French Revolution Research Paper

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 The outdated political system gave way to a constitutional monarchy, and when that failed, the French Republic.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

Just about any country that one can name has some history of civil unrest, class issues, rioting in the streets, and outright warfare. These patterns of behavior are common denominators for most civilization in the world. The names, faces, and places may change, but the motivations are generally the same, because of the need for change and the willingness to do whatever is necessary to achieve it. In contrast to the United States, which was in the process of freeing itself from British colonial rule, France was working to free itself from royal absolutism. This period is historically known as the French Revolution. Many scholars do not agree on the chronology of the French Revolution; some scholars suggest that the Revolution took place between 1789 to 1799 while others feel that it did not end until Napoleon lost power in 1815. To better understand the history of the French Revolution it is necessary to discuss the causes, major events, significant figures, and the outcomes associated with these political developments. Without this uprising, that changed the face of the entire country and influenced local political life in many countries in Europe, in all likelihood the France we know today would never have existed.

Before the revolution France was ruled under the Ancien Regime system, meaning the country and all its people were under the reign of an absolute monarch. This was a tradition that had been upheld through the years and the Royal family had enjoyed a life funded by the people of France, the royal family’s lifestyle unaffected by the situation outside their palace. The Palace, Versailles, was built by king Louis XIV and the expenses for building this “village” was very high, and in later years the cost for its upkeep would play a significant role in Frances financial difficulties. In order for these difficulties to be overcome France needed a tax reform. The government had a very high tax rate on the poorest of their people, the Third Estate, and they were still not getting enough money to get out of their

The two predecessors of Louis XVI, his father and grandfather, Louis XV and Louis XIV, left him great debts because of excessive spending. The country of France was close to being bankrupt. Though the nobles and clergy were very wealthy, Louis couldn't tax them because they were wealthy. Then the First and Second Estates did not accept a land taxed proposed by Louis, which would cover some of the debt. By the year 1789 the country of France was in great debt and financial crisis. Other unfortunate events happened the year leading up to the storming of the Bastille. During the beginning of 1789 the bad weather had reduced the grain crops by almost one-quarter the normal yield. The cold winter made for frozen rivers, which also halted the transport and milling of flour in many parts of the nation. This then raised the price of bread in Paris from

The French Revolution was a time of period where social and political was a disruption in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799. This time of period affected Social Structure of France prior to the French Revolution. The factors that caused this revolution was due to having a bad government system, weak superiority, and inequality of the classes of people in France during the war. In this research, I will define and explain how Social Structure contributed to the French Revolution Resentment of royal authoritarianism. The three estates that social structure consists of are first estate which are the clergies, second estate known as the Nobleman, and third estate which are the Bourgeoisie, peasants, and workers. The Revolution did not omit sharp distinctions among the social groups, neither did it alter the distribution of wealth. This caused them to divide into these three groups called as estates.

When the time hit France during the French Revolution there were many rough times for people during the 25 years they were fighting. During the French Revolution the people were living in harsh conditions. People were going poor they couldn’t afford things, the middle class was getting robbed of paying taxes, and the working class couldn’t start the French Revolution.

King Louis ruling, usually seen as, “absolute. He ruled by the divine right theory which held that he had received his power to govern from God and was therefore responsible to God alone”(Document C). He broke tradition and ruled without advisors or a court. Having the king feel as if he did not need any help to rule was not good for the population. Himself, being a monarch led to neglect toward the Third Estate.Meaning he did not fix the Estate’s needs, making them feel angry. Once the Third Estate had felt as if they had enough, they wrote a list of complaints, in which they stated “That the king be forced to reform the abuses and tyranny [of his rule]”(Document F). The Third Estate felt abused by the laws and or rules set against them by the king.The majority of the population did not see the king as a king, in fact they called his actions within in his rule as acts of tyranny. If the people of the country do not like or agree with their rulers they are not going to want to have them with absolute power. This was another major cause of the French

Children wore ragged clothes and suffered tremendously (document 1). There was a lack of bread due to the fact that it was more than the people can afford (document 1). Finally, there was a tax on the land and it’s produce in France (document 1). This financial instability played a major part in the fabrication of the French Revolution. Social status was also a main factor for the occurrence of the Revolution.

Prices in Paris approached 30F per 100 kilograms of wheat by 1789 – almost double the price even two years earlier (Source 6, 118). Bread prices, the staple of the commoners’ diet, commanded the attention of both the monarchy and the populace. As prices spiked, individuals feared that a famine would hit Paris; royal officials, on the other hand, dreaded the outbreak of civil unrest in the capital. Protests emerged as Parisians of all levels of wealth felt the sting of inflated prices: wage laborers spent 97 percent of their daily income on bread by the summer of 1789, and even affluent craftsmen like sculptors and goldsmiths expended a quarter of their wealth on food (Source 7, 119). The citizens of Paris, composed overwhelmingly of members of the Third Estate who bore the burden of paying increasing royal taxes and religious tithes, worried that bread prices would deprive them of all other commodities before finally starving them to death as the succession of bad harvests continued

During 1780s to 1790s France was in total chaos. France was ruled by the Bourbon family King Louis XVI from 1754 to 1793, it was an absolute monarch and they had absolute power and did not share it with a legislature. The situation was already bad before Louis XVI began his reign, but situation got worse. In the end, there was a revolution in France and a vast amount changes to the society and the government of France. Louis XVI himself was executed and killed; while France was established as a democratic country. There were different reasons for Louis's downfall: social, economic, political conditions. Also reasons such as the Age of Enlightenment when some philosophers had new ideas of how the country should be ruled, the inequalities

In the 1700's there was social unfairness in France. Taxes and laws were different in each area of control/area of land causing confusion and terribly unfair treatment. Louis XIV and Louis XV both left big (money owed) when they died, and this made France almost out of money to pay bills. The (priests, bishops, deacons, etc.) and kings and queens had plenty of money but the king couldn't tax the wealthy. Louis XVI asked the First and Second Huge houses to accept a land tax, but they refused. In 1789, the country was in need of money and almost completely

Like the rest of Europe, France had to deal with rapid inflation and falling real wages brought on by the arrival of New World gold. France also had a problem with taxation. The French kings relied on taxes they collected from farmers. However, only twenty-five percent of the money collected actually got to the king. This meant higher taxes, but not enough revenue for the king to do his job properly. The king relied on Lords to collect taxes from farmers and were supposed to turn over part of these taxes to the King, but they often kept the biggest part for themselves. During this time the peasants were having a difficult time living from their work and the large majority were living below sustenance levels. As the cost of flour began to rise

to get all the power of France. It should also be said that not all the nobles

The French Revolution (1789-1814) was a period that affected the outcome of world history tremendously. This is considered a major turning point in European history which has led to dramatic changes in France and other regions of the world. Various social and political issues led to the start of the revolution. Politically, France suffered under the rule of Louis XVI, who ruled by absolute monarchy. Many people had their natural rights renounced and weren’t able to have a political voice. Socially, France had divided its population within 3 estates (classes). French citizens took it upon themselves to remodel their country 's’ political structure. The French Revolution had encountered both positive and negative effects. However, many Europeans viewed the Revolution as much more than just a bloody massacre. The French Revolution was used to demonstrate new ideology that would emphasize the principles of liberty and equality throughout Europe.

The French Revolution’s Influence on Art The French Revolution (1789 – 1799) was a decade of the transformation of a whole society, which includes the arts in this society. In this essay, we will see what impact the French Revolution had on the arts. “The French Revolution was flanked by two artistic styles, Rococo and Neoclassicism” (Oxford, n.d.)