Causes of French Revolution Essay

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 The outdated political system gave way to a constitutional monarchy, and when that failed, the French Republic.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

There were many causes and events leading up to the French Revolution in 1789. Before the Revolution, France had been involved in many expensive wars, especially the American War of Independence, causing financial difficulties and debts which were increased through the expensive upkeep of the Royal Family and their courts. At this time the Age of Enlightenment was occurring and new ideas, challenging the Ancien Regime and the Absolute right to rule, were emerging. The monarch of the time, King Louis XVI, was a weak monarch who was incapable of making decisions and sticking to them. King Louis XIV was also incapable of using his powers in a way to spark fear and gain control of those under his power. As a

To begin with, the French Revolution was partly caused by the economic crisis. The French Revolution began in 1787, but up until 1743, France, or at least the nobles of France, was in an extremely comfortable position. From 1713 to 1743, France was in the Thirty Years’ Peace, a period during which overseas trade was extremely profitable. However, after this period, the economy slowly began to crumble. At this

France during the 18th century, was a country of great progress of society and established Paris as an urban powerhouse. When talking about the causes of the French revolution, many will point to a variety of factors that they believe to have been the root cause of the ordeal. Some might focus on the growing number of the farm employees who were contracted to keep order in areas of business, some might focus on the blurring of class lines that occurred in France as new venues of income transformed every portion of society, and some might point to implementation of these unfair taxes that were placed on the people to repay debts that had been occurred in previous administrations. The ideas previously mentioned played a key role in the development of revolutionary Paris and many other topics that weren’t mentioned also played a critical role in the changing of France, but arguably the most significant of these causes was that of the desacralization of the French monarchy and how aspects such as literature and secularization would lead to the eventual downfall of the once great colonial power.

According to document one, King Louis XVI felt that he had the power to spend people’s money the way he felt like it needed to be spend. He would levy taxes to unorthodox prices to hurt the poor. King Louis XVI lived in a huge palace, and the people were not seeing where their money was going , so they assumed (which they probably was right) that he was taking their money and spending it on himself. According to document three, as time progress the poor just got poorer. The writer says, “The children are terribly ragged,” and that there was a huge lack of bread.

To begin with, King Louis XVI did not know how to make informed decisions on his own accord, much less be responsible for an enire country’s well being. This led to the rise in taxes in the third estate, since Louis XVI chose to under tax the nobles and clergy. This sent France coming into great unrest as they requested “that the taille (a tax on land) be borne equally by all classes” (Doc C). Furthermore, the third estate was outraged as they could not even afford one loaf of bread and the king would eat himself into obesity. It was the king’s ignorance that truly brought his downfall in the eyes of the people, and ultimately, the downfall of

The first reason the French Revolution occurred, was because the king and queen were spending too much money on unnecessary items that the country could not afford. The king was gambling with money that the country did not have. Also, he was staging plays while the country was 40 billion dollars in debt. This made the people despise not only the king, but the queen too because they both were spending money on clothes and

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.

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.

During the eighteenth century there was one central political cause for the French Revolution. King Louis XVI was a weak ruler who endured a lavish lifestyle. He disregarded the people’s needs, leaving much of the French population in discontent. Prior to the revolution the form of government was Absolute monarchy led by Louis XVI. The problem with absolute monarchy was that people were denied basic rights, and a say in government because the divine right theory was abused. The King ruled by the divine right of theory which

In the 1700’s France was very close to be in bankrupt. There was a climate of social unfairness because taxes and laws were different in each province, and the country was immersed in big debts which were left by Louis XIV and Louis XV when they died. In 1789, France was in the worst economic and social situation. The social structure of France was a key factor that could be considered as an indirect cause of the French Revolution. French society was divided into legal categories known as the three orders or states. The discontent among the lower and middle classes was one the reason the revolution originated.

It helped me understand the core issues the economy was facing. I also found the merging of different viewpoints pivotal to my research as the combination of feudal issues with the economy provided me with a relevant historical debate. Whilst this book did not entirely focus on the economy, the relevant passages proved vital as it provided a historical debate whilst also exploring different viewpoints to the extent which economic distress was a major factor in the French revolution. I found particularly useful the analysis between the relationship of the finance ministers and economic distress and the extent to which it hindered France economically thus forming a coherent argument which I incorporated into my

The immediate reason was the financial crisis caused by French support for the American Revolution. France invested 2 billion pieces of silver to win the war. Her tax system could only support the government during peace. A war called for extraordinary measures. This was the beginning of the first phase of the revolution, which is referred to as the Aristocratic Revolution. The aristocrats saw this crisis as an opportunity to reassert their power.

Many things caused the French Revolution. I believe that absolutism and privilege, famine, and economics were three of the most significant factors causing the French Revolution. These three elements led people to be unhappy with the current government and want to overthrow it.

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