OtherPapers.com - Other Term Papers and Free Essays
Search

French Revolution

Essay by   •  November 14, 2015  •  Essay  •  3,018 Words (13 Pages)  •  1,605 Views

Essay Preview: French Revolution

Report this essay
Page 1 of 13

Issue:

There is a very famous event in history that had great consequences at the time. The French Revolution took place in the late 1700s and to understand why there was a revolution is necessary to know some underlying facts, eg, how it was in the country before everything started.

I chose it because I think it is an exciting event and the story that I wanted to learn more about, and understand what really happened. I also wanted to find out if there were any consequences for the country and the people of both past and present.

The questions that I have chosen to work on are:

What were the causes of the French Revolution and what were the consequences for the people? There was no change for the inhabitants and which in such cases?

Method

I chose not anything special way of working, but only began to try to learn as much as possible about the French Revolution. I took out a lot of facts from the internet and used the history books I read in. Then I began to write. I read a little while I wrote to see so that I forgot something. How did I try to describe and explain as much as possible with my own words and ideas about how I interpreted the facts and the texts. I thought it was a good way that worked for me and did a good performance that did not take too long. The work was both easy and difficult, it took a long time to read all the facts and then write, but it was fun and because it is interesting so did nothing. Once one had sat down and started to write so it was easy and pretty quick.

Introduction

France was in the 1700s, at the time of the revolution, Europe's most populous state. It lived about 24 million people there, of which 80 percent consisted of those who lived in rural areas. Just as in many other countries was much that was very unfair and it was largely because it was a revolution. The people of France were divided into three stalls; first, second and third state. First and Second Estate consisted of the king, the clergy and the nobility. They did not have to pay taxes or in any way make an effort to survive or support themselves. The Third Estate consisted of the poor peasants and burghers. The entire French tax burden rested on them and justice, equality or freedom was nothing that was called.

But the people were accustomed to, it was like this and did not know much better, so they continued to live that way. Though not without complaining. After the lost war against England, France was quite poor and, together with the crop failure in the country, it soon became a crisis. Peasants and burghers complaint was met and oppressed by the king by force. At the same time began Enlightenment ideas spread among the philosophers and academics within the burghers and thoughts about the possibility of justice and freedom began to emerge.

Causes

There are several different reasons and causes of the French Revolution. There was a lot that happened during this time, and it began with the Third Estate realized how unfair their life situation really was, but also that the state was about to go bankrupt.

The peasants' discontent was great. It was they who paid the greatest treasure to both the church, the nobility and the state. They were not allowed to have neither mills, wine presses, or other similar tools but was then forced to pay the village nobleman to access them. He was right to take the duty of everyone who traveled through the village and was also the only one who had to hunt and fish in the village forests and lakes. During the day many were forced to work on the estates owned by the upper classes.

The citizens were also very unhappy. It did not matter how wealthy bourgeoisie it was, it could not get any political power if it were not aristocratic. It was only those who could be appointed to the example judges, bishops, generals or governors. Burghers started to become increasingly jealous that they never could get some of the top jobs in the church or the state.

The nobles were actually quite unhappy, even though they lived very much better than all the poor peasants. They thought it was unfair that the king was the only one who got to decide and was autocratic. But then one can wonder, how is it that the peasants and burghers came on this now? It had been like this for a long period. Though not quite the same, because after that the king had lost so much money (see * crop failure and increased taxes *) so he had to raise taxes even more to pay back debts, and it was then that it really broke out.

Disclosure men

Some of those famous men of the Enlightenment and the writers who criticized the injustice called Voltaire and Rousseau. Voltaire, whose real name was Francois Marie Arouet, was a writer who wrote funny and nasty plays and jokes about vainglorious nobles and stupid priests. He got the people on their side with their funny lyrics, but he also questioned the important things such as the king stated that he had received his power from God. But how could one really know? What they knew about God? Why were the nobles and priests really worthy luxury life more than any other? He thought it was important that everyone got to have their own perception and opinion about the religious and to have to think freely.

Crop failures and higher taxes

In the early 1780s hit harvests wrong a couple of times (just as it had done a few years back because. The weather) and there was an acute crisis. Basic food for the French were bread and with time the price rose so much that the salary was not enough to feed the families and the people. Eventually it became the hunger riots and strikes and the king was forced to convene parliament to discuss new taxes. They had no money left because he had taken such huge loans to war. All who went to or through France became aware of how poor the country was. Beggars, the unemployed and homeless people filled all the paths and roads it went on. The king therefore wanted to raise taxes so that he could get more money to repay debt, but it was the last straw.

Reichstag

The year was 1789 and it was over 175 years ago everyone was gathered later. All 1100 members gathered at Versailles in the meeting room and members from all the stalls were with. But even if peasants and burghers' estates accounted for nearly 98 percent of the population was not a single worker or peasant who was with and represented the Third Estate. It consisted only of lawyers, doctors, merchants, journalists and teachers who were little better off in the distance. But it did not. The king could not get out more taxes from the peasants. Then he realized that he could get the nobility and clergy to pay taxes. But when everyone had gathered, and the king an account of his proposals, they refused. It was unthinkable, and instead of sitting and discussing the new taxes they began arguing about voting rights. Each position had one vote. But because the nobles and priests always went together with their voices so could the Third Estate never win and never decide.

...

...

Download as:   txt (16.6 Kb)   pdf (187.3 Kb)   docx (14 Kb)  
Continue for 12 more pages »
Only available on OtherPapers.com