Causes of the French Revolution

Causes of the French Revolution

In the 1780s, long standing resentments against the French Monarchy fueled anger throughout France. The source of the French people’s ill will could be found in the unequal structure of French government and society. However there are 3 main short term and long term causes of the French revolution. The long-term causes were economic, religious, and political and social. There was a severe financial crisis at this time. There was starvation, and no welfare for sick and dying peasants. There was too much poverty and a lot of people were unemployed looking for something to do that could save their family. First, France was deeply in debt. Over the previous centuries, France had borrowed huge sums of money to spend on wars including the American Revolution. But the king and his court continued to spend lavishly, leading to even more borrowing and debt. And by the 1780’s this pattern of spending and borrowing had taken the country deeply into debt. The country was broke, and people were hungry and angry. Eliminating the tax exemptions for the First and Second Estates could have helped the situation, but the clergy and the nobility resisted all such efforts. Then there was the religious long-term cause. The Catholic Church sided with the Aristocracy, and upper class, and The French Huegonauts. The Protestants were opposed to the state religion, and felt a change to a secular state would help them. There were a growing number of anti-Pope intellectuals, and Humanists in France, including people like Voltaire and Lafayette. And finally there was the political and social long term causes all originating from the poor leadership of Louis XVI. A social and political structure called the Old Order, or ancien regime, created inequalities in French society. Under the Old Order, the king was at the top and three social groups called estates were under him. There were Three Main Estates. The Peasants, the Middle Class, and The Aristocracy. The Aristocracy owned all the land, had all the privileges, but paid little in taxes. The Middle and peasants paid most of the taxes, but had little power or rights to ownership of land. There were also three short-term causes. The biggest short-term cause of the French Revolution was the attack on the Bastille Prison in Paris. Louis started ordering troops to Paris and Versailles in case he needed to preserve the monarchy by force. Seeing this, members of the national Assembly feared that the king would use violence to end their meetings. The people of Paris, in sympathy with the National Assembly, sought to arm themselves against any action the king might take. In the past, The French government imprisoned people at the Bastille who spoke out against the monarchy. However at this time the prison held only seven prisoners, but the people viewed the huge medieval building as a sign of the people oppression. The ends up resulting in a angry mob and a prison guard exchanging fires, and the mob swarming into Bastille. This action of the storming of the Bastille became a powerful symbol of the French Revolution and spread fear among the people.
Then there was the second short-term cause; the ideas of Enlightenment writers. While social inequalities were driving poor people toward revolt, new ideas from the enlightenment were also inspiring the French Revolution. Many educated members of the bourgeoisie knew about the writings of the great enlightenment philosophers such as john Locke and Baron de Montesquieu. More recently, they have learned that American colonists, inspired by Enlightenment ideas, have successfully rebelled against Britain’s king. Seeing how these ideas were transforming government and society in other countries, some of the bourgeoisie began to consider how these ideas might be used in France. Another short term cause was nature during French’s devastating time of hunger and record cold. Nature was creating economic problems. First a hailstorm and a drought ruined the harvest. Then the winter of 1788 caused frozen rivers which prevented waterwheels from powering the mills that ground wheat into flour. Food an firewood were scarce and expensive. As hunger and cold made life wretched for thousands of French citizens, and the misery grew into anger.
As you can see the French went through a lot through these years. But basically the main causes of the French revolution, long term and short term were; the inequalities in society, the ideas of enlightenment writers, poor leadership from Louis XVI, the financial crisis, the Catholic Church, and widespread hunger and record cold.