What Caused The French Revolution Essay
The French Revolution and the Rise of the Republic of France: A Discussion of its Causes and Effects
An essay by Cameron Reynolds-Beer
Prior the French revolution was a series of events that damaged the legitimacy of the monarch’s rule. These included many situations, some of which were avoidable, some of which were not. The French class system of three “Estates”: The First Estate - The Nobles and Lords; The Second Estate - The Church and Priests; and the Third Estate - the peasants, workers, and farmers. There are many arguments for different causes being the primary cause for the revolution, and in this essay I will describe the main causes and discuss my conclusion as to which of them I believe to be the primary cause.
One of the …show more content…
longest running of the issues was that of the influence of the Catholic Church and the Priests over the Third Estate. This was due to the ability of the Church to collect Tides, a form of tax for the use of the area on and around church property, from the Third Estate. This led to a feeling of hostility towards the church and the belief that they were partially to blame for peasants being unable to earn enough money to relive the debts that they had to pay.
The second issue was that of France’s constant warring. This included such wars as the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence. France’s large standing armies and navies were costing a lot of money to sustain, and the large number of casualties was causing a huge drop in work force and a massive increase in war exhaustion. This all led to a significant issue with military spending, most of which had to come from the Third Estate from war taxes.
The combination between France’s large debt and its absolute monarchy caused a lot of tension between the king and queen, and the peasants. This was caused by the inability to tax the First and Second Estates, the frivolous spending of Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV, the expensive upkeep of the palace at Versailles and the free taxation of the Third Estate. This was worsened further by the monarch’s wish to tax the Third Estate further than they already were for fear of revolts.
Another factor impacting on the population and the financial situation was the severe hailstorms in 1788, leading to a poor harvest and widespread hunger. The rumours of the queen’s selfish hoarding of grains led an increase in liberty desire, the desire to remove themselves from the power of nobility, within the Third Estate. This was further aided by the success of the recent American independence.
The result of all of these issues was the king calling a conference of the “Estates General” - a culmination of the First, Second, and Third Estates. The conference was to decide as to whether the First and Second Estates should be taxed. Although the Third Estate made up the majority of the population, it had an equal representation as the First and Second Estates. This lead to the failure of the change. Due to this, the Third Estate left and formed their own parliament, the National Assembly. To counteract this, the nobles ordered the chamber in which the National Assembly were planning to meet to be locked. Instead, the Assembly chose to convene in a tennis court, taking the famous “Tennis Court Oath”. This was an oath to not give up until they had succeeded. From that time onward was a steady stream of nobles and clergy joining the National Assembly.
Soon after this, violence sprung up around the country against the feudal landowners. In the capital the fortress prison, the Bastille, was attacked by rebels claiming it was to free the prisoners, which at the time numbered only seven, but the main reason, it appears, was to take weapons such as muskets and swords. Not long after control of the capital fell to the rebels, the old council was evicted and the French National Guard was created, lead by the Marquis de Lafayette.
The continued shortage in food stocks lead to a march of heavily armed peasant women accompanied by the national guard, who acted as their escort, to the palace in Versailles. This, in turn, led to the monarchy moving to Tuileries Palace in Paris and the king having to sign the August Decrees: a declaration that nullified the feudal obligations of the nobles and landowners of the peasants who lived in their land. He also signed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, a constitution granting equality throughout the Estates.
In 1791, Louis XVI attempted to regain control of France with the aid of Prussian and Austrian forces. However, whilst attempting to flee to the border to meet with the armies of his foreign supporters, the king was captured and taken back to Paris by rebels. This caused the Girondins, who simply wanted a constitutional monarchy, and the Jacobins, the much less moderate rebels who wanted to completely remove the king from power, to loose faith in the king and realise that at the slightest of opportunities he would attempt to quash the rebellion.
Due to the action of the rebels whilst stopping the king’s escape, the Prussian-Austrian alliance released the Declaration of Pillnitz, saying that if any harm came to the king, they would intervene and destroy the rebel uprising. This eventually led to a failed war against the alliance and, later still, the arrest of the king under the charge of treason. Soon after that, Maximillian Robespierre was declared head of the Republic of France.
Although all the causes were important, and it was the culmination of them all that created the right circumstances for the revolution: some were more important than others were. I am going to discuss the extent to which each cause created the right situation to start the revolution.
I believe the primary cause was a mixture between the monarchy’s autocratic rule and the dynamics of the Estates Assembly.
Although the various debts and wars did have a serious effect on the mindset of the people, I believe that without the autocracy and frivolous spending of the monarchy, then the rebellion would not have held as much support as it did. I feel that the free taxation of the Third Estate lead to an increase in tension between the Third Estate and the other, tax-free, Estates. This, however, did not push the people into a state of rebellion. That was the lack of proportional representation in the Estates General. If the Third Estate was more fairly represented in the Estates General, they would not have felt the need to rebel. This is because it would have allowed the First and Second Estates to be taxed similarly to the Third Estate and thus relieve economic pressure from the Third Estate. I can also theorize that this would have led to a rise in the middle class and so an increase in countrywide economic wealth and also industrialization and modernization. On the other hand, without the previous debts and war exhaustion, the conditions required to cause this chain of events may never have happened, at least not as early as it did. This, however is simply conjecture and so, as I have previously stated, my belief is that it was a culmination of the autocratic monarchy, and unbalanced
parliament.
An essay by Cameron Reynolds-Beer
Prior the French revolution was a series of events that damaged the legitimacy of the monarch’s rule. These included many situations, some of which were avoidable, some of which were not. The French class system of three “Estates”: The First Estate - The Nobles and Lords; The Second Estate - The Church and Priests; and the Third Estate - the peasants, workers, and farmers. There are many arguments for different causes being the primary cause for the revolution, and in this essay I will describe the main causes and discuss my conclusion as to which of them I believe to be the primary cause.
One of the …show more content…
longest running of the issues was that of the influence of the Catholic Church and the Priests over the Third Estate. This was due to the ability of the Church to collect Tides, a form of tax for the use of the area on and around church property, from the Third Estate. This led to a feeling of hostility towards the church and the belief that they were partially to blame for peasants being unable to earn enough money to relive the debts that they had to pay.
The second issue was that of France’s constant warring. This included such wars as the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence. France’s large standing armies and navies were costing a lot of money to sustain, and the large number of casualties was causing a huge drop in work force and a massive increase in war exhaustion. This all led to a significant issue with military spending, most of which had to come from the Third Estate from war taxes.
The combination between France’s large debt and its absolute monarchy caused a lot of tension between the king and queen, and the peasants. This was caused by the inability to tax the First and Second Estates, the frivolous spending of Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV, the expensive upkeep of the palace at Versailles and the free taxation of the Third Estate. This was worsened further by the monarch’s wish to tax the Third Estate further than they already were for fear of revolts.
Another factor impacting on the population and the financial situation was the severe hailstorms in 1788, leading to a poor harvest and widespread hunger. The rumours of the queen’s selfish hoarding of grains led an increase in liberty desire, the desire to remove themselves from the power of nobility, within the Third Estate. This was further aided by the success of the recent American independence.
The result of all of these issues was the king calling a conference of the “Estates General” - a culmination of the First, Second, and Third Estates. The conference was to decide as to whether the First and Second Estates should be taxed. Although the Third Estate made up the majority of the population, it had an equal representation as the First and Second Estates. This lead to the failure of the change. Due to this, the Third Estate left and formed their own parliament, the National Assembly. To counteract this, the nobles ordered the chamber in which the National Assembly were planning to meet to be locked. Instead, the Assembly chose to convene in a tennis court, taking the famous “Tennis Court Oath”. This was an oath to not give up until they had succeeded. From that time onward was a steady stream of nobles and clergy joining the National Assembly.
Soon after this, violence sprung up around the country against the feudal landowners. In the capital the fortress prison, the Bastille, was attacked by rebels claiming it was to free the prisoners, which at the time numbered only seven, but the main reason, it appears, was to take weapons such as muskets and swords. Not long after control of the capital fell to the rebels, the old council was evicted and the French National Guard was created, lead by the Marquis de Lafayette.
The continued shortage in food stocks lead to a march of heavily armed peasant women accompanied by the national guard, who acted as their escort, to the palace in Versailles. This, in turn, led to the monarchy moving to Tuileries Palace in Paris and the king having to sign the August Decrees: a declaration that nullified the feudal obligations of the nobles and landowners of the peasants who lived in their land. He also signed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, a constitution granting equality throughout the Estates.
In 1791, Louis XVI attempted to regain control of France with the aid of Prussian and Austrian forces. However, whilst attempting to flee to the border to meet with the armies of his foreign supporters, the king was captured and taken back to Paris by rebels. This caused the Girondins, who simply wanted a constitutional monarchy, and the Jacobins, the much less moderate rebels who wanted to completely remove the king from power, to loose faith in the king and realise that at the slightest of opportunities he would attempt to quash the rebellion.
Due to the action of the rebels whilst stopping the king’s escape, the Prussian-Austrian alliance released the Declaration of Pillnitz, saying that if any harm came to the king, they would intervene and destroy the rebel uprising. This eventually led to a failed war against the alliance and, later still, the arrest of the king under the charge of treason. Soon after that, Maximillian Robespierre was declared head of the Republic of France.
Although all the causes were important, and it was the culmination of them all that created the right circumstances for the revolution: some were more important than others were. I am going to discuss the extent to which each cause created the right situation to start the revolution.
I believe the primary cause was a mixture between the monarchy’s autocratic rule and the dynamics of the Estates Assembly.
Although the various debts and wars did have a serious effect on the mindset of the people, I believe that without the autocracy and frivolous spending of the monarchy, then the rebellion would not have held as much support as it did. I feel that the free taxation of the Third Estate lead to an increase in tension between the Third Estate and the other, tax-free, Estates. This, however, did not push the people into a state of rebellion. That was the lack of proportional representation in the Estates General. If the Third Estate was more fairly represented in the Estates General, they would not have felt the need to rebel. This is because it would have allowed the First and Second Estates to be taxed similarly to the Third Estate and thus relieve economic pressure from the Third Estate. I can also theorize that this would have led to a rise in the middle class and so an increase in countrywide economic wealth and also industrialization and modernization. On the other hand, without the previous debts and war exhaustion, the conditions required to cause this chain of events may never have happened, at least not as early as it did. This, however is simply conjecture and so, as I have previously stated, my belief is that it was a culmination of the autocratic monarchy, and unbalanced
parliament.