what conditions existed in france that led to the revolution

Overview of causes of the French Revolution

There is significant disagreement among historians of the French Revolution as to its causes. Ordinarily, they acknowledge the presence of several interlinked factors, but vary in the weight they attribute to each one. These factors include cultural change, commonly associated with the Enlightenment; social change and financial and economic difficulties; and the political actions of the involved parties.

Beyond these relatively established facts regarding the social conditions surrounding the French Revolution, there is significant dissent among historians. Marxist historians, such as Lefebvre and Soboul, encounter the social tensions described here as the principal cause of the Revolution, as the Estates-General allowed them to manifest into tangible political action; the bourgeoisie and the lower classes were grouped into the Third Estate, assuasive them to jointly oppose the establishment. Others see the social issues as important, only less so than the Enlightenment or the financial crisis; François Furet is a prominent proponent of the former, Simon Schama of the latter.

Political background [edit]

Prior to the revolution, France was a de jure accented monarchy, a system which became known as the Ancien Régime. In practice, the power of the monarchy was typically checked by the nobility, the Roman Catholic Church, institutions such every bit the judicial parlements, national and local community and, higher up all, the threat of coup. Prior to 1789, the last astringent threat to the monarchy was the Fronde ceremonious wars from 1648 to 1653, during the minority of Louis Fourteen.^[1] Although the earlier reign of Louis XIII had already seen a motility towards centralization of the country,^[2] the machismo of Louis Xiv marked the peak of the French monarchy's power. His tactics for bringing the dignity nether control included inviting them to stay at his extravagant Palace of Versailles and participate in elaborate court rituals with a detailed code of etiquette.^{[3] [4] [5]}

Some scholars have argued that Louis Xiv contributed to the monarchy'south downfall by failing to reform the government'southward institutions while the monarchy was nevertheless secure. Others, including François Bluche, argue that Louis 14 cannot be held responsible for problems that would emerge over seventy years after his death.^[six]

His successor Louis XV was less interested in governing^[7] and his reign saw a reject in the power of the monarchy.^[viii] Historians generally describe his reign every bit a period of stagnation, strange policy setbacks and growing popular discontent against the monarchy.^{[9] [10] [xi] [12]} His affairs with a succession of mistresses also damaged its reputation.^{[11] [13]}

During the reign of Louis Xvi, the ability and prestige of the monarchy had declined to the point where the king struggled to overcome aristocratic resistance to fiscal reform, with the parlements often being focal points for this resistance. The parlements were regional courts of appeal which had the de facto power to cake the implementation of legislation in their respective provinces. They were each dominated by the regional nobility.^[14] The ability of the parlements had been curtailed past Louis Xiv, but by and large reinstated during the minority of Louis 15. In 1770, Louis Fifteen and René de Maupeou once more curtailed the power of the parlements, except for the Parlement of Paris,^[15] the one which was the well-nigh powerful. Louis Xvi reinstated them early in his reign.^[sixteen] Alfred Cobban describes the Parlement of Paris as "though no more in fact than a small-scale, selfish, proud and venal oligarchy, [it] regarded itself, and was regarded by public opinion, as the guardian of the ramble liberties of France."^[14]

Having already obstructed revenue enhancement reform proposals during the reign of Louis XV, the parlements would play a major office in obstructing Louis 16's attempts to resolve the debt crunch. Traditionally, a king could quell a recalcitrant parlement by conducting a lit de justice anniversary, in which he would appear there in person to demand that they register an edict. Nonetheless, by 1787, Louis Xvi could not become this tactic to work.^[17] The parlements enjoyed wider support from the commoners, who appreciated their function as a check on royal ability. This placed Louis Xvi at a disadvantage when he attempted to coerce and then suppress them in 1787-88.^[18]

Encyclopædia Britannica cites Prussia as an example of a European country where a strong monarchy succeeded in preventing revolution and preserving its ability through reforms from in a higher place.^[19] Conversely, the lack of a ramble monarchy meant that the French monarch was a target for whatever pop discontent against the authorities. Traditionally, this was tempered because in that location was an aversion to straight criticism and disrespect towards the king (lèse-majesté), but by the start of Louis XVI's reign, respect for the monarchy had declined. In his written report of the libelle pamphlets and books, Robert Darnton noted that libelles during the reign of Louis 14 tended to direct their criticism towards individual figures like Cardinal Mazarin and even those that criticized the king'due south actions straight nonetheless had a respectful tone. During the reign of Louis 15, libelles became willing to bluntly criticize both the rex and the entire system of the Ancien Authorities.^[20]

[edit]

The 17th-century French playwright Molière (1622–73) catalogued the social-climbing essence of the bourgeoisie in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670)

Throughout the early modern period a class of wealthy middlemen who connected producers emerged: the bourgeoisie. These bourgeoisie played a fundamental role in the French economy, bookkeeping for 39.1% of national income despite only accounting for 7.7% of the population.^[21] Under the Ancien Régime they were office of the Third Estate, as they were neither clergymen (the Beginning Estate) nor nobles (the 2d Estate). Given their powerful economic position, and their aspirations on a class-broad level, the bourgeois wanted to arise through the social hierarchy, formalised in the Estate system. This is reflected by cahiers submitted by members of the Third Estate in March to April 1789: those of Carcassonne demanded that Louis "clinch to the third estate the influence to which information technology is entitled in view of...its contribution to the public treasury".^[22] This want for higher social position resulted in high levels of bourgeois entry into the 2d Estate throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This was enabled past several factors. The poverty of many noble families meant that they married bourgeois families; the nobles gained conservative wealth, while the bourgeoisie gained noble status. Moreover, corruption was rife, with many bourgeoisie only attaching the noble particle 'de' to their name or assuming nonexistent titles. Investigations into this behaviour were stopped in 1727. Furthermore, many governmental offices and positions were sold to raise cash. The suburbia bought these positions and hence were ennobled; by 1765, half-dozen thousand families had gained dignity through this method.^{[23] [24]} Such entryism resulted in significant social tension, as the nobles were angered that these suburbia were entering their ranks (despite often having been bourgeois themselves i or two generations previously) and the bourgeoisie were angered that the nobles were trying to forestall them ascending and existence disdainful even when they did ascend. As such, there was significant social tension between the dominant classes at the time of the French Revolution.

Kickoff page of the Encyclopédie méthodique published in 1782 (Panckoucke, Paris).

Lucas asserts that the conservative and nobility were not in fact that distinct, basing his argument with the bourgeois entryism and the proffer that it makes lilliputian sense for the bourgeois to attack a system that they are trying to become office of. Lucas places the break between bourgeois and nobles at the moment of the Estates-General, rather than earlier, asserting that it was only when the conservative were relegated to the Third Estate that they took result with the nobility, seeing themselves as equated to "vulgar commoners".^[25] Along the aforementioned lines, Behrens contests the traditional view of the failure of the tax system, arguing that the nobles in reality paid more than tax than their English counterparts and that only one of the privileges enumerated by the Encyclopédie Méthodique relates to tax.^[26]

Moreover, Lucas argues that many fiefs were owned by not-noble—in 1781 22% of the lay seigneurs in Le Mans weren't noble—and that commercial families, the bourgeoisie, besides invested in land. Revisionist historians such as these likewise contest the view that the nobility were fundamentally opposed to modify, noting that 160 signatories of the Tennis Court Oath had the particle 'de'.^[27] This is too a view advocated by Chateaubriand, who notes in his memoirs that "The severest blows struck against the ancient constitution of the Country were delivered by noblemen. The patricians began the Revolution, the plebeians completed it".^[28] On the other manus, the Marquis de Ferrières believed there was "an accursed conduce" within the nobility who wanted to thwart whatsoever possibility of compromise.^[29]

Cultural change [edit]

In that location are 2 main points of view with regard to cultural change as a cause of the French Revolution: the direct influence of Enlightenment ideas on French citizens, meaning that they valued the ideas of liberty and equality discussed past Rousseau and Voltaire et al, or the indirect influence of the Enlightenment insofar as it created a "philosophical society". The Enlightenment ideas were especially popularised by the influence of the American War of Independence on the soldiers who returned, and of Benjamin Franklin himself, who was a highly dynamic and engaging figure in the French court when he visited.^{[thirty] [31]} The French publication of Locke'southward Treatises in 1724 also played an of import role in influencing both pre-Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary credo.^[32]

When the Beginning and Second Estates, likewise as the King, failed to reply to the Tertiary Estate's demands, they eschewed the authority of the Male monarch, resulting in the Lawn tennis Court Oath and the subsequent development of the Revolution. Furet, the foremost proponent of the 'philosophical society' nuance to this view, says that the ideas of the Enlightenment were discussed in clubs and meetings "where rank and nascency were 2d to ... abstract argument".^[33] This resulted in a breakdown of the stratification that still divided the bourgeois and the nobles, fundamentally changing French republic'south social organisation. Equally such, when the Estates-Full general was chosen, its rigid organisation into Third Estate and Second Manor conflicted with the new, informal arrangement, and acquired dissent; the Third Manor had attained equal status to the nobility, in their view, and when they demanded that the Estates meet as equals, the King'due south refusal triggered their secession from royal authorisation. Furet and others argue that the direct influence of Enlightenment ideas only played a part after the Revolution had begun, insofar as it was used to justify revolutionary action and fill the lack of fundamental, guiding ideology that disillusionment with the monarchy had created.

1822 depiction of the 1596 Assembly of Notables in Rouen

Financial crisis [edit]

The financial crisis of the French crown played a role in both creating the social background to the Revolution, generating widespread anger at the Court, and (arguably most importantly) forcing Louis^{[ clarification needed ]} to call the Estates-General. The Court was deeply in debt, which in conjunction with a poor fiscal system, created a crisis.^[34] In order to service the debt, given the Crown could find no more willing lenders, Louis attempted to call upon the nobility via an Assembly of Notables. Notwithstanding, the nobility refused to help - their power and influence had been steadily reduced since the reign of Louis Xiv - and hence Louis was forced to rely upon the Estates-General. This meant that the discontented Third Estate (damaged by poor policy and depression standards of living) were given the opportunity to air their grievances, and when they did not receive the desired response, the Revolution proper began; they denied the authority of the King and set up their ain regime.

Harvest failures [edit]

Agronomics accounted for around 75% of all domestic production, dominating the French economy.^[35] With outdated production methods, farming remained labour-intensive and increasingly susceptible to ingather diseases. The increasing fluctuation of harvest production in the late 1760s had further plunged villages into uncertainty. The lack of diversification of jobs and distinction between agronomical and industrial workers foreshadowed the catastrophic impact that harvest failures would as have in big cities, with fifty-fifty jobs like construction being largely dependent on migrant workers who brought their earnings back to small villages.^[36]

Harvest failures further touched the biggest industry in metropolitan French republic, textiles, with need fluctuating according to harvest yield. The textile industry played a crucial part in transforming cities; Amiens and Abbeville known for woolens, Rouen for cotton fiber, amongst others.^[37] However, Lyons proved to exist the simply town where production was full-bodied, with most production carried out in farms and villages. This presented a growing issue with most industrial workers beings peasants, equally well as their consumers, leaving textile susceptible to the catastrophic impacts of harvest failures. Indeed, with harvest doubt in 1770, the silk manufacture went into crisis and demand for linen became increasingly unstable.^[38]

Causes of debt [edit]

The French Crown's debt was caused past both individual decisions, such every bit intervention in the American War of Independence and the Seven Years' War,^[39] and underlying bug such as an inadequate taxation system. The State of war of Independence lonely cost 1.3 billion livres,^{[40] [41]} more than than double the Crown'south almanac revenue, and in a single year—1781—227 1000000 livres were spent on the campaign. The Seven Years' War was even more costly, at 1.8 billion livres,^[42] and the state of war preceding that, the War of the Austrian Succession, cost another billion livres.^[42] France faced an impossible dilemma: how to both maintain its international position and condition by engaging in these conflicts, and fund them with an archaic and grossly inefficient system.

Le Traité de la Police
past Nicolas de La Mare (1707): under the Ancien Régime, the police force regulated price, quality and supply of bread.

The financial system was ineffective in multiple ways. Showtime, despite the Bourbons' attempts to limit their power, the dignity even so wielded significant influence at Courtroom; when Silhouette, a Controller-General, suggested taxing luxury items, he was removed from part due to noble opposition. Second, in that location was a organisation of tax immunities and feudal privileges that allowed many of France'southward wealthy citizens to avert many taxes, still the fact that few direct taxes were levied in the first place. The vingtième ("twentieth"), a taxation of five% successfully imposed on the nobility, was indeed paid, only this additional revenue was nowhere about enough to permit the Crown to maintain the levels of spending it needed or wanted. The capitation ("head taxation") was likewise imposed, a tax that varied with social status and the number of people in the family, just this besides was insufficient. The tax that was nerveless, a significant sum, was stock-still at certain levels by the government through a organization of tax farming; individual individuals and groups were asked to collect a stock-still amount of taxation on behalf of the government, and could keep any excess. When the government failed to accurately forecast the levels of revenue enhancement that they could collect, they did not do good from any increment in national output. Furthermore, due to the obvious financial difficulties of the French Crown and the lack of a cardinal bank, lenders demanded higher interest rates to recoup them for the college chance; France faced interest rates twice as high as Britain did, which further increased the cost of servicing the debt and hence worsened the Crown'southward problems.

Impact of financial ministers [edit]

I of the ministers that Louis turned to in order to resolve the financial crisis was Turgot, financial government minister from 1774-1776. Turgot abolished the regulations surrounding the nutrient supply, which to this point had been strictly controlled by the imperial police: they monitored the purity of bread flour, prevented price manipulation via hoarding, and controlled the inflows and outflows of grain to regions facing skillful and bad harvests.^{[43] [44]} This acquired rampant speculation and a breakdown of interregional import-consign dynamics; famine and dissent (the Flour War) ensued. Turgot was forced to restore regulation and repress the riots. Though resolved, the failed experiment led to deep distrust of the monarchy, with rumours of their intention to starve the poor both prevalent and widely believed.

In 1783, Calonne was appointed as Financial minister; Calonne, ahead of his time, advocated increasing public spending to bulldoze upwards consumption and hence increase the land'south Gross domestic product and revenue enhancement revenues. However, this policy also Failed , and only resulted in college debt and France facing a primary deficit for the outset time. The total fiscal deficit reached 140 million in 1787.^{[45] [46]}

Necker, appointed in 1777-1781 and 1788-1789, used his connections with European banks to facilitate lending in order to fund wars and service the debt, only this proved a temporary measure (as might be expected) and had little long term value.

Living standards [edit]

Furthermore, significant resentment was felt by the poorer members of the Tertiary Manor (industrial and rural labourers), largely due to vast increases in the cost of living. From 1741 to 1785, there was a 62% increase in real cost of living.^[32] In 1788 and 1789 in that location were poor harvests, perhaps triggered by the 1783 Laki eruption in Iceland.^[47] This acquired staff of life prices to ascent in conjunction with falling wages.^{[48] [49]} In 1789 itself there was a 25% fall in existent wages and an 88% increase in the cost of bread.

These immediate issues increased the resentment of the underlying problem of the inequality of land distribution, in which peasants fabricated upward approximately 80% of the French population, but just owned 35% of the country. They had to pay various dues to their noble landlords, taxes which were often disproportionately loftier in comparing to their income.^[32] Even so, whereas rural peasants could at to the lowest degree sustain themselves with their farms, the poor harvests had a much worse bear upon on Paris, which played a major role in the ascension of the sans-culottes.^[fifty]

References [edit]

1. ^ Moote, A. Lloyd (1972). The revolt of the judges: the Parlement of Paris and the Fronde, 1643-1652. Princeton University Printing. ISBN978-0691620107.
2. ^ Collins, p. ane—although Collin does note that this tin be exaggerated.
3. ^ Sources of Making of the West, People and Cultures, Vol. 2, Since 1340
4. ^ Bluche, 1986, 1991; Bendix, 1978; Solnon, 1987.
5. ^ "Louis XIV". History.com. Retrieved thirteen December 2012.
6. ^ Bluche, François (1986). Louis XIV (in French). Paris: Hachette Littératures. pp. 506, 877–878. ISBN9782010131745.
7. ^ Robert D. Harris, "Review", American Historical Review, (1987) 92#two, p. 426,
8. ^ Ford, Franklin 50. Robe & Sword: The Regrouping of the French Elite after Louis XIV. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1953.
9. ^ Norman Davies (1996). Europe: A History. Oxford U.P. pp. 627–28. ISBN9780198201717.
10. ^ Kenneth N. Jassie and Jeffrey Merrick, "We Don't Have a Male monarch: Pop Protest and the Epitome of the Illegitimate Male monarch in the Reign of Louis 15", Consortium on Revolutionary Europe 1750–1850: Proceedings 1994 23: 211–219. ISSN 0093-2574
11. ^ ^{a b} Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, The Ancien Régime: A History of France, 1610–1774 (1998), pp. 320–23.
12. ^ Jones, Colin. The Keen Nation: France from Louis Fourteen to Napoleon (1715–1799) (2002) pp. 124, 132–33, 147.
13. ^ Jeffrey Merrick, "Politics in the Pulpit: Ecclesiastical Soapbox on the Decease of Louis XV", History of European Ideas 1986, 7(2): 149–160.
14. ^ ^{a b} Alfred Cobban (1957). A History of France. Vol. 1. p. 63. see also Cobban, "The parlements of French republic in the eighteenth century." History (1950) 35#123 pp 64-lxxx.
15. ^ Antoine (1989) pages 931–934
16. ^ Hardman, John. Louis XVI, The Silent Rex. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. pp. 37–39.
17. ^ Carlyle, Thomas (1902). The French Revolution: a History. New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons. pp. 75–77.
18. ^ Carlyle 1902, pp. 81, 95–97
19. ^ "France - Parlements". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
20. ^ Robert Darnton, The Forbidden All-time-sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, 1995, p.213.
21. ^ Morrison, Christian; Snyder, Wayne (2000). "The income inequality of France in historical perspective". European Review of Economical History. Cambridge: Cambridge Academy Press. four (4): 59–83. doi:x.1017/S1361491600000149.
22. ^ Robinson, James, ed. (1906). Readings in European History. Vol. 2. Boston: Ginn. p. 399.
23. ^ Kates, Gary, ed. (1998). The French Revolution: Recent Debates & New Controversies. London: Routledge. pp. 44–70.
24. ^ Blacker, J. M. C. (1984). "Social Ambitions of the Suburbia in 18th Century France and Their Relation to Family Limitation". Population Studies. 11 (1): 697–713.
25. ^ Kates 1998, pp. 44–70.
26. ^ Behrens, Betty (1963). "Nobles, Privileges and Taxes in France at the End of the Ancien Regime". The Economic History Review. 15 (3): 451–475. doi:10.2307/2592919. JSTOR 2592919.
27. ^ Lucas, Colin (1973). "Nobles, Bourgeois and the Origins of the French Revolution". Past and Present. 60: 84–126. doi:x.1093/by/60.one.84.
28. ^ de Chateaubriand, François-René (1902). The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand former Ambassador to England. London: Freemantle and Co.
29. ^ Margerison, Kenneth (1998). Pamphlets and Public Opinion: The Campaign for a Marriage of Orders in the Early on French Revolution. West Lafayette: Purdue University Printing.
30. ^ Schama, Simon (1989). Citizens. London: Penguin Grouping. p. 47.
31. ^ R.R. Palmer, The age of the Democratic Revolution: a political history of Europe and America, 1760–1800 (second ed. 2014) pp. 177–213
32. ^ ^{a b c} Kates 1998, pp. 23–43.
33. ^ Goldstone, Jack (1984). "Reinterpreting the French Revolution". Theory and Guild. 13 (5): 697–713. doi:10.1007/BF00160914. S2CID 147254137.
34. ^ Eugene Nelson White, "The French Revolution and the politics of government finance, 1770–1815." Journal of Economic History 55#two (1995): 227–55.
35. ^ "Harvest failures". French Revolution. 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2021-05-17 .
36. ^ Doyle, William (1989). The Oxford History of The French Revolution. Oxford University Printing. p. 12.
37. ^ Doyle, William (1989). The Oxford History of The French Revolution. Oxford Academy Press. pp. eleven–xiii.
38. ^ See, Henri (2004). Economical and Social Conditions in French republic During the Eighteenth Century. Batoche Books. pp. 84–91.
39. ^ Peter McPhee (2015). The French Revolution. Melbourne U. p. 34. ISBN978-0522866971.
40. ^ Stacy Schiff (2006). A Swell Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America. Macmillan. p. 5. ISBN978-1429907996.
41. ^ Schama 1989, p. 61.
42. ^ ^{a b} Schama 1989, p. 65.
43. ^ [Andress, David. French Lodge in Revolution, 1789–1799. France: Manchester University Press, 1999, pp. 16–18]
44. ^ Steven Kaplan,Jean-Philippe de Tonnac, "La France et son pain: Histoire d'une passion" [1]
45. ^ Gilbert Faccarello, "Galiani, Necker and Turgot. A debate on economic reform and policy in 18th Century France." History of Economic Thought 1.3 (1994): 519–l.
46. ^ White, Eugene Nelson (1989). "Was There a Solution to the Ancien Authorities's Fiscal Dilemma?". The Journal of Economical History. 49 (3): 545–568. doi:x.1017/S0022050700008755.
47. ^ Wood, C.A., 1992. "The climatic effects of the 1783 Laki eruption" in C.R. Harrington (Ed.), The Year Without a Summer? Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, pp. 58–77
48. ^ Dorinda Outram, "The Enlightenment", 2013, p.45
49. ^ John Hardman, "The Life of Louis Xvi", 2016
50. ^ Albert Soboul, The Sans-culottes: The Popular Movement and Revolutionary Government 1793-1794. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton U.P., 1980), 10.

nicholsetwithe.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_French_Revolution

Share this post