His/276 Essay example

Stearns, Peter N. et al. World Civilizations: The Global Experience, AP Edition. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc., Longman, 2003.

The French Revolution began in 1789 due to the discontent of the Third Estate being unequal to the First Estate, who were exempt from taxes and held special privileges. Although, Louis XVI attempted to tax the First Estate in order to fix France, who is on the verge of bankruptcy. However, the First Estate refused to be taxed because it goes against the traditions imposed years ago. Louis XVI attempted to solve this by calling the Estates-General, where all three estates could meet and attempt to settle issues. The Estates-General failed to solve any problems, with that the Third Estate decided to separate and form the National Assembly. The liberal phase was primarily focused on turning France into a constitutional monarchy, where the National

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)

Unfortunately for France and the cause of freedom, resistance from the Court and special interests proved too powerful, and Turgot was removed from office in 1776. "The dismissal of this great man," wrote Voltaire, "crushes me. . . . Since that fatal day, I have not followed anything . . . and am waiting patiently for someone to cut our throats.? Turgot's successors, following a mercantilist policy of government intervention, only made the French economy worse. In a desperate move to find money in the face of an uproar across the country and to re-establish harmony, Louis XVI agreed to convene the Estates-General for May 1789. Meanwhile, the king's new finance minister, Jacques Necker, a Swiss financial expert, delayed the effects of mercantilism by importing large amounts of grain. On May 5, the Estates-General convened at Versailles. By June 17, the Third Estate had proclaimed itself the National Assembly. Three days later, the delegates took the famous Tennis Court Oath, vowing not to disband until France had a new constitution. However, the real French Revolution began not

*If you go through each item on this study guide and read about it on the REFerenced page and corresponding TOPic in your text, you should have an excellent study guide for the Final Exam. If you do not do this, you will likely fail this exam miserably!

11. With regards to agriculture, what does the term “monoculture” mean? Monoculture id the cultivation of a single crop (on a farm or area or country).

As you read this week’s required materials, complete this worksheet. This is a multipage assignment; double-check that you completed each page before submitting.

As you read this week’s required materials, complete this worksheet. This is a multipage assignment; double-check that you completed each page before submitting.

This study guide prepares you for the Final Examination you complete in the last week of the course. It contains practice questions, which are related to each week’s objectives. Highlight the correct response, and then refer to the answer key at the end of this Study Guide to check your answers.

The French Revolution was a huge turning point in European history, and characterized the modern European society we know today. The French Revolution was a moment of demarcation in government between the pre-modern and the modern world. This essay will examine the effects of the French Revolution by analyzing the changes in government before, during, and after 1789.

The French Revolution was spreading and Prussia and Austria had grown fearful; therefore, to stop the spreading of the revolution the countries waged war against France, gaining land, troops, and power bringing fear to the French. The neighboring countries in the awakening of the revolution, August 1791, formed an alliance wreaking havoc in the French cities. (Doc A) When the guillotining of Louis the 16th occurred Austria became fearful and angry hoping for the safety of the queen and beloved sister Marie Antoinette. (Doc A) The raging war went on for many years but in 1794 the invasion of foreign enemies grew short and the French are close to stopping them. (Doc A) In the words of Robespierre “We must smother the … external enemies of the Republic or perish.”(Doc G)

The meeting of the Estates-General was called by Louis in 1789. It marks the start of change and Revolution in France, and many factors affect the calling of this meeting. Arguably, it was the actions of the Paris Parlement that caused the meeting to be called; as they began to turn on the third estate and become the enemy. However, other factors did affect the calling of the Estates-General, such as the financial crisis in France- they were bankrupt and locked up in the old ancien regime system. I will also be looking at how the revolt of the nobles and the weakness of Louis XVI caused the calling of the meeting. There are many other factors than just the Paris Parlement’s actions, and ultimately I would argue that we cannot say this is the only reason or the most predominant reason for the calling of the Estates-General.

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

During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI was in charge of the monarchy and was deposed in 1792 and later executed in 1793 (The French Revolution (1789-1799)). King Louis XVI fell into massive debt which forced him to give into the Parlement of Paris and the Estates-General, this then leading to the Revolution. After the absolute monarchy was disbanded, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted. As reported by The French Revolution by history,com, the declaration proclaimed the Assembly’s commitment to replace the old system with one that was based on equal opportunity, freedom of speech, popular sovereignty, and representative government. The National Assembly soon learned that it wasn’t easy to govern or be in charge of a country, this shown by the months it took to draft a constitution for France (The French Revolution). According to this article, many questions were asked when it came to creating the constitution such as “Would the clergy owe allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church or the French government?” or “Who would be responsible for electing delegates?”

In essence, the Estate General members converted themselves into a National Assembly and issued the ‘Declaration of Right of Man’, which stated ‘men are born free and equal in rights’. As a result, this facet gave the French Revolution its solang of ‘Liberty, ‘Equality’ and ‘Fertunity’. This meant, that France will no longer be ruled on an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and churches. Furthermore, the Estate General now known as the National Assembly seized all the wealthy churches properties and took the king and queen captive. Thus, the city was left in their hands.