French Revolution Dbq

Imagine, everyone depending on you for money, but you don't get enough money to take care of yourself. Now, if there was a way to get out of this, and have the people not depend on you for things you could not provide, would you take it? The Third Estate did. This is how the French Revolution started. The First and Second Estates had all the money and did not pay any taxes.

Although there were probably many factors that contributed to the start of the French Revolution, the three most important causes were taxes, the American revolution, and the spreading of the philosophes’ ideas. A very prominent cause of the French Revolution was the unfair amount of taxes for the Third Estate. According to Arthur Young, who traveled across France while it was still under the Old Regime, wrote about this in his book, Travels in France. An excerpt from his journal reads “Lands held by the nobility are taxed very little.

The French Revolution started in 1789 and lasted to 1814. The French Revolution had political , economic and social causes of the Revolution. The French Revolution people in France and outside of France. During the french Revolution there was political, economic and social advances that help their society thrive. “ The King ,Louis XVI,was absolute.

The Constitution of 1791 reflected the goals of the Enlightenment: ensured equality for male citizens, ended Church power in government rule, protected private property, supported free trade, abolished guilds, and forbade labor unions. The constitution put the power of government into the hands of "the people," which was a major effect of the revolution. As power was progressively being stripped away of royalty, Louis XVI decided to flee from Paris after many urgencies from his wife. The king and his family were disguised as common people: a servant, a governess, and royal children.

During the French revolution terror spread throughout the land. Before the revolution the country was falling into chaos. The king and his wife spent so much money on themselves, and on supporting the american revolution that they put the country in an economic crisis. Until the people rose up to make a change and started the revolution. Using terror as an instrument of the french revolution was common practice and it had many advantages and disadvantages, such as the many arrests made more jobs and more money for citizens, it kept the revolution on track, the many deaths of nobles, and the overall deaths of citizens.

The Great Fear would be another key part of the revolution, the paranoia created would only cause the downfall of the feudal system even faster. One of the prisoners freed during the storming was Voltaire, a French philosopher that advocated the idea of freedom. Voltaire’s ideas would be one of many strong beliefs and reasoning behind the French Revolution, his words would empower the people. Some people may say that eventually, it went too far when the mob beheaded the governor of the Bastille De Launay. De Launay and his Bastille represented a symbol of oppression and tyranny, the beheading of De Launay depicted the downfall of this tyranny and created the paranoia that would stop it all.

Europe and France during the 17th to 18th century faced a multitude of challenges and improvements. As a new era allowed economic development to grow, colonies in Europe started expanding their political control to new continents. In the meantime, the French Revolution spurred many rebellions as citizens strive to adopt not only new sets of government policies, but also to establish new democratic systems. Another crucial challenge to the nations during this time was the fight for nature of citizenship. During the Enlightenment and French Revolution, the marginalization of women, slaves, and Jews from the society can be attributed to debates about gender roles, natural human rights and religious conflicts.

Up until the French Revolution, eighteenth-century France was based on the inequality caused by the division of society into three principal estates: the clergy, nobility, and commoners. The first estate was primarily composed of religious members of the Catholic Church, otherwise known as the clergy, and only made up about 0.5% of the total French population. The second estate included members of the royal family and comprised about 1.5% of the population. Despite their sizes, together the first and second estates held the majority of the power in the nation and left the third estate, the commoners, without any say in government matters. The first and second estates were exempt from taxes while the third estate was heavily fined and oftentimes

The Reign of Terror was a period during the French Revolution where France’s people went through brutal oppression. The historical interpretation concerning the cause of the Reign of Terror has been heavily debated by historians. The writers of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Jack R. Censer and Lynn Hunt, state that the two largest debated causes were foreign war and internal counterrevolution versus the impact of the French Revolution’s ideology. The Law of Suspects, The Law of 22 Prairial, and The Debate on the Law of 22 Prairial documents better support the idea that the impact of revolutionary ideology, which includes democracy, liberty, authority, and Enlightenment ideals, caused the Reign of Terror.

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

The French Revolution began in 1789 and was a disruption for a modern society and economy. Two of the many causes of the revolution were disagreements between the nobles, the monarchy, and the middle class, or bourgeoisie, and Louis XVI’s unsuccessful rule. During this period, like in other periods in Europe, people from different classes had different opinions as to how rights should be distributed. The poor suffered greatly as they always had without important necessities, such as food and shelter. Assistance was to be given to the poor.

The main difference between the American and French Revoultion was that one successfully converted to a democratic government and one did not. The French Revolution was not successful in forming a democratic government due to France’s history of a monarchy, economic issues and divison among its’ people. Unlike America, France had a long history of sole rulers and dictatorship which made the change to a democratic government much more difficult and ultimately impossible. America’s motto of “all men are created equal” (Doc A) was the complete opposite of France’s dividing estate class system. The third estate consisted of peasents, common people and the bourgeoisie, the second estate belonged to the Nobles, and the first was the home to the Clergy.

Opello and Rosow identified the beginning of the French Revolution when Louis XVI convoked the estates General (1995, p.330). The clergy and the nobility were exempted of the taxes imposed by the king during a long time. However, in 1789, during the convocation of the Estates, the king wanted to install taxes and that these part of the society paid taxes. The refusal of the population added to the practices of these new taxes created many conflicts. This struggle led to the proclamation of the Third estate as “Assemblée Nationale” (National Assembly) and the octroiement to vote the tax in the 17th of June 1789.

This enormous massacre of people went against Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, all of which the national assembly declared were every man 's right. Much of the killing can be blamed on Robespierre and King Louis XVI. Although it was mostly a failure, some achievements can be seen through the Revolution. The French Revolution helped the French people become a more equal and socialist state. This showed Europe that the French were capable of revolting and they were not afraid to stand up for what they believed.

First, the French Revolution had a great effect upon contemporaries in Europe. The goal of the triumphant rebels was to build government from the ground up, substituting reason and equal rights for tradition and privilege. The poet Wordsworth visited France