Causes of the French Revolution Essay

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

Before the Revolution, France’s government, entitled the Ancien Régime, consisted of an absolute monarchy. Under this system, no person had any rights. The people of France were not citizens, but rather subjects of the King, at the mercy of his will. The King held all of the power with no legal protections in place for the French people. For example, the First Estate, consisting of the clergy, and the Second Estate, consisting of the nobility, paid no direct taxes. This provision existed because Louis XIV had implemented a tax system that exempted these two estates. Therefore, the entire tax burden of the country fell on the Third Estate, the common people. This unjust and disproportionate system existed because the King’s word was the law, with no legal means to appeal his decisions.

The commencement of the French Revolution arranged the country of France being at the brink of bankruptcy. Causes for this brink are easily seen. King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, lavished money on themselves and residences such as Versailles. Queen Marie especially, over spending money and was seen as a wasteful spender. The government, found that funds were depleting due to wars in the same manner as the funding for the American Revolution. Deficit spending, a government spending more money than it takes in from tax revenues, also played a major role in the bankruptcy of France as well as the privileged classes not submitting to being taxed. The New Encyclopedia describes the French Revolution as being “a period of ideological,

Throughout history, what remains true is that the people are the ones who start a revolution. And when around 98% of a population is suffering to make a living, there is little hope for those in power. Taxes levied only on the common folk, crippling wars that left France with huge debts, and the careless spending of the upper classes ultimately lead to the start of the revolution. The main political cause was that the King had too much power but weak foreign policy leads to economic downturn. The main social cause was that French society was too imbalanced but it was truly economic exploitation of the lower class. The French Revolution had many probable causes, all linked together, but none as important and defining as the economic aspect.

Revolution? The major cause of the French Revolution was the disputes between the different types of social classes in French society. The French Revolution of 1789-1799 was one of the most important events in the history of the world. The Revolution led to many changes in France, which at the time of the Revolution, was the most powerful state in Europe. The Revolution led to the development of new political forces such as democracy and nationalism. It questioned the authority of kings, priests, and nobles. The Revolution also gave new meanings and new ideas to the political ideas of the people.<br><br>The French Revolution was spread over the ten year period between 1789 and 1799. The primary cause of the revolution was the disputes over

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 was an iconic piece of history that help shape the world. It was a time were great battles occurred. Blood sheds happen almost every day. The streets were red by the blood of bodies that were dragged from being beheaded. The economy was in bad shape. But before all of this the French had a few goals but there was one goal that they all wanted and that was to get rid of the monarchy. This idea did not arrive out of nowhere, the commoners were influence by the enlighten idea. Before the revolution, there was three estates the first estate was the clergy, Second the aristocrats and third the commoners. The commoners were the normal, or you could say the hard working common people. The clergy were mostly religious people, like priests and were protected by the nobility, they were rich and had a lot of privileges, some of the privileges that the first and second estate had over the third estate was the exempt to pay any taxes, but the commoners had to pay taxes. So, the poorest people had to pay all of the taxes, while the rich people were not worry about getting taxed and getting even richer. The nobility were rich because they were born into wealthy and powerful families. This was unfair for the commoners because while they struggle to pay taxes and had no privilege. This was only a piece of what they truly wanted. They wanted to make France a republic country instead of a monarchy. They also wanted to have a voice in their

Many factors went into the starting the French Revolution. One of the main contributing factors was the lack of a fair hierarchy in the French society. There were 3 main classes and only 3% of people were inside of the top 2. This created a problem as the first 2 had twice the representation that the third did in the government. The first Estate was made up of the clergy from the Roman Catholic Church. They also owned almost 10% of the land inside of France. The Second Estate was the rich nobles. They owned almost 20% of the land. Both of the classes paid almost no taxes and shot down almost any ideas of the Enlightenment. The Third Estate

France received majority of their tax revenues from farmers, Wim Kloosters explains that the France's agriculture was not as successful as their industrial industry, instead of imposing high taxes on the farmers the “trade and industry could have been taxed more heavily.” After the death of Louis XVI, the bourgeoisie were not supportive of the new noble class, “aristocratic self-segregation had prevailed, along with a mounting aristocratic class-consciousness,” this was know as the Aristocratic Revolt. R.R. Palmer explains “a political struggle developed at this local or provincial level, significant in illustrating the complexity of the issues, it was no simple dispute between noble and bourgeois, but one more accurately described as a clash between privileged and nonprivileged person.” Although the noble and the aristocrats were at odd that met occasionally to discuss the May Edict and parliament's

The Estates General was called in 1789 by the king to help solve the financial crises France was suffering. The First Estate represented the clergy, the Second Estate the nobility, and the Third Estate was everyone else. The first two estates were interested in preserving their privilege rather than helping the lower class majority of France. The neglect of the Third Estate was essentially the neglect of everyone who was not a noble or part of the clergy, “Pamphlets unsubtly minimized the diversity of the Third Estate - ranging from unskilled workers in the cities to poor peasant farmers to well-educated lawyers and wealthy bankers” . The Third Estate represented much more people than the first or second, people that had different desires and had a greater part in the economy, but was still suppressed and in turn suppressed the wants and needs of the public. It was even thought that the huge importance of the Third Estate would have allowed it to thrive on its own, “What is the Third Estate? Everything; but an everything shackled and oppressed. What would it be without the privileged order? Everything, but an everything free and flourishing. Nothing can succeed without it, everything would be infinitely better without the others.” The inequality among the estates was addressed with newly formed ideas inspired by the American revolution, and drove the fight for reform in France's

In June of 1789, Louis XVI decided to finally attempt to pay off the harsh debt France had inherited from his ancestors. He called the Estates General forward to vote on a new tax for the people. The Third Estate readily brought their grievances for the King to acknowledge. Ignoring them, he decided to push the group to vote for a new tax. Mortified and angry that the King would not turn a blind eye to starvation, unlivable circumstances and suffrage; the Third Estate marched down to an indoor tennis court and vowed to stay until they had a new constitution of rights. The Tennis Court oath was thus bestowed upon the King. The Third Estate; the poor and lowest class was the only one to be taxed, they had long felt unrepresented in the structure of social classes. Before the Enlightenment, the idea of personal power would never have been recognized by the lower class. Louis being an unsure and confused King helped the Revolution stand on its own two powerful feet. The people felt ready to attack and needed new resources for protection. With the making of a credible oath, the people assailed the building that represented the epidemy of their tyrannical government.

As the first and second estate voted that the bourgeoisie should pay all the taxes, the bourgeoisies was outvoted and was forced to keep paying all of the taxes. The nobility and clergy were very greedy, especially the clergy. Their morals were supposed to be more focused on the word of god, instead of being focused on the material aspects of life on Earth. The clergy was supposed to be kind and helpful, instead of selfish. Since the clergy was greedy, it lead France to be in even more debt and have more conflicts. There were many privileges only given to the upper classes, which made it unfair. At the beginning of the French Revolution, the bourgeoisie became very fed up with the inequalities within the classes. To deal with the inequalities, the estates decided to gather in the tennis courts and take an oath called the Tennis court Oath. The Tennis court Oath stated that they would not leave until a new constitution was created. In the end, a new constitution was created and a new form of government was put into place. The new government was called the national assembly. The national assembly lasted from 1789-1799 but was then abolished as it upset many people in France because the priorities of the National Assemblies decisions did not meet the people’s needs.

The nation of France towards the close of the 18th century was divided sharply along social, economic, and political lines. Under an absolute monarchy, remnants of feudal tradition dictated the presence of three estates: clergy, nobility, and peasantry, each with varying degrees of privilege and political standing. It was a combination of factors that caused first the aristocracy, followed by an emerging bourgeois class and finally the oppressed masses, to renounce the old order. It would be incorrect to assume that the people of France shared a collective motive, or that the Revolution was based upon a formulated plan. Rather, each estate, and each internal group within the estates, had an independent desire to change their way of life. The common theme was a claiming of so called natural rights, a term introduced by Enlightenment philosophers (philosophes) of the time. The definition of these right, however, varied. A peasant saw the abolition of aristocratic privilege and assurance of economic security as essential. The upper classes enjoyed the luxury of being able to consider wider application to the ideas of Rousseau, Voltaire, and Montesquieu. Therefore, the French Revolution did not originate from a single point. A consolidation of emerging philosophic ideas, growing perception of national corruption, and economic uncertainty during the same time period allowed each group in France to rally behind a personal cause for upending of the current regime.

The French Revolution, arguably the biggest and most influential event in the history of France, was a push for equality among men and equal political representation in social classes. Prior to the revolution, political processes were handled by the top one percent of people and were made to benefit those select few. The citizens of the third estate (lower class) were restless and tired of being unfairly taken advantage of through fees such as property tax, tithe to the church and tax on everyday necessities such as the ovens used to bake bread. The poor were heavily taxed despite owning 60 percent of the land and making up 97 percent of the population. During this time, France was also in massive debt and nearing bankruptcy because of inflation

One of the causes of the French Revolution were money differences between the king and the people. Think of living a life where you had a twin who got everything in the world and then you got absolutely nothing. That is how the people in France felt when the King and Queen got everything they desired and they had to live in poverty. Most of the time the citizens struggled to survive because of all the money that was being wasted on unnecessary things for the King and Queen. A wise historian once said, “King Louis XVI & and his wife Marie Antoinette lived in luxury in their palace of Versailles, while the people of France lived in extreme poverty.” (Paragraph 1). This quote shows how bad the conditions were for the people, and how rude the King and Queen were being with