The French Revolution was a time of great social, political and economic tumult in the closing years of the Eighteenth Century. The motivators pushing French citizenry toward revolution are varied in scope and origin. They range from immediate economic woes to an antiquarian class structure. Modern historians still debate the value of the changes that the revolution brought to modern society. The middle class made gains that would never be rescinded, but do revolutions always end in tyranny? In the years before the revolution citizens were rigidly constrained by the estates of the realm. These social strata had been in place since the medieval ages. The people were divided into three groups; clergy, nobility and everyone else. The clergy …show more content…
The high costs of maintaining the army and navy exacerbated the situation, along with the lavish lifestyle of King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie-Antoinette. Louis appointed Charles de Calonne as comptroller-general to solve France’s financial crisis. Calonne knew that the only way to get France out of debt was to fairly distribute the tax burden among the three estates. Of course, this did sit well with the nobility and Calonne was dismissed after giving his presentation at the Assembly of Notables. In a desperate act, Louis called the Estates General. The Estates General was an ancient practice that had not been called since 1614. Events there would prove to be the beginning of the revolution proper. France suffered under years of inept and self-serving monarchs. Louis XVI was preceded by his grandfather, Louis XV. It was his loss of public opinion and war spending that put his grandson in such a precarious position in the years after his reign. The rule of Louis XVI would prove to be a doomed one. He was ousted after a comparatively short 17 years. The outdated political system gave way to a constitutional monarchy, and when that failed, the French Republic. This Republic however would not prove to last. Feudalism was the whole of existence for rural commoners in the time before the revolution. Farmers had no right to the land they worked and lived on. Serfs were beholden to their manor lord
The French Revolution of 1789 had many long-range causes. Political, social, and economic conditions in France mad many French people discontented. Most disaffected were merchants, artisans, workers, and peasants. The ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers brought new views of government and society. The American Revolution also influenced the coming of The French Revolution. Therefore, The French Revolution of 1789 had several causes not only due to political, but also due to social and economic issues and problems as well that made France ripe for revolution. The most important long-range causes of this revolution, however, were the ideas of the Enlightenment, the unfair taxes, the gap between the rich and poor, and the American Revolution
The French Revolution was a time of period where social and political was a disruption in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799. This time of period affected Social Structure of France prior to the French Revolution. The factors that caused this revolution was due to having a bad government system, weak superiority, and inequality of the classes of people in France during the war. In this research, I will define and explain how Social Structure contributed to the French Revolution Resentment of royal authoritarianism. The three estates that social structure consists of are first estate which are the clergies, second estate known as the Nobleman, and third estate which are the Bourgeoisie, peasants, and workers. The Revolution did not omit sharp distinctions among the social groups, neither did it alter the distribution of wealth. This caused them to divide into these three groups called as estates.
The American, French, Haitian, and Mexican revolutions are epitomes of responsible citizens advocating for social and political upheaval in hopes of saving and furthering their states. These revolutions, more than others, exemplify nations that rebelled against governments which maliciously abused their power. The American Revolution focused on achieving independence from Britain, as Britain abused their power by unfairly taxing colonists. The Mexican Revolution concentrated on eliminating dictatorship, as Porfirio Dίaz, a Mexican president abused his power by declaring himself the winner of several terms in office. Likewise, the French and Haitian revolutions both targeted the unfair treatment and abuse of those in lower socioeconomic
In France, before the French Revolution, the governing body was called the Old Regime. Under Louis XIV and his queen Marie Antoinette, the French society was divided up into three groups. These groups were called the three estates. In this system, the first two estates lived very well while the third estate was very impoverished. This paired with the lack of a strong leader (Louis XIV) caused rising tensions in the third estate. This eventually led to revolution. The main cause of this was the layout of the Old Regime. The Old Regime was made up of three estates that were very different in their governmental abilities and their amount of money.
The French Revolution Why was there a French Revolution? This is a question of continual interests not only to professors and philosophers, but to everybody who takes an interests in the history of the world. Genuinely, therefore, it is also a subject of much contention. The statement citing the fundamental cause of the French Revolution as the collision between a powerful rising Bourgeoisie and an ingrained aristocracy, defending its privileges it had for centuries, has great relevance in reiterating the great conflict of 1789.
By the 18th century, France’s imperialist conquests and the royal family’s expensive luxury consumption put a significant strain on France’s finances. To compensate, taxes on the French lower classes where raised significantly, badly damaging France’s economy and causing major famines. Louis XVI, France’s monarch at the time, attempted to end this downward spiral by calling the estates general to order for the first time in generations, believing that the conservative clergy and nobles would shore up support for his rule. Instead, the lower class merchants demanded that they be given more power in the Estates General due to them composing the overwhelming majority of France’s population (Fields, O’Neil and Share 155-159). The king’s refusal of their demands, coupled with France’s ongoing famine and high taxes, enraged the French lower classes leading to the end of the French monarchy in its
The French Revolution was a period of time from 1789 to 1799 in France where there was political instability. It officially began on the 14th of July, 1789, when the Bastille, which was a symbol of the King’s harsh policies, was stormed. The King, Louis XVI, the Queen, Marie-Antoinette and about 40,000 people were all brutally murdered. But there was also a positive side, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was formally adopted on August 1789 and feudalism was abolished. This essay will address the issues of the three estates system, food shortages and the fiscal crisis. It will also be argued that the most significant cause of the French Revolution was the social inequality that stemmed from the three estates system.
The French revolutionaries drastically replaced the old regime and monarchy in pursuit of liberty, equality, and fraternity. While the middle class gained power at the end of the revolution, the nation is still in a financial crisis, especially due to the cost of the war, France has a tremendous debt and peasants are still the ones suffering at the end. It is true that the circumstances and situations may be slightly better for the peasants, but they still suffered from starvation and poverty
In the latter years of the eighteenth century, France was an aristocratic bureaucracy, presided over by sovereign monarch Louis XVI. France was ruled under the Ancien Régime; a social and political system established by the French in the early renaissance period of the fifteenth century, until the late eighteenth century where it was violently overturned in the French Revolution. ‘ Under the Ancien Régime the richer a man was, the less he paid.’1 The French Revolution, beginning in 1789 was an era of social and political upheaval that saw the collapse of the absolute monarchy and its prejudice class system. Before the French Revolution of 1789, France was subject to a social division dictated by ones circumstance of birth and wealth. The
To begin with, one cause of the French Revolution was social inequality. During this time period in France, the social hierarchy was called the Old Regime. It consisted of 3 Estates. The 1st Estate was called the clergy. It consisted of people of the Roman Catholic Church. They made up 1% of the population, owned 10% of the land, and provided education.
The French Revolution was caused by many factors; some were significant and played a large role while others were of minor consequence. France was one of the richest and most powerful nations even though they were facing some economic difficulties. The French Revolution was a pivotal period in the history of French, European and Western civilization. During this period of time there was the formation of republicanism which replaced the absolute monarchy in France.
However, there was another important factor during these times. France suffered from harsh economic problems. Poor farm harvests by farmers hurt the economy, and trade rules from the Middle Ages still survived, making trade difficult. However, the most serious problem was the problem facing the government during this time. The French government borrowed much money to pay for the wars of Louis XIV. Louis still borrowed money to fight wars and to keep French power alive in Europe. These costs greatly increased the national debt, which was, at the time, already too high.<br><br>When King Louis XVI came into power, he realized that these problems existed. At first he did not know what to do, until he found a man by the name of Robert Turgot. He eased the financial crisis of France, but he had difficulties when he tried to introduce a major reform, that of taxing the nobles. He had such difficulties because the king could not tax the nobles unless the Parliament approved of the new tax laws. The people in the courts that voted on these laws were the nobles, called nobles of the robe, and therefore rejected Turgot's reform. After Turgot was rejected, the king fired him from his office. This led Louis XVI to summon the Estates General in 1789. The Estates General was the place where representatives from each social class could be represented. Here, many issues would be discussed, and at this time in
There are plenty of speculations concerning why there was a French Revolution and plenty of articles and books written on the subject of why did France revolutionize? Was it because France was following in the footsteps of the Americans and rebelling against a negligent monarch or was it because it was time for a reformation in France? Perhaps it was none of those reasons but because of a language sweeping that nation of France that calls the bourgeoisie, the foundation of the nation that was France, into action. Maybe the French Revolution began simply because the city-dwelling bourgeoisie overthrew the empowered nobility and monarchy, which is what most speculations, ultimately leads to. However, all of these assumptions
The causes of the French Revolution, the uprising which brought the regime of King Louis XVI to an end, were manifold. France in 1789 was one of the richest and most powerful nations in Europe; only in Great Britain and the Netherlands did the common people have more freedom and less chance of arbitrary punishment. Nevertheless, the ancien régime was brought down, partly by its own rigidity in the face of a changing world, partly by the ambitions of a rising bourgeoisie, allied with aggrieved peasants and wage-earners and with individuals of all classes who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. As the revolution proceeded and as power devolved from the monarchy to legislative bodies, the conflicting interests of these
The French Revolution took place in the 18th century, from 1789 to 1799. This war took ten years from start to finish. During this time, there were many issues that the government ran into.