In the early years of his reign, Louis XVI focused on religious uniformity and foreign policy. On the homefront, he invoked an edict that granted French non-Catholics legal status and the right to openly practice their faith. Louis XVI's early foreign policy success was supporting the American colonies' fight for independence from France's archenemy Great Britain. However, the policy of taking out international loans and not raising taxes increased the debt and drove the country to near bankruptcy by the mid-1780s. This forced the king…
Political decisions should be decide from the top down due to complete control over everything. King Louis XIV is a great example of why political decisions should be run from top down. These reason include war, economics, and preservation of power. King Louis XIV was a master of warfare, money was not a problem so he bought a professional army that was one of the best army in the world. Loius desired power so he soon began expanding his borders.…
No man appeared less like a king than King Louis XVI. He wasn’t a confident man, and it’s shown that through the choices he made and almost all of them were persuaded by Marie Antoinette, his wife. He didn’t believe that he could do it so he didn’t actually attempt to do it at any point during his reign. The price of bread and flour were going up drastically. The new king was expected to do something about the debt so that the people of France wouldn’t die of starvation.…
He began his reign at roughly the age five and was therefore able to have enough time to turn the monarchy around. When he came into full power, he was able to build his splendor palace of Versailles which came with both power and debt. As he continued his reign and made sizable decisions about religion and war, he ended up only getting into more debt and had some of his people turn against him. Although Louis was able to change the government from a weak rule to an extremely powerful absolute monarchy, it did not hold. Only a few decades later, the people had had enough and the debt was so big that the French power, government, and country dissolved…
It almost caused France to become bankrupt. Louis was forced to negotiate a compromise treaty whereby his grandson would become king of Spain but he had to agree that he and his heirs would never combine the Spanish crown with that of…
As a result of the Louis XIV’s totalitarian reign, France became a superpower and a cultural icon. The reign of Louis XIV brought a sort self-service and ambition, encouraging those within the court to climb the political ladder. Consequentially, many nobles would vie for the sovereign’s attention,…
The French Revolution had many causes for its occurrence including, but not limited to, their leader, unfair treatment of the estates, and poor living conditions of the lower class. This led the people to revolt and made life even more chaotic for the residents of France. Their government, an absolute monarchy, gave King Louis XVI the right to do whatever he wanted for the “well-being” of France. As explained in Document 1, “He ruled by the divine right theory which held that he had received his power to govern from God and was therefore responsible to God alone.” This means that the king had complete control over the power and finance of France and often used it to only benefit himself.…
The financial crisis in France was caused by years of ongoing deficit spending, which was when the government spent more than they were taking in. To worsen this crisis, the government kept taking money and at the same time there was a bad harvest that sent food prices soaring (chapter 6, section 1 page 213). This brought hunger to the Third Estate. The price of bread rose above the people’s ability to pay and this causes great misery (Document 1). The financial crisis could have been solved by increasing the taxes and reducing what is spent, but the nobles and clergy fought back with great effort against any type of reform that would cause their exclusion from taxes to go…
There were many causes and effects during the French Revolution. One cause was “Louis XVI had full control of everything.” and “He levied taxes and spent the people’s money as he saw fit.” ( document 1). This led to “The third estate throwing Louis XVI off of power” King Louis had control of everything and every one because he was an absolute ruler and absolute rulers had divine rights (power comes from god).Nobody wanted to question god so they left…
By the late 1700s, the people of France had experienced many years of inequality and oppression with the members of the Third Estate having to pay the most. In the midst of a financial crisis, the country of France was barely surviving on its own, and the unclear distinctions between the social classes was not helping. In order to fix the country, France drew inspiration from both its own citizens and from citizens in the colonies abroad. Abbé Sieyès’s What is the Third Estate?…
This was prompted not only by the threat of bankruptcy, but also the ideas of the American revolution. The ideas spread through France generating unrest. A major difference between the American and French revolutions is that “…the American revolution expressed the tensions of a colonial relationship with a distant imperial power, [while] the French insurrection was driven by sharp conflicts within French society” (pg. 704). There were clearly defined sides in both revolutions: Americans were either for or against independence from England (not much room for a…
In the reading about what does it tell you about the lifestyle and money management of the king, and why would this register have been made public? King Louis XVI and his wife Queen Marie Antoinette were liberal with their spending and poor at money management and therefore were seen as selfish and greedy by the citizens of France. Their lavish, and extravagant lifestyle distanced them from the reality of France. This register would have been made public to shame the King and Queen.…
The French Revolution turned into such a disastrous event due to the government turning into a monocracy. The 1st estate did not want to give up their power to the 2nd and 3rd estates. While nobles live in luxury and pay practically no taxes the other estates were forced to pay taxes, which caused uproar. Part of the problem was the extravagant spending of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The country going to war at that time increased the amount debt considerably.…
“Inflation is defined as a sustained increase in the general level of prices for goods and services in a county, and is measured as an annual percentage change” (Investopedia). The Economic status before and during French revolution was dismal because of the way the government used the people’s money for their own benefit, and the way they managed taxes. One good example of this was louis XVI, he would use people’s money for his own pleasure like having over 9 thousand personal guards and “128 musicians, 75 religious officials, 48 doctors, and 198 persons to care for his body” (Fee). Louis would have no idea on how to set a proper form of government and he ended up using a lot of the people’s money for his own benefits either than the peoples.…
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…