What were the causes of the French Revolution?

The next cause of the French revolution was the American War of independence and it affect on France. During the Seven Year’s War of 1756 -1763 France lost a lot of its territories in North America. During the war France gave support to the colonists (rebels) in order to weaken Britain. The French had dominated the sea and left the British unable to supply their armies at the critical battle of Yorktown of 1781 which marked American independence from the British. The involvement of the French in the war had two results which influenced the French revolution. Firstly the American Revolution did change the way of thinking and the principles which the French had. For example the Americans were allowed equal rights and had a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet France was an absolutist state. Another result was that the war had put the French in great debt and the monarch had suffered from a financial crisis. However some might argue that how could the financial crisis be a cause for the French revolution, but if we look at it in effect we realize that the financial crisis was the factor that led to French Revolution as because without the crisis the revolt of the Nobles in 1787 would not have happened.

Another cause of the French revolution was the Royal debt and the growing financial crisis, 1783 -1789. In an attempt to solve the economic crisis King Louis XVI appointed Alexandre de Calonne as Controller General of the finances in 1783. Calonne introduced free trade in order to reduce Crown expenditure and raise the Crown revenue. However his plans were thwarted by the parliament of Paris and by the defence of their own privileges of immunity from taxation by the Clergy and Nobles. Afterwards an Assembly of Notables was summoned, in an attempt to bring forward improvements. The King opened the assembly in February 1787. The assembly did not bring about any reform however it simply led to the “revolt of the nobles”. From the assembly we could argue that Calonne had unwillingly caused the French revolution. Lomenie de Brienne had replaced Colonne after he had been exiled by the King. After he had became president of the Assembly of Notables Brienne attacked the fiscal policy of Colonne. Brienne created provisional assemblies and the collection of proposed land tax. However the Parlement of Paris opposed his plans. Brienne had to suspend Treasury payments, which was virtually an admission of national bankruptcy, and resigned. Jacques Necker had then replaced Brienne and there were great hopes that he would be the one to solve the financial crisis. However Necker did little and he simply waited for the Estates-General to meet.

During the economic recession there was bad harvest in 1788. Many of the French depended on agriculture and farming as their source of income. With the bad harvest there was the ‘grand peur’ or the great fear, provincial France was out of control, there many attacks on houses and robberies. The king and the queens’ arrogance were shown here as they did not perform any action to stop this great fear. So we can clearly see that the economic crisis played a vital role in the start of the revolution as because there was inflation and there was also shortage of food supply.

A cause of the French Revolution was the system of feudal dues and taxes burdened the peasantry. In France there were three “estates” in the society, the first estate consisted of the Clergy, the second estate consisted of nobles and aristocrats, and finally the third estate consisted of the rest of the people such as the peasants and the working class. The system in France gave the first and second estate the right of not paying taxes. So the burden of taxation in France fell on the third estates which consisted of peasants. This meant that the section of society least capable to pay taxes had the highest taxation burden. The burden of tax increased the peasant’s opposition towards the monarchical rule of France which was bound to bring about a revolution.  

The final cause of the revolution was the meeting of the Estates-General. In the Estates-General if voting was raised and all three estates had equal vote, the third estate would be out-voted by the first and second estate. Therefore the verdicts of the Estates general would always be based on the ideology of the clergy and the nobles. Necker presented the idea of the third estate having double representation so its votes would be equal however the King never made a decision about this idea presented by Necker. In the Estates general the first and second estates wanted separate meetings where each estate would discuss and vote on issues on its own. On the other hand the third estate wanted the three estates to be merged together into one national assembly. The third estate also wanted to sketch a constitution for France; however the idea was not accepted by the first and second estates. In June 1789, the king denied the third estate from entering the hall of the estates general, so the third estate went on and had their meeting in a tennis court. The Kings decision to deny the third estate from entering the hall involuntarily contributed to the French Revolution and to the famous Tennis Court Oath. In the Tennis Court Oath the third estate announced itself as the National Assembly of France and oath pledged that it would not split up until a French constitution was formed. On 27 June, King Louis XVI admitted defeat and ordered the rest of the Deputies to join the National Assembly. We can clearly see the Tennis Court Oath played a vital role in the start of the French Revolution.

In conclusion we could see that there were many causes for the outbreak of the French Revolution but in my opinion I would argue that the main cause and the main factor for the outbreak of the French Revolution was the economic recession, specifically during Calonne’s time where he had summoned an assembly of Notables which led to the ‘revolt of the nobles’ and also the burden of taxation which was laid on the peasants and the agricultural depression. Many of the events during the recession had clearly caused the French Revolution. We could also argue that not all causes were vital causes for the revolution this is because all the causes had occurred almost in the same time period, so for example if there wasn’t the age of enlightenment the recession would still be enough to start the revolution.