Causes of the French Revolution (1789-1799) essays

Causes of the French Revolution (1789-1799) essays In the 1700's there was social unfairness in France. Taxes and laws were different in each province causing confusion and injustice. Louis XIV and Louis XV both left big debts when they died, and this made France nearly bankrupt. The clergy and nobles had plenty of money but the king couldn't tax the wealthy. Louis XVI asked the First and Second Estates to accept a land tax, but they refused. In 1789, the country was in need of money and almost completely broke. The French Revolution was the result of the unhappiness of the French majority with their government of that time. One of the main reasons for their unhappiness was the legal division among the social groups that had been ongoing for several centuries. The French were divided into three estates, religious leaders or clergy making up the first estate, nobles in the second, and the peasants and commoners the last estate. An important part of the third estate was the large, wealthy middle class that included traders, government officials, and lawyers. The third estate was bothered by the fact that they were the only providers of their country's tax revenue. Many of them were extremely economically important but unrecognized as they belonged to the third estate, not the first or second. When the king was trying to tax the second and third estates it made those people angry, and that meant that the whole country was feeling the need to rebel, so the French revolution was inevitable. During that period of time, their king, under an absolute monarchy and by divine right, governed France where the right to rule was thought to have come from God. In the 18th century, French writers began questioning this right and raising radical ideas about freedom and human rights. One particular idea that inspired the French revolution was the suggestion that the right to govern the country came from the people. The French government had run up a high debt due to fighting in the Seven Years' Wa...