The French Revolution Broke Out Because Of a Shortage of Bread Discuss.

by chris20051106 (student)

“The French Revolution Broke Out Because Of a Shortage of Bread”

To some extent, the cause of the French Revolution was a shortage of bread; however there were other reasons, both long and short term, which also triggered the French Revolution. It started on 14th July 1789, when the people of France finally lost their patience with Louis XVI. They decided to take the law into their own hands. A motto was established stating “liberty, equality and fraternity” and that was what the people wanted and were trying to achieve. The first official event to start the revolution was the storming of the Bastille on 14th July 1789, however, there were some revolts and other events during May and the summer months leading up to the beginning of the revolution. The Bastille was an impregnable prison and it stood as a symbol of terror. By attacking the Bastille, the people showed that they were willing to fight for their rights and that the aristocrats would not be able to get rid of them easily.

Economy and Life Standard

One of the long term problems that France encountered was the Economic Slump between 1787 and 1789. One feature of the Economic Slump was the poor harvests. In 1787, the silk harvest failed and the other harvests were poor. This was caused by a rainy autumn, a mild winter and a hot summer. The harvests of 1788 were terrible because there was a rainy spring and an unexpected hailstorm in July. In 1789, the harvests were generally good, but the wine harvest was poor. That year, there was a hard winter with bad frosts. The poor harvests affected France’s trade industry quite badly. France had nothing to trade with, and so had to pay for things to be imported, leading to problems with money.

Another feature of the Economic Slump was the population rising and causing poverty, unemployment and more problems with money. The population of France increased dramatically. It had risen by 7 million people in 74 years, but there was an extreme year where the population rose by 6 million (20 million-26 million). This rise of population meant there were many unemployed and there was not enough food for everyone. Many people lived in poverty because of this and because the cost of living had increased by 45% while wages had only increased by 22%. Wages were very low. Some people barely owned their home, yet they had so much to pay in taxes. Some lords demanded animals and wheat, which some of the peasants didn’t have, and others asked for money. The peasants didn’t have much of this either. Ordinary people were becoming poorer because of the economic problems. The lower classes of the 3rd estate could not afford to eat a lot of food, and what they could get, was bad quality. They ate meat less than 3 times per year; their bread still had the bran in it along with bits of straw. More than half of these people were clothed in rotting tattered linen, and many were sick, weak and unhealthy. Approximately 2 million men were day labourers. They helped the country survive by doing all the major jobs and becoming sailors and soldiers when they were needed. Many people thought they should have been spared some of the taxes because they earned a fair wage during the harvest but a low one during the rest of the year. These day labourers found it hard to survive without their wives doing some extra work for more money. Some of the men became apathetic because they knew their efforts would go unrewarded. The thousands who were unemployed had even bigger problems. They could not afford food, clothes or a decent home, so many died of hunger and an unhygienic lifestyle. Some of the unemployed ate extremely bad food and got diseases. Medicine and medical care was very expensive, so they would have died of whatever disease they had because they could not afford the things they needed.

Although many of the 3rd estate could not afford an education, some of the richer people in the estate could. These people formed the middle class. They were mostly businessmen who ran businesses and had a good salary. They decided they wanted more of a say in the government of France because they were getting richer and higher in society, and they did not like the nobles getting all their privileges just for being grand and having money. The middle class did not like the fact that the aristocrats were getting all the top jobs in the government and the armed ...

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New Ideas

Louis XIV and Louis XV had fought many wars with England, but they had always been defeated. Louis XVI wanted to avenge the English for his grandfather and father’s defeats, so he joined forces with the Americans. Louis, like his father and grandfather, spent a lot of money on these fights. This caused more government debt. They declared war on England in 1776. France sent over many troops and fighting ships. This cost a lot of money and therefore increased the government debt even more. When the troops arrived in America, they saw how it was ruled. They saw the free, hierarchy-less county where everyone was equal and thought that France should use the same methods of ruling. They came back with new ideas and statements from the American Declaration of Independence such as “everyone is born equal” and “everyone has rights which cannot be taken away”. The French troops felt strongly that France’s ruling system should change because they had just fought for the rights and freedom, yet they were still ruled by an Absolute Monarch who claimed all power. They spread them to other people around France, hoping they would agree and help achieve these rights. Quite a lot of people now wanted to change the way France was governed. This news and the Era of Enlightenment changed the viewpoints of thousands of people across France. Many started to think that France was unfair and old-fashioned. They wanted to select their own government who acted in their interests. The people wanted to live by the motto stating “liberty, equality and fraternity”. The middle class along with other members of the 3rd estate began to challenge the power and authority of the higher classes because everyone was supposed to be equal. A man named Maximillian Robespierre who was influenced by the Era of Enlightenment became the voice of the 3rd estate. All these new ideas made Louis angry. When the people asked him to make some changes, he said no. Louis did not want to lose any power or be seen as weak by giving in to the desires of ordinary people. His refusal angered the people, giving them more reasons to fight for their rights.

Power

The people of France were divided onto 3 sections forming a hierarchy. In the 1st estate, there were rich clergy, in the 2nd estate there were rich nobles who fought for the King, and the 3rd estate consisted of everybody else, such as farmers and peasants. The 1st and 2nd estates made up 3% of the population, while the 3rd estate made up 97% of it. The King was at the top of the hierarchy as he ruled over everyone. This was how the hierarchy was supposed to work. By the late 18th century, the third estate had split themselves into groups according to their jobs and positions. Some examples of these groups are the landless labourers and the urban workers. The middle class (part of the 3rd estate) had risen to a level almost equal to that of the 1st and 2nd estates, but they were still viewed as members of the 3rd estate. The other estates were almost the same as they were before, with perhaps a few minor changes.

Absolute monarchy was used in the Ancien Regime. It meant that the King and Queen had total power. The monarchs did not have a Parliament or any other political parties, but they had advisors to help them rule. Louis and Marie were young and unprepared for the responsibilities of monarchy, but they took advantage of the absolute monarchy. They moved out of Paris and lived in their castle in Versailles. There, they were away from everything that happened in Paris, gradually growing out of touch with everybody else. For this reason, they did not know what was happening and they couldn’t help until it was too late. Marie Antoinette, when she heard the people in Paris could not afford bread and so had nothing to eat, said “If they can’t eat bread, let them eat cakes”.

Money

The French government was over 4000 million livres in debt in 1788. Many people blamed the King, his court and his wife. They thought that these people wasted a lot of things like food and money. They had rich banquets while the people in Paris were starving. Marie Antoinette showed her ignorance by saying they should eat cakes if they couldn’t eat bread. She was known for her extravagant style and high expenditure. They also blamed the tax system. It was unfair and poorly run. The King allowed private companies to collect the taxes, but some of the money never reached the King. Louis hired himself a finance manager who advised him to make the nobles pay more tax, but the nobles refused to pay higher taxes. They forced Louis to sack the ministers and the finance manager who were trying to impose changes to the tax system. Before he was fired, the finance manager advised Louis to call the Estates General.

By August 1788, the French government was bankrupt, and no one would lend it money. It couldn’t raise taxes and had trouble collecting some of the existing ones, so Louis had no choice but to call the Estates General. The Estates General had not been called since 1614 and it consisted of representatives of all three estates (1st, 2nd and 3rd). The King hoped it would raise new taxes which everyone could pay, the nobles wanted concessions from the King, and the ordinary people longed for it to solve all their problems. People were asked to write a list of their problems and hopes for the future called cahiers de doleances. The people had lived in turmoil and struggled for so long that they saw this as a glimmer of hope that Louis would finally fix everything. They wrote about wild hopes and past sufferings. However, when the Estates General met in Versailles on 4th May 1789, Louis’s mind was not focused on the problems at hand. He did not propose any major reforms, but instead worried about his son who was dying of tuberculosis.

The next day, when the representatives arrived for the second day of the Estates General, they found themselves locked out. Louis had locked them out because he felt threatened by their increasing desire for power and so had silenced them. Some of the many people who attended the Estates General and were disappointed by Louis’s approach to the situation joined together and declared themselves to be a National Assembly. Together, they wanted to set up a constitution, and have a say in how France should be ruled. By laying down some of Frances’s rules, some of Louis’s power would be taken away from him and shared between them. The members of the National Assembly met next door on a tennis court and swore a famous oath, promising not to disband until they had achieved their aims. This made life harder for Louis by proving to him that they would not stop what they had started. He was forced to give in to their proposals, but while he was agreeing, Louis began to call up secret troops. He feared something would go wrong, and he would need to use them. People in favour of the National Assembly were afraid he would use the secret army to destroy the assembly. By the start of the revolution, Louis had 30, 000 troops after the National Assembly.

Statistics comparing France in the 1730’s and France in 1789 show that the cost of living had risen by 45% whilst the wages had only risen by 22%. The prices of many foods, such as bread, increased. Not many people could afford it. Bread was very important to the people of France. They lived off bread, eating it several times a day. The average person in France ate 2.2 pounds of bread every day. Bread was the cheapest food available, but then, because of the problems with money and the economy, its price increased and the urban workers found themselves paying 50% of their wages for it in August 1788. By July 1789, this had risen to 75%. The hungrier people got, the angrier they got. Bakers were raided and slaughtered if they were caught stock-keeping bread. Everyone was trying to get bread and food from somewhere, and no one would give anything up without bloodshed.

There were many taxes imposed on the people of France. Some examples were church tax and feudal dues. The peasants were taxed heavily while the nobles were not, despite the difference of wealth. The peasants’ taxes had to pay for the army and navy, the King’s court, the Civil Service and the government’s debt interest. The peasants found it hard to afford basic things like food and drink because there were so many taxes to be paid. The government’s income was roughly 67% indirect tax, 28% direct tax and 5% other.

To conclude: I think the all the classes, especially the 3rd estate did their bit to aspire the revolution. Without one of them or any of the events that happened, France would not be the same, and for this they all deserve credit. I think the peasants played one of the most important parts in the revolution because they started it with their violence, terror and threats. The middle class also had a significant role because they were likely to have been involved in the Estates General and the National Assembly. They challenged the higher classes and helped bring on the Era of Enlightenment as well as encouraging change. Before the revolution, France was described as being ruled by the Ancien Regime because it was ruled by absolute monarchy. After the revolution, the lower classes thought they had achieved great changes. They felt the country was much fairer, but the aristocrats did not feel as happy about these changes because many of their privileges had been taken away. I think that some of the most important causes were the Estates General and the National Assembly, and the economic problems such as debt, poverty and unemployment. To help his country, I think Louis should have reduced his expenditure, improved the tax system and taxed people according to their wealth. He should not have moved away from Paris and if he had to, he should have kept an eye on the situation rather than neglecting it. The shortage of bread was one of the causes of the French Revolution, but it was not the only cause. It was all the events that happened in France before the revolution that triggered it.

The French Revolution Broke Out Because Of a Shortage of Bread Discuss.

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