Economic Causes Of The French Revolution

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

The French Revolution was a bloody civil war that lasted from the years 1789-1799. [1] The revolution arose out of hard economic times that had befallen France. Widespread famine and hunger, due to a grain shortage, rampaged through sections of the country. The economic crisis led to an increase in taxes on the lower classes, known as the third estate, to upkeep the lavish lifestyle of the nobility. [1] All of these are the known factors that led to the rise of the French Revolution.

One of the most important causes of the French Revolution was the French system of taxation. According to document one, there was an “injustice in levying the amount each person must pay. Lands held by the nobility were taxed very little. Lands held by commoners were taxed heavily.” This means that the third estate was responsible for paying most of the country’s taxes, while the first and second estates, were responsible for very little. Since the third estate was responsible to pay the most in taxes, they began to suffer the most. The taxes caused them to not be able to afford simple necessities in life, such as bread. This injustice caused the people to want to reform their economic situation by finding a way to avoid strangling taxes and make the first two estates contribute to a failing economy.

The French Revolution is said to have a number of causes. It was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799, and was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the empire. The main causes of the French Revolution was the political, economic, and social problems happening in the society during this time. One of the causes of the French Revolution of the political tension going on during the time.

The third estate, the class with the largest population in France during this era, was treated extremely poorly. The third estate was heavily taxed and barely had any land amongst themselves. They were forced to live together in a small amount of space. On top of that they were starving. They were hungry and so poor that they could barely afford the most basic of food, bread. The lords and nobles had no respect/compassion for the third estate. They completely disregarded the fact that those in the third estate were humans and treated them with no sympathy. Property tax was so heavy that no one could afford to pay (Document 1). This poor treatment and lack of compassion and basic decency from the first and second estate towards the third gave the initial momentum to the wheels of the revolution, long before it actually begun (Document

Through 1756 to 1783, France participated in the seven years war which lead to France being in extreme debt. The American Revolution and the Seven Years war took a toll on France and took all of its money leading the country and monarchy to be in extreme debt. (fsmitha.com). The government started heavily taxing the common people in order to take care of the money they owed the aristocrats and other lenders (fsmitha.com). During the 1780s, taxation was becoming a significant problem and was inefficient and unfair. The higher classes in France such as the nobility and clergy heavily taxed the lower class but refused to contribute to the tax revenue even

One of the economic issues that caused the French Revolution is financial difficulties because in document A it states, ¨ The First Estate were the Clergy which meant that 1% of the people owned 10% of the land and paid no taxes.” It also states, “The Second Estate were the Nobles which meant 2% of the people owned 35% of the land and paid 2% of income in taxes.¨ Finally, it states, ¨The Third Estate were the middle class, peasants, and the city workers which meant 97% of the people owned 55% of the land and paid 50% of their income in taxes.¨ This shows that they were doing unfair taxes and soon they realized they were unable to meet their needs and becoming more poor.

First of all, let me start from the information given in document 1, which tells us that the prices of bread have been raised above the ability of peasants to pay. The poor people had no money to buy their food and their children were terribly ragged. There were many instances of riots in the market places for food and the military was called to stop these riots and disturbances. The bad weather lead to bad harvest which in turn led to unemployment and people had to starve. People were not happy with French government because of the heavy taxes and feudal dues laid on the common man leading to poverty and food problems which were effecting the working class. The injustice of unequal distribution of taxes among the nobility and common man was so obviously seen, leading to dissatisfaction among the common man. Also from the information in document 2, we see that the third estate consisting of 98% of population owned

The French revolution had many long range causes. Economically the French were separated into three estates. The largest section being the poorest and the heaviest taxed. socially they were separated into three part 1st being priest, 2nd nobility ,3rd the working class. politically the third estate was upset the king for the unfair taxes and rights.

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 was a fight to overturn an established social order. It was about who should rule at home. The revolution began with the bourgeoisie, the workers and the poor peasants that disliked the economic turmoil the monarchy was putting the country into distress. A similarity with both of these revolutions is taxation. Funny enough the French were in a lot of debt for actually helping the American colonist during their own revolution, and also from the Seven Years War.

The French Revolution is a that was caused the implementation of tax schemes that were aimed to help guide the country out of debt. The French were in deep debt because of their funding of the American Revolutionary War. The French Revolution was also caused by Enlightenment ideas that spread throughout the French. The citizens of France were frustrated with the taxation and the unequal economic system. The French Revolution does not have a single leader because the point of the revolution was to remove the power from the rule of a king and to give it to the people.

Millions of French people suddenly revolted against a society that their past families had accepted forever. Ways of life that once worked well for people became rigid and not suitable over time. New conditions/thought changed the minds of many people across the country. Suddenly, what had seemed so reasonable before had become outrageous and unnecessary. In the French’s case, it was the institutions of feudalism and monarchy that stopped working. There was great divide between nobility and commoners which further perpetuated the process of conflict. By the 1770’s, France was on the edge of a full on war. People were unhappy. There is political corruption everywhere. The clergy and aristocracy owned 30% of French land even though they were only 2% of the French population. Many enlightenment thinkers give up on the operation of their country. Montesquieu, a French scholar once said, “There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” While most people are suffering through poverty, the government is spending on luxuries and over taxing. The Third Estate barely gets any say and gets worse when Louis XVI locks them out of the assembly. The debt was made worse from spending in both the Seven Years War and The American Revolution. These events added up and eventually seemed impossible to fix and impossible to be prevented. However, several things could have been done to stop the

Economics also played an important role in the French Revolution. In France there was an abundance of debt and taxation. The French monarchy managed their fiscal affairs by using an unequal system of taxation, borrowing money, or selling noble titles and other privileges. This led to a long running fiscal debt. France could not solely rely on tariffs to generate income. Although other countries had higher taxation rates, the burden on the common people was greater in France. Peasants and other third estates were taxed harshly which in good times was burdensome and in bad times it was devastating. Nobility and clergy were exempted from paying taxes. This left the peasants, wage earners, and the professional and business classes with the burden of taxes. This burden caused the unrest, which eventually led to the French Revolution.