French Revolution
In the 1700s there was a social unfairness in France , taxes and laws created during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV which remained during the ruling of king Louis XVI were unjust and only a minority of the people were benefit of those laws and taxes. The peasants and the poorer were the most affected people in all, with this bad decision while the clergy and nobles enjoy the money and the luxury. In 1789 France was in need of money and almost broke. The revolution was the result of the unhappiness that the majority with the government at that time. The were several causes but the most important one was, the discontent of the legal division among social groups that had been like that for several centuries. The revolution was waiting at the door for some group to open it and the lower social class was about to do it.
Let's first start knowing a bit about the ruler of France at the time of the revolution. King Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774;he was an absolute monarch. Then he married Marie - Antoinette, who was believed to dominate the king’s decisions . The king and his wife were highly criticized because of over spending money. During his reign France was merged in a deep depression that ended up in a bloody revolution;there was no money, no food and the people was not happy with how the country has been ruled. When the revolution started Louis did not fully understand what was really happening so between 1789 and 1791 he signed decrees from the Assembly so that they become law and in September 1791 the constitution was finally proclaimed.In 1793,a few years later, he was executed in 1793.
Before the Revolution broke out, in a time known as the Ancien Regime, France was divided in three estates: The first estate known as the clergy, formed by the clergy who were people like priests, who run the catholic church and other aspects of the country. Apart from keeping register of the births,deaths and marriages of the people of France; they have the power to levy a 10% tax known as the tithe. Members of this estate saw no need to change and were blind to any social problem.The second estate consisted on the nobility of France, including members of the royal family; they did not have to pay any taxes.They have special privileges like wearing a sword and hunting. Again like in the first estate, they saw no problem in the Estates -General or social structure. What the members of this estate saw was only profit from themselves. And the third estate, was made up of everyone else ( from peasants, farmers and the bourgeoisie). The third estate was the 96% of the french population, and had no right and privileges like the other two estates. This class did all the working of the land and created most of what the higher classes enjoy, yet they did not have any benefits.They did not have equal representation in the government, no influence in voting procedures and paid a lot of taxes. Many historians believe that one of the reasons of the revolution was the dissatisfaction of the people of the third estate, who wanted a more equal distribution of the wealth and power of the country.
Historians believe that there were four main causes for the French Revolution. The first one, The unfair division of social classes, which was already described in the paragraph above. The second cause was Money. The main problem here is that the government of France was bankrupt, owing 4000 millions livres. The reasons of this debt were the money they had spent in costly wars and the royalty accused by the people for spending a lot of money on luxuries. Apart from these, it was said that the tax system was corrupted and some tax collectors did not hand all the money taxes over the government. The third main cause was the bad harvest. As most people in France depended on the agriculture and farming in the 1700’s, the weather conditions did not help because of the heavy rains, hard winters and too hot summers led to three very bad harvests. Peasants and farmers having very small incomes were affected , they became unemployed and many poor people were starving while the clergy and nobility continued to live their luxurious lives. The fourth and last cause was The national assembly, June 1789 created by the deputies of the third estate who tired of the arguments of the arguments over how each order should vote, declared themselves a “national assembly”. As they represented the majority of the population they felt they were the “true parliament”. The deputies of the third estate demanded to draw up a constitution showing how France was to be governed .
After the execution of Louis, the things in France were still badly along the months, the war was going on, peasants started to revolt everywhere, Jacobins declared that “Terror is the order of the day”, many areas of France were rebelling against the new radical Jacobin government and convention took emergency measures; which set up a Committee of Public Safety. The Jacobins were in control of the Committee and their leading figure was M. Robespierre, the creator of the famous guillotine, the man who once was against slavery and death penalty was in 1793 the main supporter of the terror. He allowed revolutionary tribunals to convict people without a fair trial, he was blame to be the responsible of more than 12.000 deaths in France. In 1794, people got sick of all the killing and by the mid of that year the terror had died out so did Robespierre, who met his fate with his own creation, the guillotine.
The french revolution was one of the bloodiest and greatest rebellions of the people against the government in the world , which was printed in the heart of all the french men, women and children of the time. It was the revolution that put an end in the suffering of the french people who during years had to pay for the bad and selfish decisions taken by the ruler and his followers. It was the revolution that took the life of thousands of french people, in the search of égalité, fraternité and liberté.
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