The French Revolution began in 1789, this was a time of pure chaos. There was not only poor leadership, but unfair rights between classes, and famine. The third estate was full of commoners and peasants. This class of people had to pay taxes with money that they didn't have and then also had to pay for other amenities. This caused a major problem when there were food shortages, causing the prices to rise. Many of the third class, peasants and urban workers, could not afford their own food, and the first estate filled with royals and the clergy, wouldn't give up a thing. The highest estates abuse of power caused them to have a negative reputation among their people. King Louis the 14th spent all of his people's tax dollars to make an extravagant palace, King Louis the 16th did the same and didn't care about what effect it could have on the third estate and their struggles, and Robespierre had power during the Reign of Terror and he executed thousands of people. Robespierre came into power during economic and social suffering, he tried to support the idea of equality, but he was very corrupt and executed any supporters of the end of the revolution. The French Revolution was caused by a compilation of negative leadership and riots among the people.
King Louis XIV was a corrupt leader and this lack of uniformity was a leading point to the French Revolution. He came into power at 4 years old. This made it obviously impossible for him to hold the lives of all of France’s people in his hands. With this obstacle, a regency council took over in his position until he was of age to make decisions. Some poor decisions were made by the council which then caused civil war and especially angered the nobles and aristocrats. This formed a sort of fear within the people that when Louis could come to power he would have a rebellious way of controlling the people and continue to take all of the power away from the people. Originally, the King was seen as a hero because he was a reformer and helped organize the government and taxes. Louis was also very cocky and didn’t see it fit for him to have a chief minister, “He viewed himself as the direct representative of God, endowed with a divine right to wield the absolute power of the
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
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 kingdom of France was ruled by an Ancient Régime of the Monarchy, the clergy and the nobility for centuries and centuries. During the XVIII there was a lot of inequality between the moneyed and powerful clergy and the commoners. All the inequality of the time caused the French Revolution, a period in which the people gave an end the absolute monarchy and took control of the Government. There were two main reasons the French Revolution started; the Enlightenment Ideas and the social inequality of the moment. The commoners outraged and fought against Louis XVI and the absolute monarchy of the moment.
The last main cause of the French Revolution was the social condition. The social classes were divided into three groups- the Clergy, Nobles, and Common People (Rana). The big Clergy category had two different groups; the higher clergy, and the lower clergy (Rana). The higher clergy managed the top buildings, and never had to pay taxes. They had it a lot better than the lower clergy, the higher clergy only lived in mansions and anywhere luxurious. The lower clergy didn’t get any of that, which means their life wasn’t so great. The nobility was a lot like the higher clergy, because they also
The Nobility had long been discouraged by their loss of rights. They worked hard at getting themselves in positions of power that surrounded the monarchy. The special concern of the nobles was to see that the King did not introduce tax reform. They wanted more political power to make sure events like this did not happen. While they denounced the monarchy’s absolutism they wanted to set up their own form of it.
A rebel is a person who defies authority. A rebellious person says, “You can not do this to us, I disagree.” They are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in and say, “This has been going on too long and it needs to stop now.” Now imagine the majority of the country, the majority of France all saying, “this needs to end now.” That was the French Revolution. The third estate angry and poor, helpless and furious together attack authority in rebellious ways. First, they attack the Bastille which was the French jail and replace poor prisoners with elegant and rich aristocrats. Second, they formed The National Assembly, which was the disagreement with the current government and a formation of a new and improved one. Furthermore, the third
One of the many causes of the French Revolution included the excessive spending of the Royals, including Louis XVI. During his reign, France was already in debt, and many of the people were extremely poor, struggling to feed themselves and their families. The government was bankrupt and struggling with a huge financial crisis, and overall France was in very hard times. Despite the poor state of his country, Louis XVI spent vast amounts of money on unnecessary wars, as well as expanding the palace of Versailles. This excessive spending created mistrust between the commoners and people in power, and also caused a general dislike for him and the royal family. The tension created between the royals and government, and the people of France, caused uprisings and ultimately
The French Revolution in 1789 was a chain of economic and social acts started by reformers within the French Government seeking to eliminate the absolute power of the King and rich landowners. The reformers strived to develop a Government elected solely by the citizens of the country. The Revolution was fueled by the citizens desires for liberty and equality to generate fair living standards and treatment for all social classes. The Revolution questioned the elitist power and authority of kings, priests, and nobles and provided new principles and significant social ideas for citizens. Numerous factors led to the cause of the French Revolution, which inevitably changed the appearance of France’s economy and social status. Although many historians
France and its people had many factors causing the French Revolution politically, socially, and economically. Louis XVI had a large responsibility being King during the Revolution, but the people did not believe he was doing his greatest and disagreed with many of his actions. The three main reasons for the Revolution and what happened during it is the Three Estates often having different views on what they believed should happen politically and disagreeing on things like taxes and laws. Groups like the sans-culottes and the Jacobins rioting for what they wanted impacting the country socially, and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette spending along with the poor harvests and loans the country owed.
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
Also, Louis XVI was not a very good leader at all. Louis XVI inherited his throne through what they call Hereditary Monarchy. Hereditary Monarchy is when someone inherits the royal position through family instead of earning the right or actually being a good leader. The people loved their King but one lapse in judgment caused his descent from popularity. When Louis XVI refused to allow the third estate (commoners) to meet with the others to discuss the possibility of raising taxes in order to help France's financial problems; the people had, had enough. This choice is arguably what started the French
The French Revolution took place from 1789 to 1799 and has become a symbolic icon that represents the struggle for liberty and equality as well as the transition from absolute to constitutional monarchies throughout Europe. The revolt spurred the expansion of nationalism and democracy to change many nations forever. Many factors contributed to the eventual spark that led to challenges against the monarchy, estate system, and political and social ideas that would shape the nation in futures to come. The long term and short term issues that triggered the French Revolution include the social conditions brought about by the estates system, the financial crisis caused by the extensive accumulation of war debts, and the tremendous spending on court
The administration was slow and nobody with power was willing to fix it. The church had too much power and made people feer it. The kings were corrupt and did not care for the people. In conclusion these arguments are all very important to the French Revolution the first one sort of begun the revolution and the last one made it get too far. The last two really made the people stand up and say no more. In conclusion the king's leading up to the Revolution were addicted to war, until they wanted an ally that cost them a lot of money they couldn’t afford which made people angry because they weren’t making the right choices for them and there was nothing the peasants could do because they had no political power which is ridiculous because they were 97 percent of the
By the 1780s, Frances excellent economy was in a major decline. The France was in need of a revolution. The French Revolution had many causes. Bad weather caused crop failure to sweep over the area, resulting in a shortage of grain. Food shortages lead to starvation and higher prices. When the cost of bread would rise, the starving third estate would steal from bread shops. Taxation was a major cause of the French Revolution. Louis nearly doubled the governments debt. To solve the debt problem, Louis decided to impose taxes to get out of debt. They called a meeting of the Estates General to approve this new tax. The heavy taxes made it almost impossible to run a successful business.The cost of living rose. The failure of having a great and
In the French Revolution, many contributing factors helped give birth to this messy revolution. These Factors included an unfair social system that gave privileges to the first estate, which was the clergy, and the second estate, which was the nobleman. The Rights included special positions, in which only higher classes could obtain, and most importantly an exempt from all taxation. For this reason, citizens in lower, third class France were rightfully upset. Another reason for rebellion was political reasons. Citizens of France had no voice or power in the absolute, French Monarchy. In addition to all of this, the King of France, Louis XVI, made thoughtless decisions that only helped fuel the fire for the revolt. While King Louis XVI’s abundantly senseless choices may be the easiest and most obvious target for the key element of rebellion, it is not the correct choice. The component that was the match, in which lighted all of the fiery concerns of the French Revolution, was The Enlightenment, and without it, none of these problems would have surfaced from the people of France.