The French Revolution

To assess the extent to which King Louis XVI's actions were responsible for the French Revolution, they be found through documentations and articles from the time of the French Revolution. These documentations provide information on what France was like during the 17th and 18th century. The French Revolution was a movement in France between 1787 and 1799. The overthrow of the Monarchy happened on the 10th of August 1792, which is one of the key dates of the French Revolution. The main factors which contributed to the overthrow, included, the unfair and unequal treatment of women and people who were peasants or of the third estate class [commoners]. The other factors included, the major debt that France was left in due to France's costly involvement in the American Revolution and King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette's extravagant spending, and the taxation system, which the government enforced.

These demanding rights by women, the rural and urban poor, and the peasants helped bring on the French revolution, and later on the overthrow of the monarchy. Women were the first to challenge the government for their rights, in January 1789, the beginning of the French revolution. On January 1, 1789, King Louis XVI was given the Petition of Women of the third estate to the King. The rights, which the women demanded, included permission to send female deputies to the Estates-General, the right to an adequate education, and the right to earn a respectable living. These are the first factors which can be assessed through the extent to which King Louis XVI actions were responsible for the French Revolution.

To gain an understanding of what factors contributed to the overthrow of the French Monarchy and the actions of King Louis XVI, you need to appreciate what France was like in the years before the revolution. Since the Middle Ages, France was divided into three class systems. The nobility made up the first, the clergy the second and the peasantry the third. The noble class only made up three percent of the French population. Around 1789-95 women and other French citizens, such as peasants and people of a lower class, received virtually no civil or economic rights. Darline Gay Levy, Harriet Branson Applewhite and Mary Durham Johnson explain in their introduction to, Women in Revolutionary Paris, 1789-1795: "By and large women were legally and totally subservient to their husbands or fathers in all areas of marriage contracts, inheritance laws, property and tax laws, and child custody arrangements. Marriages were indissoluble".

Women, who worked for a living, were not supported by the government and lacked economic rights and protections.

Peasants, at this time in France lived under the worst conditions. France was still largely dependant on the feudal system in which powerful feudal lords owned farmlands, which the peasants worked on. The lucky peasants managed to earn enough money from their crops to purchase their own small amount of land, however the majority amount lived in poverty, completely under the influence of the feudal lords. Peasants not only had owe rent and crops to their feudal lords, they also had to pay taxes to the government, which would've been hard since they were earning next to nothing for their income.

The French public's perception of King Louis XVI was very important. The King's absolute political authority was accompanied by the public perception about his role. However much of the French public, believed that the King held great incompetence to rule France. As the 18th century drew to a close, France's costly involvement in the American Revolution and King Louis XVI's costly and extravagant spending left France on the brink of bankruptcy. When Louis XVI exceeded the throne, the French government was already deeply in debt, which put pressure on Louis XVI, as he already felt unqualified for the job, so he left the radical financial reforms in the hands of his ministers, Turgot and Malesherbes, which angered the noble class and the rest of the French public, as they insisted that the King did not have legal right to levy new taxes. So after this conflict, both ministers resigned from their positions, and were replaced by Jacques Necker who supported the American Revolution and came up with a policy of taking out large international loans instead of raising taxes. With the King hiring