What Were The Causes of the French Revolution?

Adam Chin
Ms. Pearlman

The French Revolution of 1789 was one of the most important revolutions that

had taken place. During that time, the political, social, and economic conditions were disliked by many of the French people, especially those in the Third Estate. Many of the
French were influenced by the new views of government and society and attempted to try and change the way the government thought. The First and Second Estate were filled with many high class and church members who had plenty of control over the economy and had a large say in politics. The Third Estate was the most corrupt state.
Prices of foods and the limited rights of the people forced numerous of them to use violence or other acts of rebellion to get the king's attention. The analysis of the documents indicated that many people of the Third Estate wanted a revolution that would make France turn over a new leaf into a better country.

The French Revolution was caused by a result of many events. The costs of

fighting in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War put a toll on the
French economy. (Document 5) People in France became outraged by the debt and about the king and queen thought about doing with their money. The First and Second
Estate were made up of the Church and the nobility. The Third Estate was the class that was considered peasantry by the First and Second estate. Many people of the Third
Estate were heavily taxed due to the "injustice in levying the amount each person must pay" as stated in Document 1. The nobility were taxed very little to ensure the government officials could count on their help when they needed it. This made the lower

class even more poor than they were. Bread was at an all time high, children were not clothed properly, and many riots and disturbance of provinces had to have the military end up keeping the peace of the market. (Document 1) As depicted in the cartoonist's drawing in Document 7, the drawing shows the First and Second state standing on a rock labeled "Taxes", which was on top of the Third Estate. What the cartoonist is showing is that the First and Second Estate had all the power to keep themselves above the taxes, but did not want to have the Third Estate as well with them, instead, the Third Estate became the support that would keep the two estates up. Most people believed that the reason for all of this was the king as well. This was not looking good for king Louis XVI.

King Louis XVI was the leader during the French Revolution along with his wife,

Queen Marie Antoinette. Most of the money was also mismanaged by King Louis XVI, who had originally inherited the debt by his grandfather, Louis XV. On top of this, his wife was also spending money that could have been used for the people. At first, Louis tried to make peace with the National Assembly, hoping things would calm down, but instead, Mobs began rioting over the high priced bread and soon the mobs wanted to steal the Bastille's supply of gunpowder to protect Paris from the King's foreign troops.
Rumors spread that the king was planing a military coup against the National Assembly and the Bastille was stormed. This forced the king to give up his plan of involving foreign troops and reduced his power in the constitutional monarchy. The king realized that he had no choice but to flee the country before things would get worse. Little did he know he would be noticed by the rebels and be captured and put on trial, resulting in

execution. However, before he was executed, the king had to be alive to make sure he could make the reforms that the Third Estate needed.

The Third Estate had numerous demands for the French government to change.

What the people did to show that was to write cahiers. The Third Estate wanted the king to reform the abuses he had done, have the tailla be equal in all the classes, and also wanted to make sure the Third Estate had influence so the votes in the assembly would be taken by head. The Third Estate wanted to make sure that if a new government were to be put up, it would be a government that would be beneficial to the Third Estate as well. (Document 3) As Comte D'Antraigues is quoted in his excerpt from "Citizens: A
Chronicle of the French Revolution", Comte believed that "The Third Estate is the
People and the People is the foundation of the State" (Document 6) meaning without the Third Estate, there would be no support for the State. The State needs the Third
Estate to exist for other estates to exist. The other estates were merely political categories. As a matter of fact, it is the Third Estate that all national power resides in.

When a government is needed of reforms, society will find a way for that to

happen. Citizens of the French government, most especially those of the Third Estate have made that happen. The citizens of France executed the king, thus ending the
Reign of Terror. Also as a result, actions were taken to make sure it would never happen again, thus a new system was formed, which is now called the Directory. The French
Revolution was caused by many events that would eventually lead to the revolution itself, thus changing the course of the future of the French.