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What Were The Causes Of The French Revolution

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During the late 1700s and early 1800s several political revolutions swept the Atlantic World. Although not the first of the modern revolutions, the French Revolution serves as an excellent illustrative example of the sweeping government and society changes occurred during this era that reshaped Europe’s political map. There were several causes of the French Revolution with varying degrees of importance. Contributing causes would include financial crisis and inequality in society, but the primary causes was the enlightenment ideas.

In the 1780s, the resentments against the French monarchy spread throughout France. The source of the French people’s ill could be found in the unequal structure of the society. There was a societal and political …show more content…

The long-standing hierarchical structure and the rules would just be normal to all French people and no one would have thought of object to it. That’s when the enlightenment ideas and American revolution came to take part. There were educated people in the Third Estate who were acknowledged of the ideas of philosophers during the Enlightenment period like John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu who supported the constitutional monarchy. The Middle Class had an idea of a democratic government developed in their mind, but to make them believe that this theory could come to reality, there needs to be a successful example. The French people also heard about the American Revolution where American colonists successfully rebelled against British king and became independent (Doc.5). These two motives combined made the Third Estate willing to revolt, especially the Middle Class, the educated bourgeoises, who were always malcontent about their inferior legal position (Doc.4), but because before there were no thoughts or inspiration that made them think that they could rebel, they remained silent, now that there are new ideas and a positive example, the bourgeoisies began to think about apply the idea to France and overthrow

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