French Revolution Government

Over the course of its history, France has experienced many changes in its government. We have seen it go through multiple constitutions, weak kings, absolutist kings, warrior kings, and cowardly kings. In this paper, you will see comparisons between pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary French government. The government structure before the French Revolution was the Ancien Régime, and the time following the Revolution was under the rule of King Louis XVIII. During part of the Ancien Régime’s time of use, King Louis XVI and wife Marie Antoinette were the monarchs of France. Under their reign, many people began to get angry at the king and his wife’s irresponsible spending and lack of good leadership for France. This anger continued to build until it eventually erupted and the French Revolution began, paving the way for the eventual rule of King Louis XVIII. …show more content…
This form of government was based on a system of estates. These estates were based on peoples’ status of clergy, noble, or commons. In this system, land distribution was very unequal. The king had twenty percent of the land, the Clergy owned ten percent, the nobles owned thirty percent, and the commons, who made up over ninety-eight percent of the French population at the time, only owned forty percent. The Ancien Régime was not reified until after it had already been destroyed. This is because people noticed how drastically different the government was after the revolution. Although the government during the Restoration was quite different from the Ancien Régime, most of the Ancien Régime was still present. A new system had just been created under it. As time went by, the Ancien Régime, like many other government structures, met its end. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen has actually been referred to as the “death certificate of the Ancien