The Three Main Causes Of The French Revolution

For more than 100 years, France had been the largest and most powerful European nation. Beneath the appearance of stability however lay the seeds of revolution within a few months in1789, king Louis lost his power to make laws, and eventually people’s elected representative voted for his execution. The causes of the French revolution were very complex. Since the middle age, French society had been divided into three separate estates. In the mid-1700s discontent grew among the people of all three estates. The first estate, composed of the catholic clergy had long been resented for its privileges because they paid no taxes. The second estate the aristocracy was also resented because of its long standing privilege. The aristocracy also occupied …show more content…
King hoped that by convening the estate general he could approval of his plan to raise taxes. Despite of all hope and expectation the third estate were initially disappointed by the meeting of the estate general. In 1789 representatives of the third estate declared themselves the National Assembly and vowed to write a constitution for France. The representatives of third estate took an oath nearby by a tennis court, pledging to be united until they had a written constitution. After a few weeks the representatives wrote The Declaration of The rights of Men and Citizens which declared that “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”. The king, the assembly and with the people support it assumed power. On July 14, 1789 the revolutionist of French attacked the Bastille in search of weapon to defend the assembly against the royal society. In October 1789, thousands of Persian women rioted over the raising price of bread. The women demanded the national assembly to action to provide bread. Then they turned their anger on king and queen, they broke into place killing some of the guards. The women demanded king and queen to return to the Paris. As the news of the uprising in Paris and other cities spread to the country, peasants revolted against their lord. They broke into manor house and tax record in hopes of eliminating their debts. The member of the national assembly that the only way to end the violence was to abolish the special privilege of the first and second estate. The national assembly decreed the end of all legal privilege of first and second estate and ended feudalism in France. Church land were sold to raise revenue and priest were put under government authority. In 1791 the National assembly adopted France’s constitution which greatly reduced the power of king and set up an elected legislative assembly. Several months later a