Absolutism And The French Revolution

Great Essays
From 1789-1799 the French Revolution took place, when France’s government system of a monarchy was challenged and overthrown. France had many economic problems and was unstable due to the many disagreements amongst social classes and the King. Through an absolute monarch, there was much corruption and crisis, and change was needed. The National Assembly took action, (group members from the Bourgeoisie) and used Enlightenment ideas towards the ideal government, a constitutional monarchy. They moved the government from Versailles to Paris, where the people were. The French Revolution was a political revolution that brought democracy to France, bread to the poor, and new social order through the tennis court oath and the storming of the Bastille. …show more content…
The social hierarchy was organized into 3 social classes based on power, wealth, and royal blood. The Social Hierarchy was organized from the most powerful the king and queen, to the clergy and nobility, and lastly the bourgeoisie, urban workers, and peasants .This caused corruption because of the inequality amongst different groups of workers. Carolyn Lougee in Women, salons, and social stratification in seventeenth century France, 1976 stated the use of salons during the Age of Enlightenment, “Salons helped facilitate the breaking down of social barriers, which made the influence and spread of the Enlightenment possible.” Since the government was corrupted, people had to take action and organize places to discuss the ideal government system. Through this is made it possible to establish supportive new ideas that gained everyone freedom and protection. Salons made it possible for philosophers to discuss, critique, extend, and challenge ideas on what could make France as a society, more united and removed from economic problems. Through absolutism, it only allowed the king to be heard therefore the people were tired and mad about just being used. They then started to engage and discuss new Enlightenment ideas that challenged the king's power. Moreover, the bourgeoisie, especially led on to spread these ideas through pamphlets in order to …show more content…
Absolutism led to unfit monarchs to take rule, enlightenment ideas to be spread and bias rights to be established. The revolution lasted from 1789-1799, during that time the National Assembly made most decisions, although Robespierre, a philosopher and lawyer took on the role as a leader. Later on, during 1793 Louis XVI was put on trial and was then found guilty, where he was sentenced to death while Marie Antoinette remained in prison. At the same time a Catholic and royal army rebelled and started to attack against the revolution leading into a civil war. Overtime more and more people were sentenced to death under Robespierre's rule and the rights of freedom and inequality ended once again. Leading up to what is known today as the Reign of Terror, where thousands of people lost their lives. The idea of an end to a continuous French Monarchy was monumental because it sets out for different systems of government to be established. It also was a direction to what we have today, freedom and equality amongst

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    The French Revolution started in 1789. After ten years chaos, in 1799, the general Napoleon seized control and, in 1804, proclaimed himself emperor. Though he had tried, failed attempt to unite all of Europe. With the revolution, French artists searched its moral and political purpose as known as Neoclassicists. The other pursued human nature as known as Romanticists.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The French Revolution was a political movement that spurred an incredible number of changes such as equality before the law, a stable economy, no unjust imprisonment and a government where the people have a say. After the revolution had succeeded, the new Directory held power in France. However, many French citizens felt like they were back at square one, with power abusing oligarchs, inequality, and an unstable economy. This changed, however, when Napoleon Bonaparte decided to take the reins from the Directory and, overall, save the revolution.…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Therefore, France needed to change its means of production for other parts of French society to keep up, or at least close the gap with the bourgeoisie. This need for change caused more tension in the structure of France and its…

    • 1138 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The French Revolution confirmed the main political ideas of the Enlightenment due to to changes in democracy and taking Louis XVI out of the government. The French Revolution contradicted the main political ideas of the Enlightenment due to the powerful leaders Maximilien Robespierre and Napoleon Bonaparte. No matter how the Enlightenment was taken into consideration during the French Revolution, it still was a huge part France’s past and their strive to make changes in society. Without the Enlightenment, who knows what France would be like…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The French Revolution has political, social and economic changes. Economically, France faced severe financial crisis due to overspending. At the time they also faced bad harvests that resulted in the shortage of food. Politically, France had an absolute monarch that they suffered under and most people were denied basic rights such as a say in their government. Socially, France was divided among Three Estates.…

    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    A vast amount of change for all of the social classes happened during The French Revolution. In 1789 which is the beginning of the Revolution there were around 25,000 noble families (Beck). This was only about one percent of Frances population, but they were the wealthiest class and owned around twenty-five percent of all French land (Beck). Even though the nobles were the wealthiest estate their wealth varied greatly with the average income being 8,000 livres (Beck). The overall life of the nobility degenerated during the French Revolution as a result of changes in tax laws, an increase in equality, the loss of land, and new groups of nobles.…

    • 2122 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The French Revolution, which took place in 1789-1799, brought about great changes in France’s government and society. The monarchy was overthrown by a people fed up with their injustices. There were many different causes of the French Revolution, some of which were feudalism and the class system, the monarchy, and the economy. To began with, feudalism and the class system helped cause the French Revolution. The people of France were divided into three different classes, which were the clergy, nobility, and then everyone else.…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Vincent Li Global 10 French Revolution Crisis Throughout history, the emerging revolution was greatly influenced by the Enlightenment idea occurring within France. The Revolution was the forcible overthrow over the government in favor of a new system. The French Revolution began with the Third Estate revolting against King Louis the sixteenth, rule of absolute monarchy. The three factors that contributed to the rise of French Revolution are social inequality, financial crisis, and famine.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The French Revolution occurred in France from 1789-1799 and began with the Storming of Bastille. The French people disagreed with the extravagant spendings of King Louis XVI. These very spendings had caused to France to become bankrupt. The people decided to rebel in protest of the spendings and in protest of the interference of the Catholic Church in the French government. While this revolution did turn violent in instances such as the Reign of Terror which lasted from 1973 to…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The French Revolution was a revolution that took place around the time of 1789-1799. There were many causes of the French Revoultion; some of these were the American Revolution, The Enlightenment, and inherent problems. A revolution is caused when the people of a nation overthrow a government for a new system. The people wanted to change their government, so therefore they revolted and overthrew the monarchy and the Ancien Régime (government system). The French Revolution was probably the bloodiest revolution in history and it changed France tremenduosly.…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Proceeding the French Revolution, the significant imbalance of power held a prominent role in French Society and incited the uprising of the third, commoner estate through the corruption it caused. Consequently, as the Enlightenment philosophies began to flourish, deconstruction arose as a key component of the French enlightenment ideals. Therefore, the French revolutionaries pursued not an initiative of chaos, but the purposeful goal of deconstructing the corrupt centralized structures of French society utilized to oppress the powerless: the Catholic church, gender confinements, and class divisions. Prescribing to the post-structuralist doctrine, the revolutionaries strove to eliminate the hierarchy of societal constructs, allowing the natural…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The French Revolution was a period of social and political disdain. It started in 1789 and lasted to 1799. It was brought about by Napoleon during the expansion of the French Empire. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy, created a republic, experienced violent periods of political turmoil, and finally left dictatorship under only Napoleon. The Reign of Terror lasted from 1793 to 1794 Its purpose was to purge France of enemies of the Revolution and protect the country from foreign invaders.…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The French Revolution led to the French monarchy being destroyed, the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, armed conflicts with other European countries, and influence on other countries as well as other impacts across the globe. The French Revolution occurred under King Louis XVI, who was eventually executed. French society was dealing with high taxes and bad harvests which led them to dislike the government. They disliked the government because they were jealous of the privileges enjoyed by the…

    • 1579 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Marx Vs Kant

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The root of the problem in France was that the government did not reflect the needs and wants of the common person, but the needs and the wants of the aristocracy. The government had no way for citizens to have an input and this caused unrest among the common people in France. Essentially, the French people wanted the freedom to make decisions that influenced their government, instead of accepting the decisions of the monarch reluctantly. The French Revolution showed that people want freedom and expect some form of freedom from their government. If the government only made decisions good for the people involved in the government then people would revolt, like the French, and demand more democracy in their government.…

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    From 1789 to 1791, the French Revolution wasn 't generally all that progressive. For France itself, beyond any doubt, it mattered an incredible arrangement that feudalism was nullified and that a constitution was set up, and for the short space of time for such substantive changes to be experience and completed. In any case, in 1791, King Louis XVI chose he didn 't care for the progressions, didn 't care for more changes furthermore that he was going to jolt the nation. This choice wound up being an awful one - he fizzled, and for having attempted, the Estates General took a major swing to the progressive heading and had him guillotined the following year.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays