French Revolution - A Brief Explanation

French Revolution - A Brief Explanation



I. Introduction
France revolution was a period social and political upheaval in France from 1789 to 1799 which is greatly affected the modern histories and society. It also marks as monarchy declining and movement to democracy. France’s government was under the ruling of Louis Auguste de France also known as Louis’ XVI. Under his weak leadership, the French government fell into bankruptcy. The crop failures have food shortage making people in the country starving but the price of the bread which is main supply and do not have enough supplies to handle demand and rumors spread in country that the king and queen were responsible for this problem. As the rumor spread nation-wide, citizens started to revolt against their government, especially those who are in the third estates who were heavily oppressed by the King’s system of the government. This essay will examine the causes of the French Revolution and its actions toward real democracy in France.

I. The Causes of French Revolution
There are many factors that led to the rise of the French Revolution but there were four main factors that are the three estates and unfair taxation, the age of enlightenment, King Louis XVI leadership and the financial problem.


Three Estates and Unfair taxation:
Before the revolution, the French society was divided into three different estates. The first estates consisted mostly of clergy and were only made up about 0.3% of the French total population at the time, they owned about 10% of the land and they did not have to pay any taxes even if they are in the group with the wealthiest people in France (n.a, 2014). Next, the second estates were mostly aristocrats; they made up of 1.5% of the total population and owned 20% of the land (n.a, 2014). They did not have to pay the taxes too and they often had peasants to work on their property land and made them pay to use their land or mills. Lastly, the third estates consisted of 98.2% of France’s population and were mostly made up of the middle class and peasants namely doctors, lawyers, bankers, soldiers, merchants and priests. The majority of which are peasants and they owned very little land which were often abused by the first and the second estates. They have to pay many types of taxes particularly, Tithe is the taxation of their salary which they have to pay 1/10 of their salary, Corvée was a tax on using the land that they have to pay every few days, Taille that is the tax on income tax, Aide was a tax on bottle of wine, Gabelle was a tax on salt, and Feudal dues which are the taxes for the local landlord (n.a, 2014). The poorer they are the more they have to pay their taxes on different reasons and those taxes were sent to the aristocrats and fund in war.


The Age of Enlightenment:
At the beginning of 1700s, the enlightenment period started when a time where there was a huge change in the way of thinking in the people. People started to questioning and investigating the logic behind theory and challenged the nobles as the people started to believe in a secular society and many areas were affected namely politics, arts, literature, science and, especially, religion (n.a, 2014). People are readily to accept the change and they started to create their secular customs, laws and adapt to the reality. Hence, the people started to have a new view on the political system as they demand their government to change form absolute monarchy to democracy when all most citizens wanted to have equal share of power (n.a, 2014).


King Louis XVI leadership:
France was under the leadership of King Louis XVI, holding the absolute power in the system of absolute government he was thought to be chosen by god and no one could doubt his skills (n.a, 2014). Conversely, King Louis XVI was a weak and indecisive king also he did not care about his citizens that he would spent most of his wealth to maintain his extravagant lifestyle, he built a magnificent palace of Versailles just for his indulgence. His wife, Queen Antoinette, was also irresponsible and spent most resources for buying clothes and indulged her life. Due to his weak leadership, the second estates took the advantage by gaining more land and power over the peasants and demand more taxes from them.


Financial crisis:
As King Louis XVI’s leadership weakened, the French government falls into bankruptcy and facing serious financial crises in 1978. The inefficient and unfair tax system placed serious burden to those who cannot pay which is the third estates. Moreover, the French invest a lot of resources to aiding the Americans fighting for their independent from the British during the American Revolution, the long lasting war with England the overspending of the royal family (Brainard J., n.d).






II. The French Revolution

From the bad leadership of King Louis XVI, financial crisis in France, the enlightenment ideas, and the three estates and unfair taxation have make the people especially those of the third estates wanted to change their ways of leadership hoping the get a better life and equal share in the government which supposedly known as democracy.


Tennis Court Oath
After the Third Estate has gained no place and no seat in the meeting of Estate General, they start to establish their own national assembly as their legislative body. In this new national assembly the representative from the unprivileged class, each receives one vote. However, this national assembly was earlier only joined by the Third Estate; later on the other Estate which included the First and Second Estate also joined the Assembly. Nevertheless, finding that King Louis XVI has locked them out of their usual meeting hall and bad weather that causes a big rain; they started to find themselves a new place for a meeting which led to the event of Tennis Court Oath. The National Assembly had moved to the tennis court of Old Versailles street. Moreover, Monier, one of the delegates has proposed that the entire member must make the vow that they will not disperse and attend the every meeting in the tennis court until they could establish a new constitution of the kingdom. On June 20, 1789 the proposal was a success and the later named Tennis Court Oath was promptly written and immediately signed by 577 (Koeller D. W., 2001). By hearing the declaration the king ordered them to disband, but they refuse and declared that “We are here at the will of the people . . . and . . . shall not stir from our seats unless forced to do so by bayonets." (n.a, n.d).


National Assembly
After the declaration of forming the national assembly, it has established a new constitution for the kingdom created a historical and influenced document which is the declaration of rights of men. In this declaration they had given each and everyone in the country many freedom in a total of 17 articles such as the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and “Libertè, egalitè, fraternitè” which mean the liberty, equality and brotherhood which used until today (n.a, n.d). Furthermore, the national assembly resolves most of the major crisis which occur in the French society; priest was employed by the national assembly and they seize the church land and putting it under the control of the constitutional of the clergy (Kreise S., 2014). By putting the church under control, the national assembly has required clergymen to vow for the new constitution. Unfortunately many were refused and arrested. In addition, rumor has spread all over the country that the king would use force to destroy the revolution and it had led to other chaos which is the storm of bastilles (n.a, n.d).


The Storm of the Bastilles
To start with, the Paris condition was so poor for the common people. The price of bread went high and the supplies were short due to the lack of good farming. So on July 14th, 1789 a mop, which consists most of the craftsmen and the salesman decided to fight back and attack the Invalids to steal the weapons but there were powder weapons founded there, so they determined to attack the Bastilles, which was a largest prison where the prisoners and the powder weapons existed (n.a, 2014). When the guards stood against the mob, first, they tried to defense, but later the guards were ordered to open the fire and kill hundreds of people. Meanwhile, the guards also were getting weak and they need for the rescue teams to come but the rescue teams decided not to fight against the mob and the guards surrendered. That night, the mob (800 people) destroyed the bastilles and freed the 7 prisoners (n.a, 2014).


The Great Fear
The great fear was created by the widespread rumors from a rural area, which stated that the nobles had ordered to march through the villages and destroy the peasant’s new plants. In response, the peasants went crazy and started to attack the nobles’ castles and burn, robe, steal and kill the nobles and noble’s properties (n.a, 2014). As mentioned above, the nobles’ population was only 2% while the population of peasants was more than 97% out of the population (n.a, 2014). So as rewarded, the nobles were killed cruelly, some was cut the head and hang it in the town. So in fear the nobles and clergy surrendered and gave up their Feudal dues, Serfdom, the Tithe, Hunting and fishing and Personal privilege (n.a, 2014). In one night f 4th of August, the feudalism was completely destroyed.


Napoleon Bonaparte
As feudalism ended in France collapsed, the King was also not in safety as the other two estates also helped the third estate to make revolution. As a result, the king and his royal family were all executed by the people in France in 1973 which marked as the reign of terror. The system of absolute monarchy in France has ended and now France is in two major problems namely the new form of government to choose and the economic crisis resulted from the revolution. However, Napoleon Bonaparte came to the restructure the French’s government and the period marked as the Modern Republic of France. Financially, the government was still bankrupt; but, economically, the directory government was benefiting from the country‘s conquests abroad. Under the greatness of Napoleon, the loots of grain have been poured to France from the conquered territories (Smitha F. E., 2009). For political term, it was not like economic. After the election was held in 1797, the Conservatives won a substantial number of seats in the parliament (Smitha F. E., 2009). As there were some arguments among the deputies in the parliament whether to return to the constitutional monarchy of remains the republic. Napoleon was in Egypt and decided to leave his armies without the permission from the Directory. Later, Napoleon and his two Directors got the victories over the conservatives to save the republic. After, the Directory of government system was replaced by the three-man provisional government (Smitha F. E., 2009). This means that at Roman Empire, there were two consuls; but, this time France had three consuls to rule the nation.


III. Conclusion
Whenever the suppression, impoverishment and economic crisis happen, it will be mass movement seeking for the changes. France was just no exceptional. In the pre-revolution, people were often suppressed by the aristocracy and live in the hard condition from the natural disadvantages. They could not produce the farming products and subsequently faced the starvation throughout the society. Furthermore, people lost the confident in the monarchy institution that had initiated the hardships to the country by aiding to American Revolution and long last war of Anglo-France war. This had forced France into financial crisis. In mentality, we cannot overlook the Age of Enlightenment that brought the new value and idea to the people. This revolution had the significant influence to the rest of the world. Years after, many countries followed France in declaration of constitutional monarchy or even republic.






References:


Brainard J. (n.d.). The French Revolution. . Retrieved July 17, 2014, from http://historywiz.com/frenchrev.htm

N. A. (2014). French Revolution: Causes of French Revolution. Retrieved July 17, 2014, from http://www.historytuition.com/world_history/french-revolution/the-estates-general.html

Koeller, D. W. (2011). The Tennis Court Oath. . Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://www.thenagain.info/WEBCHRON/westeurope/TennisCourt.html

N.A. (n.d). The Tennis Court Oath: HistoryWiz. Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://www.historywiz.com/tenniscourt.htm

Kreis, S. (2014, April 19). Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. . Retrieved July 22, 2014, from http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/declaration.html

Smitha, F. E. (2009). The French Revolution. . Retrieved July 19, 2014, from http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h33-fr.html