French Revolution Dbq

Liang Zhou French Revolution started in 1789 with the accumulated resentment French people had towards the King, Louis XVI. The resentment was accumulated from many aspects, such as unfair treatment, the king’s incompetence and poverty. Social, political and geographic factors is definitely the causes of French revolution. The General Estate was one of the most inhuman systems which planned the seed of revolution. The General Estate was the system used before French Revolution to divide the
French population. The French population was divided in three sectors, clergy, noble and the commoners. People in the third Estate, commoners, had to work and pay tax, whereas the people in the first and second Estate did not. Taxation was collected from the commoners to
the noble and clergy, and was also spent by them. It led the people in the first two Estate which was only 10% of the population controlled 99% wealth of France. This unfair treatment caused the people in the third Estate united by their common identity, the commoners. This division among the people and extreme wealth distribution also inspired Social nationalism where the commoners stood up and fought for their own welfare.
Every system has its own merit. However, Louis XVI, the king of France, was too incompetent to utilize it. France was one of wealthiest and the most powerful nations in
Europe. However, the entire nation was in debt after Louis the XVI decided to involve in the
American Revolution. The motivation to involve in American Revolution was the French nationalism which the king considered the British was France’s ultimate enemy and tried to depress them in anyway as possible. However, the decision Louis the XVI made was unwise decision. The americans won the war but it also led France drown in the immensive costs of war. In order to payoff the debt, Louis XVI increased the taxation on the commoners and stopped building more infrastructures.However, the decision was flawful and absurd, where if job opportunity was not created, there was no chance that people could pay more taxes. This decision led not only taxation could not be collected, but many commoners lost their jobs as well. On the other hand, Napoleon, the emperor of France after the French revolution,
was able to payoff the debt within a few years, by collecting money from the nobles. Napoleon earned people’s trusts and respects by winning wars and solving the issues people had, whereas Louis XVI, who was incapable of being a king, inherited the throne and led his people suffered in poverty because of his poor judgment. It was obvious that the people in
France would resent the king, and rebel against him. People would not risk their lives to fight a war, unless their lives were being threatened.
The geographic factor was like the last straw that crushed on the people in France. Two years prior to French Revolution, the french people had a poor harvest due to the bad weather. One part of the country was having a flood, another part of the country was having a drought. Food became scarce and famine spread across the entire country. The famine starved the people and also drave them desperate. Many of them would take the risk to overthrow the king rather than die in hunger. The geographic factors gave the final push to the commoners to begin the revolution. Every revolution needs a cause to begin. Social, political, and geographic factors were the causes of French Revolution. The outbreak of French Revolution was planned by the unfair system, fueled by the resentment against the king, and ignited by the hunger people suffered.