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The French Revolution: King Louis XIV And Marie Antoinette

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The French Revolution began under the reign of King Louis XIV and his wife Marie Antoinette. France during this time was separated into three different social classes. They were named the First, Second and Third Estates. The First Estate consisted of the clergy and was less than one percent of France’s population. The Second Estate was the nobles and other nobility of France. This social class was around two percent of France’s population The Third Estate was composed of the majority of the French people such as the middle class, commoners, and peasants. Both the First and Second estates paid little to no taxes and supported the king and his monarchy. The Third Estate wanted to change the government but, due to the voting system instituted …show more content…

Members of the Third Estate met at a tennis court where they promised themselves not to disband until a new constitution had been written under the ideals of the people. This event was known as the Tennis Court Oath.

Shortly after the tennis court oath, King Louis XIV ordered people of the first and second estates to join the National Assembly. Within the Estates there were deep divisions based on what people wanted from the government and if they wanted to disband the monarchy or not. Peasants stormed the jail complex Bastille because they were afraid King Louis was preparing to dissolve the assembly. The peasants had freed local political prisoners and killed many of the King’s guards. This attack on the Bastille was seen by the French civilians as an attack on the King’s oppression and tyranny.

The National assembly created the new constitution after peasants had started arming themselves and causing small uprisings within France. This led to the new constitution being reinforced in The Declaration of the Rights of Man. The Declaration stated these main …show more content…

Many counterrevolutionaries thought that the execution was excessive and not necessary this caused many uprisings. Robespierre believed that any enemies of France shall feel his ruthless wrath and witness the strength of France. This caused the creation of the Committee of Public Safety which waged a brutal campaign to extinguish those who were considered enemies of France. Robespierre was elected as the chairman of this Committee and used his power to arrest anyone that was suspected of being disloyal to France. A Law of Suspects declared that anyone who was suspected of being counterrevolutionaries could be arrested for their actions, writing, remarks, words, and their relationships most people were arrest based off little evidence and were executed. The guillotine was the main tool of public execution during Robespierre’s reign of

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Economically, heavy taxes fell on the three estates. Firstly, France endured social imbalance during the French Revolution. Many people during this time were very poor and there was an increased bread price on the people of the third estate (Doc 1). Representing the fact that the third estate were treated unfairly then

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Later in time, Maximilian Robspere came to power and started the reign of terror. Under his leadership and his Committee of Public Safety, tens of thousands deemed enemies of the revolution lost their lives on the guillotine. Shortly after, Robespierre himself was arrested and guillotined, accused of leading France into tyranny and dictatorship. The French Revolution was inspired by the right to change a non beneficial leader and resist

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Robespierre led the French Revolution known as “The Reign of Terror”. The new government would execute large numbers of individuals whom they believed to be enemies of the revolution. So, the Reign of Terror was unjustified, for it not only violated the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen in multiple cases, specifically articles two and ten, but also caused the death of thousands. Although the Committee of Public Safety had good intentions, it ended up doing more harm than good as they invaded people’s lives and disregarded their rights as human beings.

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The high taxes, high prices on goods, and unequal distribution of wealth in France were reasons why the French Revolution started. There were three estates in France; the first estate was the clergy, the second estate were the nobles, and the third estate was made up of of three groups; average French workers, Bourgeoisie, and peasants. The French Revolution led to many wars; Louis XVI was a very weak leader, and he was executed. Napoleon Bonaparte became emperor, and the revolution came to an end. The main causes of the French Revolution were the difficult life of the peasants; the issues between the three estates; and the unfairness of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

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They were forced to pay a considerable amount of taxes to the lords. Due to this large sum of money, those part of the third estate struggled to provide themselves. In most cases, buying food was nearly impossible (Doc 1). On top of that, the third estate was forced to live on little land. Unlike with the first and second estates, the population of the third estate was not proportionate to the amount of living space (Doc 2).

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“[In March 1793] the revolutionary Tribunal (a court of justice) was established to try all crimes against the state. Tribunal members would not be elected by the people, but appointed by the National Convention (the revolutionary government) and their power would be absolute” (Doc E). The people of France could not choose who would be monitoring their opinions and behavior toward the government which deeply upset them. “A careless word of criticism spoken against the government could put one in prison or worse” (Doc E). Citizens of France had no freedom of speech and could never openly express their opinions on the government which led to revolting and angry mobs.

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It stated Prussia and Austria would intervene to protect the French royal family. The king of Prussia used this document as a bluff to frighten the revolutionaries; however, they took the warning seriously and prepared for war. As a result, the French Revolution entered a new, more radical stage. French patriotism and tension heightened as the well-trained Prussian army caused deaths of countless French soldiers. Bloodthirsty radicals and ordinary Parisians headed the new assembly, the National Convention, which was more radical than any other assembly prior to itself.

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Not only was the third estate the only taxed they were severely taxed. The third estate made up ninety eight percent of the population yet they only owned sixty five percent of land, also the commoners paid one hundred percent of taxes while nobles and clergy collected them (Doc. 2). Peasants

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A quote from a letter written by a government official from the local government of the town Niort in Western France to the National Convention (Doc D) states, “It is with greatest of sorrow that we inform you that six patriots have already fallen victim to this rabble…” This quote from the letter in Doc D shows how the rabble or crowd of counterrevolutionaries were aggressive and becoming unruly. A quote from the book Triumph and Terror: The French Revolution written by Stecen Otfinoski in 1993 (Doc E) states, “ The purpose was to protect the public safety from enemies both in and outside of France… In the countryside, the slow tribunals were replaced with ruthless commissions that killed an estimated 35,000-40,000 people. Many of these people were guillotined.”

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Like it can be seen in the cartoon in document 2, the people in the Third Estate were burdened by the privileges of the First and Second Estate. For example, members of the Third Estate had to pay many taxes and fees and had no privileges or exemptions unlike people in the other estates. As a result, it difficult for the Third Estate to have any power or voice in their society because they had to pay taxes that were controlled by people from a higher estate and they had the power to “..exempt, change, add, or diminish [the taxes] at pleasure.” (Document 1). As a result of the injustices many people in the Third Estate had to deal with they decided to rebel and demand their

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Each estate only can cast one vote, which meant that the First and Second estate could always outvote the Third estate. This then caused the Third estate to get frustrated because they could never win a vote. So the Third estate thought it would be a good idea to come up with their own National Assembly. Third estate moved to an indoor tennis court where then the “Tennis Court Oath” took place which meant that they would stay there until a new constitution was to be

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If people used the old forms of address, “Madame”and “Monsieur,” instead of “citizen,” they were killed. If they did not seem enthusiastic enough about the revolution, they were executed . As if they hadn't done enough, the revolutionaries formed yet another group, the Committee of Public Safety, to rule France. The twelve men, including Robespierre, did everything in their power to prevent anyone from stopping the revolution, including the destruction of religion.

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He formed the committee of public safety and took away rights such as freedom of speech and press. Speaking out against him was cause you to be put to death in the morning by guillotine( document 10). Robespierre justified these killing by calling the people radicals and his enemies. To him he feels that the killings were making people scared to connect back to the Revolution(Document 7). When the committee was in place 2 639 Paris citizens died by guillotine and 11 361 people died outside of Paris.

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In 1789, when the revolt began, statistics about the three classes in France were taken (Document 2). The data showed that the third estate had the highest percentage of total population, total land owned, and income paid in taxes. The third estate consisted of 97% of France, yet they were not given any voice in the government. In Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Comte D’Antraigues stated that the people are the foundation of the state and power should lie in it’s citizens (Document 6). Therefore, this signified that since the last social group made up almost all of the country, they should be given more control and input in how the government should be run.

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During the Eighteenth Century, France had an absolute monarchy with Louis XVI as king and Marie Antoinette as queen. In that time period, French society was based upon a system of Estates where the clergy made up the First Estate; the nobility comprised the Second Estate, and everyone else including professionals, peasants, and the bourgeoisie made up the Third Estate. The Third Estate was immensely unhappy with the old regime, the Estates General, and Louis XVI’s leadership. France was also in the midst of a fiscal crisis due to the American Revolution, Louis XVI’s lavish lifestyle, the Seven Years War, and the tax exemption of the First and Second Estate. Following the surge of new ideas and impactful philosophers from the Enlightenment,

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