Warren Longi Jr.
Professor Hoffman
History Essay
11 October 2015
French Revolution In the course of time, humans have continuously overthrown their government because of its corruptions and excessive oppressions. The French revolution, one of the most important event in human history, paved the way for many other countries to the path for democracy. Although considered the most powerful country in Europe at the time of the revolution, France needed desperately to amend its policies and appease its enraged people. The reformers of the French Revolution eliminated the absolute power of the First Estate and the Second Estate, and at the same time developed a government elected only by the citizens by a series of political and social acts. Numerous …show more content…
The unfair distribution of powers, rights, and wealth between the citizens of France was the main cause of the Revolution. Prior to the revolution, citizens of France were separated into three distinct estates. The First Estate consisted the French Catholic Clergy. The Second Estate comprised of the nobility, with its leader the king and his advisors. Also, the Third Estate, the poorest and largest group, represented the remaining population: servants, peasants, merchants, city workers, artisans, and middle classes (History Guide). Considered highest on the social classes, the First Estate received the most privileges and possessed an enormous amount of power, which they would use to secure a larger income and property and also to sway political policies to their advantages. The First Estate owned approximately ten to fifteen percent of all the land in France and also exempt from paying any taxes. Also considerably privileged, the Second Estate made up about one and a half percent of the population and …show more content…
The first to be successful, the American Revolution lead the first significant revolution of the century. By declaring independence, America had demonstrated possibility of overthrowing the Ancient Regime. During the American Revolution, France sided itself with the United States, declared war against United Kingdom, and sent its soldiers and navy to fight Britain while providing money and material to arm the insurgents. Many soldiers returning from the United States, after triumphantly attaining a successful revolution for the sake of freedom against the injustice of a government, came back home to face and experience oppression and discrimination by their own government and king. The citizens of France could empathize with the emotions and difficulties that the American colonists experienced before the revolution, and shared the wish to escape the yolk of the king and against the unfair taxation by the monarchs. Filled with the ideas of individual liberty, self-governance, and popular sovereignty, veterans and citizens reconsidered their own government and developed their own motto, “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” (France in the Us). With America’s declaration of independence and liberal ideas of representative democracy, the
Professor Hoffman
History Essay
11 October 2015
French Revolution In the course of time, humans have continuously overthrown their government because of its corruptions and excessive oppressions. The French revolution, one of the most important event in human history, paved the way for many other countries to the path for democracy. Although considered the most powerful country in Europe at the time of the revolution, France needed desperately to amend its policies and appease its enraged people. The reformers of the French Revolution eliminated the absolute power of the First Estate and the Second Estate, and at the same time developed a government elected only by the citizens by a series of political and social acts. Numerous …show more content…
The unfair distribution of powers, rights, and wealth between the citizens of France was the main cause of the Revolution. Prior to the revolution, citizens of France were separated into three distinct estates. The First Estate consisted the French Catholic Clergy. The Second Estate comprised of the nobility, with its leader the king and his advisors. Also, the Third Estate, the poorest and largest group, represented the remaining population: servants, peasants, merchants, city workers, artisans, and middle classes (History Guide). Considered highest on the social classes, the First Estate received the most privileges and possessed an enormous amount of power, which they would use to secure a larger income and property and also to sway political policies to their advantages. The First Estate owned approximately ten to fifteen percent of all the land in France and also exempt from paying any taxes. Also considerably privileged, the Second Estate made up about one and a half percent of the population and …show more content…
The first to be successful, the American Revolution lead the first significant revolution of the century. By declaring independence, America had demonstrated possibility of overthrowing the Ancient Regime. During the American Revolution, France sided itself with the United States, declared war against United Kingdom, and sent its soldiers and navy to fight Britain while providing money and material to arm the insurgents. Many soldiers returning from the United States, after triumphantly attaining a successful revolution for the sake of freedom against the injustice of a government, came back home to face and experience oppression and discrimination by their own government and king. The citizens of France could empathize with the emotions and difficulties that the American colonists experienced before the revolution, and shared the wish to escape the yolk of the king and against the unfair taxation by the monarchs. Filled with the ideas of individual liberty, self-governance, and popular sovereignty, veterans and citizens reconsidered their own government and developed their own motto, “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” (France in the Us). With America’s declaration of independence and liberal ideas of representative democracy, the