What Caused The French Revolution

Louis XIV’s excessive grandeur made the French economy weak. His palace at Versaille, his constant need to gain more territory, and the crumbling of France’s economic system and caused the greatest revolution the world has ever seen. His grandiose estate, the palace at Versailles, required half of Louis XIV’s revenues to maintain. Although this palace may have kept up appearances for the sake of foreign

Pre- revolution France was controlled by monarchy system in which all political affaires were solved by king, clergy men and aristocratic people. During that period, Louis XVI (1753- 1793) was a very ambitious king of France who spent large amount of money on his luxurious lifestyle. After Louis XVI had come into throne, the financial crisis of country has increased rapidly. Eventually, the King decided to have financial advisor named Charles de Calonne who helped him to solve the financial crisis. According to Calonne, “the total revenue for 1786 was amount to 475 million livres, but expenditure would probably total 587 million, which mean deficit of total 112 million, nearly one fourth of the total revenue”. To cover the expenditures, there were higher taxes imposed on commoners. The real weight of 1786 taxation was much higher as compared to 1715 crisis and, it was not the major burden for noble people as compared to non- noble’s people.

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 The outdated political system gave way to a constitutional monarchy, and when that failed, the French Republic.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

It is often debated whether or not the reign of King Louis XIV had a positive or negative effect on France. Although there were improvements during his reign in transportation, culture, and national defense, there were far more negative aspects. He depleted the national treasury with his liberal spending on personal luxuries and massive monuments. His extreme fear of the loss of power led to poor decision making, which caused the court to be of lower quality. King Louis XIV’s disastrous rule brought about a series of effects that influenced the French Revolution in the following century.

     At the end of the eighteenth century the French revolution had spread chaos across France. Lazy King Louis XVI did little to help France. It is said that his favorite pastimes were hunting, where he killed 1,274 deer and 189,251 smaller animal, this would take a lot of time doing. His other favorite pastime was rolling pellets of dirt from between his toes and flicking them at anyone who came in his range. He spent France’s money on his personal luxuries. His wife and daughter were the same way. They were always buying expensive jewelry and expensive dresses. Nobles were also treated very well. That is the reason why 21 million

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

France was in a financial crisis before Louis took the throne. The country participating in the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence did nothing to help the economic issues. There was heavy taxation on the people of the Third Estate, including the taille, a land tax, and the vingtième, a 5% property tax. This caused strife for the Third Estate because they could not afford to pay these and still feed themselves. In addition to this, Louis wouldn’t introduce taxes for the First and Second Estates, as they would convince him not to. While the Third Estate were struggling to pay feudal dues, rumours of the Monarch’s lavish lifestyles were reaching the lower classes, which angered them greatly. That being said, the Clergy and Nobility

Furthermore in the second stage of the Revolution (Bastille- Paris Commune- King Louis and family brought to Paris- King Louis escape attempt- fear of Revolution spreads) Marie Antoinette’s brother threatens war- Legislative Assembly and radicals take control. Marie Antoinette spends a lot of money while the other people were starving. One of the causes of the economic troubles was a mushrooming financial crisis that was do in part to years of deficit spending. King Louis XVI

In the years from 1789 to 1799, many agree that they French revolution was a reign of terror. During this time, the monarchy in France had undergone major change and finally was overthrown by the unhappy French citizens. There were many reasons for this action of overthrowing the government, some of which being high taxes, which only the third estate had to pay, the lack of participation that king Louis and Marie Antoinette had shown whilst in power towards ruling the country. Louis XV may have left France in a bad economic and social state and therefore the problems may have started before Louis XVI took control. However, Louis XVI played a major role in the French Revolution as he had the chances to take control France in a safe way rather

He had troubles of getting money, which was one of the main problems a ruler has to go after. To resolve his problem, he started taking heavy taxes from its nation’s people. As document 1 states, “Louis was, therefore, free to collect taxes and used the money as he saw fit.” Louis started to charge heavy taxes and moreover used that same money for his own sake. He didn’t improve his country. People were forced to pay taxes and most of their earnings went to Louis through taxes. People couldn’t survive in these conditions. The document 2 talks about a huge palace called Versailles palace, which was owned by Louis, and how his size of military troops increased by 1710 which helped him win many wars throughout that time period and how he expanded his kingdom. From this document, we can infer that all of the money probably was used for his own benefits. According to document 3, Another action which was taken by Louis XIV was revocation of the edict of Nantes. Edict of Nantes was made by one of the predecessor of France, Henry IV. Some of Louis contemporaries, they were the people who had power at that time, were unanimous to the revocation of the edict of Nantes. This all actions let him increase his powers because of the fear he created. People had to pay tax because they feared him, by removing edict of Nantes he created more fear of him. No one could stop him except the people of his

The political discontent of France was one of the causes of the Revolution because the king had all the political powers. Those who criticized the government were likely to be arrested and put in prison without trial. King Louis XVI was more interested in hunting than caring about France. He and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, spent a lot of money and lived an extravagant life at the Palace of Versailles.

The French Revolution of 1789 was one of the biggest upheavals in history. You may be wondering what exactly led this to happen, but there were multiple long range causes. Political, social, and economic conditions ultimately led to the discontent of many French people especially those of the third estate. The ideals of the Enlightenment brought new views to government and society.

In the 17th century, France faced great turmoil, which lead to the French Revolution. The country experienced significant distrust, as scandals revolving around King Louis and Marie- Antoinette surfaced. Furthermore, the privileges granted to the first and second estates allowed them to bypass taxation assisting in the economic depreciation. Moreover, complications due to the lack of social mobility hugely contributed to the antagonism of the higher classes. King Louis was thought to be a weak ruler, made clear by his inability to discipline his naive wife, Marie-Antoinette. She was often subjected to crude ridicule and scorn, further dehumanizing nobility. Her irrational spending and ignorance also demonstrated the privilege of the first

King Louis XVI was a nervous, conservative monarch. He was, however, a little too eager to please his people. And so he spent the first part of his ruling years attempting to bring Enlightenment ideals to the extremely traditional France. As was previously mentioned, King Louis XVI advisors and fellow ruling nobility were completely opposed to this, and so very few of his ideas managed to be passed by the nobility. One idea that was passed by Louis XVI, was the deregulation of grain market, which sadly created a great food scarcity among his people soon after the bill was passed. (HarDman, 1994) This caused a series of powerful revolts around France in response to such a large amount of France's' population starving openly in the streets. This period of economic unrest and turmoil resulted in a deep hatred for the monarchy, understandably, and a hatred for conservative ideals; both of these ideas wrapped up into one represents the core of King Louis XVI. His plan completely backfired, and he was left with a country of people who despised him, his family, and the entire

He felts too immature and lacked self-confidence. Louis XVI in his first years of inherited he start to focused on religious and foreign policy. He made an edict in which he give to the non-catholic Frenchs the right to practice their religious. Then Louis started to have a little success with the foreign policy and it become supporting the (American colonies' fight for independence from France's archenemy Great Britain.) The policy of taking out international loans and not raising taxes make France to have more debt. Around 1780s France was almost into bankruptcy. He did know how to handle all financial problems that