FRench revolution

The French Revolution not only transformed the ancient regime France, but led to revolutionary change in Europe. Discuss

In this essay, I am going to identify the key causes of the French Revolution and assess what the key impacts of the revolution and wars had on Europe between. (1789-1815).

One of the main starting points of the French revolution is that of the 14th July 1789, where one of France’s most infamous prison was stormed in Paris. This prison was called the Bastille; this is a French word what basically means "castle" or "stronghold". This is suggested by many historians, that this was the downfall of the ‘ancien regime’ simply meaning the old order and the start of the French revolution. One might think that this was the only factor but in fact it was one of many. In fact the starting point of the revolution was expected and was because of how France was governed politically; simply meaning who was the one in charge of affairs in the country. There were also social and economic factors; a major economic factor was the taxation system, this system was both disorganized and unsuccessful. I am now going to look at the structure of the royal government

“France before 1789 was an absolute monarchy ruled by the Bourbons. This meant that the authority of the French crown was not limited by any represented body, such as an elected parliament. The king was only responsible to by God and was answerable to no one on Earth. This system of government is also known as absolutism”. (France in revolution, P.2)

The king although only answerable to by god was bound to the laws and customs of the kingdom. The king could not make laws on his own; he had to consult his council of ministers and advisors in order to pass a law. As the king was only answerable to by God, he then had to portray that he was strong and dominant person Louis XVI was not a strong figure but in fact rather weak.

Before the enlightenment the French governmental organization was an absolute monarchy with feudal constitutional rights for the aristocracy and catholic clergy. In fact no one in France actually wanted a revolution in 1789, but throughout the 18th century there was a growth of spirit and this was referred to as the Enlightenment and was the start of the revolution. A group of French thinkers and literacy men emerged and these men were known as Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot and Rousseau. These men were known as the philosophers.

In the 18th Century France was a flourishing country by European standards. The classes were more successful than their European equivalents. France had a large number of businessmen, manufactures and the peasantry was allowed to own forty-per-cent of the land and it contributed to “revolutionary situation in the 18th century”. Those who have something to lose, demanded, progress in the government and relief from heavy taxes.

With the annoyed French people wanting reform Louis XVI was forced to summon the Estates-General, this was the nearest establishment France had to a parliament and was the first time it had ...

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With the annoyed French people wanting reform Louis XVI was forced to summon the Estates-General, this was the nearest establishment France had to a parliament and was the first time it had been summoned since 1614. This institution comprised of three estates. The first estate was the church comprising of Parish priests, bishops and a few monks; the second was the landed nobility which comprised of the liberal and conservative nobility these two classes were begrudged by the third estate because the gained special privileges. The third estate was comprised of everybody else. The majority of the population resided in the third estate but didn’t have an equal say in how the country was run. The third estate resented the fact that they were charged with the taxation burden whilst the first and second estates were exempt. When the Crown summoned the Estates-General awoken hope for the third estate and they hoped for some kind of reform mainly the taxation burden. The large population thought that the Crown was going to change the situation but instead nothing was done. The government had a chance to take control of the situation the Crown had no clear plans of how to get France out of the financial mess she faced. The masses would have supported the king if he offered reform but nothing was done and made them want a revolution even more.

“Between 1740 and 1783, France was at war for 20 years, first in the War of Austrian succession (1740-8), then the seven years war (1756-63) and finally the American War of independence (1778-83)”. (France in revolution, p.14)

Also the taxation system in France was not adequate because the bulk of royal revenue was made up from taxation. The system that was used to collect tax was called ‘tax farming’. This did however mean that all tax collected did not indeed reach the treasury.

In France in 1789 there was a constitutional crisis, even though a constitution didn’t really exist. France still had an absolutist monarchy for the moment but was it was powerless to affect any changes that needed making. On top of the constitutional crisis followed the financial crisis and not soon after a worse emergency emerged, inflation. “In the 18th century prices in France rose quickly while wages only rose by a third of the rise of the price of goods and food stuffs”. But this wasn’t only the financial crisis that contributed to the revolution of 1789; the economical crisis also played a major part. The French economy largely based on agriculture and had good harvests between the 1730’s and 1770’s. The good harvests allowed France to have additional food stores. However during the 1780’s this soon came to an end because France was hit by a number of disastrous harvests. These bad harvests happened in 1778-79.There were bad harvests in 1781-82, 1785-86 and 1787. France had not seen the worst yet, their worst harvest was to happen in 1788 during a very wet spring and freak hailstones in many areas of July thus resulting in a bad harvest. The major effect this had on the French was massive unemployment. The bad harvests of 1787 and 1788 did in fact lead to fears of starvation. This caused the peasants to journey in to the towns in order to find food. These men were furious and wound soon form part of the angry crowds of Paris prior to the revolution.

In 1789, due to the major economic and social crisis, was the start of the beginning of the revolution. The Crown, Louis XVI summed the Estates-General in order to calm down the masses. The Estates were invited to come up a list of adjustment that got listed. Some of the points that got listed were the lack of a constitution, a less restricted taxation burden and the demand of freedom of the press. The more immediate needs were eliminated and hardly mentioned in the assembly. This improved the peasants’ anger towards the Crown and saw a longing for a revolution.

If the first and second estates were persuaded to surrender their great privileges and tax immunities there would have been no need for the revolution. On June 17th the third estate took the title of national assembly, and was joined by individual clergy and nobles. The king spoke to the Estates on June 17th 1789. He promised civil liberties, an equal taxation system and that France would now have a constitution. He also stated that the old class system of three estates would remain and the estates should return to their individual meeting halls. The third estate refused. The royal speaker repeated the Crowns order, the speaker of the third estate said “the assembled nation cannot receive orders”. The monarch was surprised for the first time to be on the opposite side of the government of the nation and never succeeded in joining them thus the revolution started to begin.

The first consequence of the enlightenment was the declaration of the rights of man and citizen; this was adopted by a long debate in the assembly. This declaration was a statement that would be used to reform the French system of government, to ascertain the rights of the citizens and rid any other country from absolutist monarchy.

Exiles from the French upper classes fled France and went to other European countries in the years 1789-1792. They were preaching that the French revolution was a threat to the old order in other European countries. King Louis XVI went along with the revolution, but not fore long as he thought that they were going too far. He and the Queen sought after outside help in 1791 and joined counter-revolutionary forces and escape France but soon after were bought back to Paris and were accused of deceiving them. In October 1791 saw the Girondins becoming the strongest party in the Legislative Assembly of the French nation.

The French revolution began in 1789 but by the spring of 1792 three-years-later France did maintain both war and revolution simultaneously. After the French monarchy was removed from power France was turned in to a republic on the 22nd September 1792. This new republic decided on a trial of the king and was executed on the 21st January. After France committed this act she increased tension between herself and Britain, this led to France declaring war on Britain and Holland but was short lived as France was defeated. This was a major failure for the Girondins because this made way for a more extreme party, the Jacobins. The Jacobins were an extreme party and Robespierre was practically the ruler of France, for the period of 1793 to July 1794. Anyone who questioned the Jacobins were simply put to death but in the end France saw the end of his reign when he became a casualty to the guillotine along with his contemporaries Saint-just and Couthon. ”The Jacobins’ club, the commune and the committee of the convention were, in these ways, the three institutional bases of Robespierre’s revolutionary dictatorship”. This era was also known as the reign of terror and was not just aimed at the upper classes but also the working classes; these were the everyday common people in France. During the terror seventy-per-cent of its victims were from the peasantry and labouring classes and consisted of forty-thousand mass executions. The terror was the killing of many Frenchmen and caused mass emigration into neighbouring countries. The revolution was distancing the French people because of mass execution and exile.

The impact of the revolution had several effects in France, which included the French society and economy. During the revolution the agricultural production fell, and it wasn’t until the Napoleonic Empire in 1814 that the French agriculture recovered back to 1789 levels of production. There were three areas of the revolution that are significant regarding army and warfare; these were the expansion and organisation of their army, the army and French society. There were also territorial impacts of the revolution. The revolution changed the way in which Europe looked; France had a vast amount of territory during the revolutionary war (1792-1801).

This war had major changes on the European continent. In Italy, the city states of Genoa and Venice never recovered and independent existence, Austria lost control of Belgium and the Holy Empire was abolished.

The French revolution drastically changed the way countries were governed and aimed to allow every citizen to have equal rights. The system in France and other countries in France where governed by and absolute monarchy, the system in France and a system of government with three class systems with the first two gaining special privileges from tax and gained special benefits from the King. The revolution wasn’t going to be a French panic for very long as these ideas were going to spread into neighbouring countries and affect their absolutist monarchies. The enlightenment thinkers really started the revolution although not intentionally, these were a group of French thinkers who emerged but didn’t want revolution, they only wanted to spread their ideas although many saw them as ideal these men were known as Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot and Rousseau.