What caused the French revolution - Research Paper Example

Causes of French revolution Introduction From a historical overview, French revolution is seen as the result of political, economic and social turmoil in the country. Prior to the revolution, for quite some years, France was already facing economic difficulties, where the middle-class citizens (referred to as bourgeoisie) were worst affected, owing to the high taxes imposed on them. On the other hand, “the nobility were exempt from taxation; the clergy were entitled to the privilege of taxing themselves, in the form of free gifts… [and all these were for the] benefit of the privileged classes, and to the detriment of the people” (Mignet 4). Such prevailing conditions, which did not change for many generations, created a deep-rooted resentment in the minds of the common people. On 14th July 1789, few people from the working classes and a handful of soldiers took control of the famous prison of Bastille in Paris, which soon changed the entire history of France. A number of underlying factors triggered the seizing of Bastille, of which the chief ones were, persistently increasing taxes (the economic factor), the Old Regime (the social factor), and to a certain extent philosophical inspiration from Enlightenment theories and the American Revolution. However, the more apparent and immediate reasons that triggered the revolution were increasing prices of food items (bread), removal of third estate from the meeting hall and Louis XVI’s ordering of Swiss guards into Paris. Here the most important factors were the economic and social causes related to the Old Regime. France at that time was socially categorized into three different estates. The first estate comprised of high-ranking religious leaders or clergymen, who had the privilege of paying no taxes to the monarchic government. The second estate comprised of nobility that were primarily landowners and paid no direct taxes. The third estate, which comprised of the rest of the population (the urban middle class, the urban lower class, and the farmers), paid all the taxes. Thus, the ones that had the least, paid the maximum taxes (royal taxes, feudal taxes, and even work related taxes) and through this process lost almost half of what they earned as wages (Frey and Frey 2). During this time, France suffered a series of defeats against Britain in various battles, which placed a huge burden of debt on France. It caused a fall in public morale and increasing social unrest owing to the increasing economic pressure on the common people (pressure to increase the revenue to service the debt). The third estate that was already paying high taxes was further burdened with more, and with the second estate refusing to pay any form of taxes, the situation turned worse. With expenditure being more than the revenue, King Louis XVI decided to hold all reforms and did nothing to improve the worsening situation (Frey and Frey 3). Another factor that triggered the French revolution was the American Revolution, which showed how absolute monarchy could be overthrown and democracy established. The third important factor was the various philosophical teachings and writings of this era (the era of Enlightenment), such as, writings of John Locke, a philosopher whose works advocated freedom from persecution. An increasing number of French citizens became influenced by notions of natural rights (humanitarianism, fraternity, liberty, and equality) and the rather ambiguous notions of State based Contract theory, as conceptualized by Turgot, Diderot, Voltaire, other social scientists and philosophers of the Enlightenment era (Peyre, 63-65). The American Revolution showed that it was actually possible to use Enlightenment theories to make a government function effectively (Mackey, 57). Some of the American revolutionary leaders, such as, Benjamin Franklin had spent a great deal of time in Paris and mixed liberally with the intellectual society in France. Besides this, long-term contact between French army and American revolutionaries during their anti-British moves in America also helped to pass revolutionary theories to French citizens, and soon the latter started demanding freedom from absolute monarchy and church supremacy (Peyre, 65). These were the long-term reasons for French revolution, where resentment within common people was slowly building up over many decades. Immediate cause for the French Revolution was, however, increasing bread prices, owing to poor grain yield the previous year. Bread being the only affordable staple diet for the third estate, they were left with no options but to starve, since even those with money, were considered very lucky if they could get “2 oz. black bread a day” (Johnston 39). In this context, Frey and Frey commented, “the increase in population, the European-wide recession, the growing unemployment, and the imbalance between the food supply and the population coalesced in 1788-89 when a drought in the spring, a hailstorm in the summer, and a bitterly cold winter devastated the crops and drove up the price of the grains, the basic subsistence item, and accused rioting and then revolution” (3). Another spark that ignited the revolution was the bringing of Swiss guards into the capital city by Louis XVI, who had lost faith on his own French army. Therefore, here it is apparent that French Revolution was caused by various factors, some of which were underlying long-term causes that influenced people for many decades, and some were immediate causes that simply heightened the feeling of resentment built over the years which finally culminated in the French revolution. This paper will focus on the different factors that caused French Revolution, which led to the removal of absolute monarchy and establishment of democracy. Discussion Economic reasons During the time of Revolution, around 1787, France was one of the most stable (as regards economic conditions) countries in Europe, despite facing difficulties. This was primarily owing to the rapidly increasing French population that had already crossed 28 million (second only to Imperial Russia), a remarkably high percentage, when compared to the then Europe's population of around 141 million (Bairoch 941). France was also one of the most urbanized nations of Europe, with Paris population being second only to London (Bairoch 941-942). Even in terms of industrial and agricultural output, France was one of the leading nations in Europe, and the vast nature of French economy turned it into one of most powerful states within continental Europe (Bairoch pp. 959–963). However, debt was a major factor, which led to the creation of fiscal crisis, finally leading to downfall of the monarchic French government. Just prior to the revolution, France had gone bankrupt, owing to the extravagant lifestyle of Louis XV, and later his grandson, Louis XVI. Debt was further compounded when heavy expenditures were incurred to conduct the disastrous Seven Years' War against the English (1756–1763), and again during the American war of Independence, where France backed the Americans. Louis XV being discontented with Britain's win in the Seven Years' War, decided to build up a stronger French army and forging a strong anti-British ally network, in order take revenge on the English; however, it only resulted in further compounding the debts. He also spent liberally on making Versailles a city worthy as the French capital, further raising the debt. At this time instead of decreasing the expenditure and bringing in reforms, Louis XV decided to support fiscal justice policy as suggested by Machault d'Arnouville. As per this policy, in order to meet the revenue deficit, Machault d'Arnouville levied a 5 % tax on all revenues, which included the first, second estates and third estates; however, even after this measure was in place, expenditure remained more than the revenue earned. Louis XV completely failed in all his endeavors to overcome the increasing fiscal issues and the rising anti-monarchic forces that were threatening his very rule (Jones 124). At the time of Louis XV's death in 1774, French monarchy had reached its lowest depths, financially and politically. With the accession of Louis XVI, his ministers, Malesherbes and Turgot brought in some radical economic reforms that were not favored by the nobility, hence were blocked by the French Parliament, which declared that the king lacked any legal rights to bring in new taxes. Thereafter in 1776, Malesherbes resigned from his office, Turgot was dismissed, and Jacques Necker came in their place. Necker, who believed in the theories of Enlightenment and the American Revolution, proceeded with an economic policy where he worked on taking foreign loans instead of increasing internal taxes (Neely 29-44). However, even Necker's tax policy failed miserably, and in 1783, Charles Alexandre de Calonne replaced him. Calonne intensified public spending in order to ‘buy’ out a way. However, this policy also failed, and after many discussions with the nobility, which yielded no results, Louis soon realized he had lost his power to rule as an absolute monarch (Hardman 126). High taxes imposed on the common people were another important factor for causing the French revolution. Being an important trading nation, France had to derive its revenues primarily from internal taxes, instead of customs revenues, which led to the formation of an arbitrary tax-barrier within the country, and these barriers prevented from forming a unified market within France. The task of tax collections, as for example, the salt tax, were allocated to private individuals, who worked for their own interests and collected higher taxes than required (albeit, in a legal manner), submitted the necessary amount to the State, and kept the remainder (Neely, 9). The farmers had to pay nearly one-tenth of their produce or wages earned to the church, 5% property tax, a tax on family head count and land taxes that all went towards maintenance of the state. Furthermore, royal duties had to be served through kind, by giving labor or sometimes even through cash. Besides these, the farmers had to pay rents to their landlords (belonging to the nobility class). Even during times of prosperity the taxes imposed were heavy, while during economic crisis they had a devastating effect. The system did not levy any taxes on priests and the nobles (except for some minor ones), therefore, completely placing the tax burden on the farmers and daily wage-earners (the third estate), which caused deep resentment in the minds of these people. These problems were further compounded by widespread food scarcity during the 1780s. Crop failures led to a severe shortage of grains, which caused a sharp increase in bread prices, and bread being the staple diet for poor farmers, it resulted in widespread starvation. At this time the feeling of deep resentment already existing amongst the peasants were further played upon by a certain section of the intellectual classes, which used conspiracy theories, to portray that the lack of food was a deliberately planned by the ruling nobility class (Kaplan 25). At the same time, due to unfavorable weather conditions throughout Europe, the grain crops failed, and despite potatoes being farmed (relatively new to the world of farming in France during that era) grains were more popular, and without a normal harvest, the entire system came to a halt. In 1789, price of a loaf of bread increased by almost 67 % and accounted for almost 88% of a farmer’s income (Neely 73). Many farmers were forced to live on charity and they turned increasingly rebellious. Soon bread riots became a common feature, which were the first visible signs of the forthcoming revolution. Large-scale urbanization along with the start of Industrial Revolution, had increasing number of people moving into the urban centers from villages looking for employment, and soon the cities became full of destitute, hungry and agitating people, which turned the whole of France into an ideal ground for fomenting a widespread revolution. Religious reasons While analyzing the main causes of French revolution, one significant cause appears to have played a distinct role, which is religion, where Christianity helped in creating social unrest. Although religion, by itself, had no direct bearing on the conditions of the common people, the practices of clergymen and ruling classes under the name of religion, led to a feeling of deep resentment against religion, as a whole (Neely 26-27). The rulers of that era practiced religious intolerance, which often led to widespread persecution of ethnic and religious minorities. Along with this, the Catholic priests distorted doctrines of Christianity to suit their own interests and which would help them to dominate the common people that created a kind of straightjacketing effect for the government. Despite Louis XV trying to reign in the priests, it failed to yield any effect, and soon there was a widespread feeling of injustice amongst the common people, and the liberalists and antimonarchists soon started asking for suppressing the power of religion along with the dissolution of monarchy, since both were closely linked (Neely 27). Consequently, the intellectual referred to the French Revolution also as an anti-religious movement, referring to the movement as against the so-called men of God who ruled and oppressed the common people (Neely, 27). Influence of the Enlightenment theories Social theorists and philosophers claimed that French revolution was a result of the Enlightenment theories that inspired them to fight for their natural rights and end absolute monarchy; however, some scholars have disputed this viewpoint. There is also disagreement over the extent to which the Enlightenment theories were simply adopted to act as cover for hiding the self-interest aspect of the bourgeois intellectuals. Most historians conform to the idea that French Revolution was simply a process that experimented with democracy over absolute monarchy. This is evident in Karl Marx’s writings (written just after the revolution), where he stated that during the French Revolution “the bourgeoisie was the class that really headed the movement. The proletariat and the non-bourgeois strata of the middle class had either not yet evolved interests which were different from those of the bourgeoisie or they did not yet constitute independent classes or class divisions. Therefore, where they opposed the bourgeoisie, as they did in France in 1793 and 1794, they fought only for the attainment of the aims of the bourgeoisie, albeit in a non-bourgeois manner. The entire French terrorism was just a plebeian way of dealing with the enemies of the bourgeoisie, absolutism, feudalism and philistinism” (Marx, Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 169). Conclusion From the above discourse, it can be suggested that French Revolution had many causal factors. Some of the factors were underlying ones that were long-term in nature, and had influenced the common people for many decades. One such major factor was the long-standing economic issue that plagued France for many generations, and for which the kings failed to find any right solution, however hard they tried. The system of levying taxes on the third estate, while exempting the first and second estates from paying any taxes, also helped to build up a feeling of strong resentment in the minds of the common people. Despite the monarchic government trying to chalk out various solutions, they were met with stiff resistance from the nobility and the clergymen, resulting in a failure to implement any economic reforms. There were also other causes that were immediate in nature, such as, failure in grain harvest leading to bread scarcity, which caused starvation amongst peasants and heightened the feeling of resentment, and all these factors worked together to finally culminate in the French revolution. References Bairoch, P. “L'economie francaise dans le contexte europeen a la fin du XVIIIe siecle.”  Revue economique 40 (6), 939-964, 1989, Web. 5th October 2012, http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/reco_0035-2764_1989_num_40_6_409179 Frey, L., and Frey, M. “The French revolution.” Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. Print. Hardman, J. “Louis XVI.” London: Yale University Press, 1993. Print. Johnston, R. “The French revolution.” Middlesex: Echo Library, 2009. Print. Jones, C. “The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon (1715-99)”. NY: Columbia University Press, 2002. Print. Kaplan, S. “The Famine Plot Persuasion in Eighteenth-Century France.” Pennsylvania: Diane Publishing Co, 1982. Print. Mackey, R. "American Revolutionary influences on the French Revolution." Conspectus of History 1 (3), 1976, 57-73. Print. Marx, K. “The Bourgeoisie and the Counter-Revolution.” Marx in Neue Rheinische Zeitung December 1848. 1994. Web. 5th October 2012. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/12/15.htm Mignet, M. “History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814.” London: David Bogue, 1846. Print. Neely, S. “A Concise History of the French Revolution.” Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Print. Peyre, H. "The Influence of Eighteenth Century Ideas on the French Revolution." Journal of the History of Ideas  10 (1), January 1949, 63-87. Print. Read More