France In The Old Regime

DBQ Practice The French Revolution was caused by many problems within France. During the 18th century, France participated in wars such as the American Revolution and the 7 years war. With France participating in those 2 wars, they became bankrupt. France had to somehow make money so they decided to start heavily taxing the 3rd estate and made them work harder for their own food and wealth.

There are very few members in the first and second estates, yet they owned the most land, while the third estate made up most of the population, yet owned very little land. “First: Clergy - 1% of the people owned 10% of the land. Second Estate: Nobles - 2% of the people owned 35% of the land. Third Estate - Middle class, peasants, city workers 97% of the people owned 55% of the land.” (Document 2) There were high prices, high taxes, and people were listening to enlightenment ideas. Louis XVI decided to tax the Second Estate. They called a meeting of the Estates-General - an assembly of representatives from all three estates. (ROI) In addition, as a political cause, the third estate had no privileges or say in the government,while both the clergy and nobles did. As mentioned before, the inequality of taxes proved another gap in the social classes. “The Revolution had been accomplished in the minds of men long before it was translated into fact.... The middle class...was sensitive to their inferior legal position. The Revolution came from them-the middle class. The working classes were incapable of starting or controlling the Revolution. They were just beginning to learn to read.” (Document 4) Estates- General was the first such meeting in 175 years. Met on May 5th,1789 in Versailles. In the Estate- General each estate had one vote. (ROI)

The French Revolution was also a result of the discontentment of the social structure in France. King Louis and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were very unpopular among the French because they did not care about their subjects.

There were much more causes to the French Revolution but in this response I will only be explaining 3 of those causes. The French Revolution was caused by many things and one of those things were the corrupt political & social system. The French Monarchs which are apart of the political system had unlimited power and declared them as the representation of god. According to document 7 the french monarchs which is apart of the first estate treated the 3rd estate like the dirt under there feet because they had no sympathy for the commoners.

One cause of the French Revolution was the Age of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment had many different philosophs, a well known one was John Locke(1632-1704). The philosophs would go to salons and talk about how they felt to the lower class. “The philosophs were not directly responsible for the outbreak… but they sparked that change of thought into action” Doc 5. John Locke would go to these salons and he would say how he felt about freedom and equality. “ All mankind… being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possession” John Locke. The Enlightenment also

Undoubtedly, a cause of the French Revolution was due to political conflict; the monarchy and the nobility had a dispute over a tax reform which eventually caused bankruptcy and poverty for the masses. Plus, the French went through an economic hardship. One of these events was the Agrarian Crisis. Granted, France at the time had an ineffective ruler who was King Louis XVI, but he eventually was beheaded. Therefore, these are the causes of the French Revolution.

The 3 main causes if the French revolution are social classes , Enlightenment Ideas, and a financial crisis in France. Social classes and Enlightenment Ideas caused the French Revolution because it was the 1st and 2nd estate controlling everything. They owned all the land and put it on the 3rd estate like taxes. Enlightenment Ideas helped cause the French Revolution because the 3rd estate got ideas from England and America revolting against their leaders in government and making a new government. These 3 causes gave the people of France ideas to have basic human rights.

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.

1. There were multiple causes of the French Revolution. One cause was considered to be political battle between the Monarchy and the nobles. Nobles favored certain privileges like no taxes, having power and freedom, etc. Another cause is the fact that Louis XVI was an inefficient ruler.

The three most important causes for the French revolution were the rising prices of food due to tallies and feudal taxes, the ideas of the Enlightenment and the demand of the Third Estate for equal representation in the government. Though these causes are all different they are all interconnected leading to French revolution.

The French Revolution took place during the latter half of the 18th century. This revolution was inspired by the Americans who fought against Britain’s rule and overcame that government (document 5). Similar to the American Revolution, the French Revolution had similar reasons to revolt against their government. It may be hard to determine the main reasons for the Revolution, but the spark can be narrowed down to three main reasons. The first main reason is the negligence of the king to the civilians and the second is the under-representation of the Third Estate and over taxation, lack of food and the economic hardships.

The French Revolution began as a result of the French monarchy not caring about its citizens. The monarchy taxed the third estate 50% of their income and letting them starve as they give them little food and the food they do give them was expensive. While the second and first estates paid little to no taxes and lived a lavish life. When the French citizens learned that the king was going to send his army to Paris the citizens were done with their unjust government and attacked the bastille, starting the

Feudalism was the system used in Europe during the late middle ages. The economic part of feudalism was centered on the lord's estate or manor. A lord's manor consisted of a peasant village, a church, farm land, a mill and the lord's castle. Feudalism was split in society levels. Kings would be on top with the most power, then upper lords followed by lesser lords, underneath the lesser lords were the knights, and then the serfs being the lowest social class.

The French Old Regime was traditional under the sense that it had a defined and repeated legal system. Over time, the legal system had lost key meanings and was done as a long-established habit and, ultimately, could not keep up with changing times. Foucault draws one in using an illustrative description of the horror of Damien’s 1757 execution. He indicates right from the beginning his distain with such a method. The French penal ordinance of 1670 set out very harsh penalties but there was a gap between theory and penal practice. Torture was a representation of economy of power—an exact, measurable quantity of pain proportional to the crime. It revealed

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.