necker, a former finance minister’s decision to help fund the American revolution. As a final resort The king called in the Estates-General meeting which started on may 5, 1789. During this meeting the french tax system was completely changed and nobles and clergies were exempt from all direct taxes. As a result the poor shouldered the burden of paying unreasonable taxes. Furthermore many of the poor people were left sick, hungry, or even dead which created resentment towards the king and further influenced the people’s desire to
Louis XVI had created a large amount of debt through bad tax collection practices and funding american revolution. Bad tax practices included not taxing nobles, which put all of financial burden of France on the middle and lower classes. These classes weren’t able to support the high costs of running a nation in addition to supporting a foreign war that brought no tangible benefit to France. To raise more money Louis XVI decided to sell noble titles to some upper middle class who could afford it. This provided the King with fast cash, but reduced his overall tax base because he wasn’t taxing nobility.
In June 20, 1789 the members of National Assembly in France signed The Tennis Court Oath. The National Assembly consisted of representatives of France’s lower class - the Third Estate. In the Oath, 576 members of the Assembly swore that they would not separate until a written constitution had been established for France. This constitution would reject the doctrine of the ‘divine right’ of the King and the ideals of an absolute monarchy, stating that the power of the people resided not in the king, but in the people of the nation. As a result of this declaration, the revolutionaries gained power, political presence and the vision of a France worth fighting for.
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 French Revolution started in 1787 because the country was going through financial difficulties and there was unrest between the classes of citizens in the country. The differences between the lower class citizens and higher classes, being nobles and the monarchy were great. The citizens had heard of the revolution that went on in the colonies and they also wanted freedom and independence. The real start of the French Revolution was on July 14, 1789, with the storming of the Bastille. Between 1789 1793, a constitution was written, feudalism was abolished, war had broken out, and King Louis XVI was put to death. In late 1793 and early 1794, Maximilien Robespierre became the head of the Committee of Public Safety in France. This was the new governing body in France; it could be compared to the executive branch of a government. Robespierre was a great leader, he ins...
The Reign of Terror prolonged the Revolution but caused more trouble than necessary. Although the Terror eliminated counter-revolutionaries, it sparked mass hysteria within France’s people. The oppression of citizens pushed them into further paranoia which caused many executions of innocent individuals, and people began to doubt the new governmental system. This uncertainty caused opposition to the National Convention and Committee of Public Safety and to their eventual dismemberment. In the end, the Reign of Terror was helpful yet damaging for the French Revolution. The Terror left France dismantled and unstable because it did not have a constant government to rely on, but the people of France had become somewhat unified through their experiences during the Terror.
Historians have debated many years over the causes of the French Revolution. Most agree that the main reason for the uprising was the Ancien Regime, which was the economic and social system in France. Under this system, the peasants of France had few rights, and the majority of the people lived in extreme poverty. Entire families survived on about three livres a day, or twelve dollars. This made peasants angry, especially because French aristocrats did not have to lift a finger and lived in the lap of luxury. Also, the price of bread was rising due to several years of bad harvests. The fact that France was also about one hundred fifty million livres in debt from participating in many wars, including the American Revolutionary War, did not do anything to make the people any happier. An additional reason to revolt was King Louis XVI. He tried to help the lower classes, but he was indecisive and would back down if faced with a strong opposition. Also, his political opponents distributed pamphlets telling falsehoods about him, which made people distrust the monarchy even more. The Enlightenment brought to the peasants the idea that they should be economically and socially equal with the aristocrats. Finally, the people of France hated Queen Marie Antoinette, whom they thought was wasteful with money and an Austrian spy.
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).
The people of the Third Estate were also being treated unfairly and unjustly. The tax system was another contribution of the revolution. The nobles and clergy would tax the rest of the people by voting. Since the people were divided into sections, each section would count as one vote, despite the fact that the First and Second Estate was only made up of two percent of the population. Also, the nobles and clergy were usually exempt from paying the taxes. This made the people angry. The tax system resulted in the Tennis Court Oath. Members of the Third Estates met there to gather and talk about the problems.
In 18th Century the peasant population increased dramatically. This growth in population increased the demand for more land. Land was being divided into smaller and smaller sections to cope with this problem. Eventually some sections of land were not even enough for a peasant to support his own family. The wars in America left France in huge debt. To try and pay this debt the nobility increased taxes on the peasants, which further increased their resentment towards the nobility. Poor harvests in 1787 and 1788 led to a food shortage. The peasants could barely feed themselves let alone pay taxes. The peasants started to threaten violence if their situation wasn't improved. There was an increased competition from British textile manufacturers. This left many people without jobs, and a huge increase in unemployment.