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French Revolution Dbq Essay

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France was an absolute monarchy, ruled, by a king, and the people had no say in anything. People were separated into three different estates. The first estate was full of clergy, and the second estate was full of nobles and people in high positions in the government. These two estates were 2% of the whole population. The third estate consists of everyone else. In the third estate were the bourgeoisie, the urban lower class, and the peasants. These people made up 98% of the population. The people were poor and starving, and the country was in debt. Until people fought against the monarchy. The French Revolution began on May 5, 1789, when people finally had enough of being tired of having no food, high taxes, and just being miserable, so they …show more content…

They think that Robespierre didn’t want anyone to support the monarchy, and if they did, he killed them. It is estimated that Robespierre killed more than 17,000 people during the revolution. In his Political Philosophy of Terror, he says, “the first rule of your political conduct ought to be to relate all your efforts to maintain equality and developing virtue” (Doc #7). To him, everyone must be equal and have high standards/morals. If someone didn’t live up to his standards, he would kill them. He said, “We must smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish them… Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue” (Doc #7). This is a good example of ignorance because Robespierre talks about equality, yet people not supporting the Republic are killed. Killing them does not show equality. Even though this does show the French Revolution not being Enlightened, Francois- Marie Arouet also talks about equality. Francois- Marie Arouet, who writes under the name Voltaire, believes that people should love each other no matter their religion. In A Treatise on Toleration, he says, “I say that we should regard all men as brothers… are we not all children of the same father and creatures of the same God” (Doc #2). No matter their religion or what they believe in they should be treated the same as everyone else. He also believes that even if you never get the same hospitality back that you should still be kind. He said, “But these people despise us; they treat us as idolaters! Very well! I will tell them that they are grievously wrong” (Doc #2). This helped people understand that it was okay to not have the same religion as everyone. It also helped more equality among

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