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Turmoil In France: The Genesis Of The French Revolution

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Turmoil in France: The Genesis of a Revolution One of the most important events in French history was the French Revolution. This revolution toppled the French monarchy and put a new government in its place. The Third Estate, peasants, the middle class, and commoners, were largely responsible for this revolution. These people were discontented by the political, social, and economic conditions of France and began the revolution because of it. There were many causes behind the French Revolution, however there are three causes that stand out as the most important. The most significant causes of the French Revolution were hunger, the high taxes that peasants were forced to pay, and the advantages that the First and Second Estates had over the …show more content…

During the late 1700s “90% of peasants lived at or below the subsistence level”(“Causes”). Nearly every peasant was barely getting enough to eat or not getting enough to eat. If the majority of people are not eating enough these people will want to find a way to get enough food, which in this case was by starting the French Revolution. In addition, most people were unable to purchase bread, therefore cutting out a main element of their diet(Young). Without bread the French people were eating significantly less food, making them hungry for a rebellion. From the year 1787 to 1788 the price of bread nearly doubled this made bread less affordable to the public and the public then had to go without bread or spend outrageous amounts of money on bread(Bread). This inflation of prices without any increase in pay meant the peasants of France were starving. The people would have been outraged over the ridiculous bread prices and would be demanding that they have more affordable prices. Perhaps the way that the peasants thought they could achieve this was through a revolution, particularly the French Revolution. The desperation caused by the hunger of France’s peasants makes hunger one of, if not the, most important causes of the French …show more content…

King Louis XIV’s lifestyle was one example of such luxury and privilege. The King would have three courses at every meal even when he was eating alone(de Rouvroy). For peasants living in squalor this was an outrage. They would have felt that the king’s getting to spend huge amounts of money on frivolous luxuries instead of using the money to help lift France’s people out of poverty was a crime and that they needed to change this. In addition, while the First and Second Estates only consisted of 2% of France’s population they owned 35% of the land in France(Estates). It did not make sense for such a small percentage of the population in France to be holding that large of a portion of France’s land. By having a new government the commoners of France could take back some of the land previously held unfairly by the clergy and nobility. The last example of the upper estates privilege was that they could hold higher government jobs that the Third Estate did not have access to(Declaration). Rebelling and forming a new government would have been a way that the Third Estate could gain access to all public offices and not just the lower ones. Anger over these privileges that the upper classes received makes it one of the leading causes for the French

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