The years before the French Revolution (which started in 1789 AD.) were ones of
vast,
unexpected change and confusion. One of the changes was the decline of the power of the
nobles,
which had a severe impact on the loyalty of some of the nobles to King Louis XVI.
Another
change was the increasing power of the newly established middle class, which would result
in the
monarchy becoming obsolete. The angry and easily manipulated peasants, who were used by
the
bourgeoisie for their own benefit were another significant change, and finally the
decline of the
traditional monarchy, that for so long had ruled, were all factors to the main point that
the French
Revolution was caused by a political base, with social disorder and economic instability
contributing to the upheaval. All of the sub-factors relate with one-another, but are
separate in
their own ways.
For centuries, the French noble was well set in society. He found prosperity and
security
in the old regime, and all he had to do was pay homage to the king, and provide the king
with his
services. This all came to a gradual stop, however beginning with the loss of the
noble's power
over their own land at the hands of Louis XIV.1 This was the foundation of the revolte
nobiliaire
in the fact that it formed a basis of mistrust, and anger for the monarch.2 In that time
the feudal
system was still being practiced, so social status was based on the amount of land you
could attain.
With no land, the nobles saw themselves to be as common as the common folk. Even in
their
arrogance they saw that they were losing power. The next blow to the pride of the nobles
came
from Louis XV, who passed a bill to let wealthy commoners purchase prominent spots in
political
and social positions. This event shows how corrupt and money hungry the government had
become, by letting anyone get high up in the political chain just by feeding the
gluttonous king.
The next king, Louis XVI saw that the majority of France (75%) was peasants and serfs.
Consequently, to try to ensure their happiness (and prevent the Revolution), he had the
Estates-General abolish the feudal system, in which they held no ranking.4 This made the
nobility
extremely unhappy. With no feudal system, they no longer were much higher up politicly
than the
commoners. The next noble atrocity came with Louis XVI making the nobles pay taxes.
Ever
since the foundation of the monarchy, the nobles and the clergy were exempt from paying
taxes.
The burden was left to the commoners. But, with the deficit being so high and France
supporting
the Americans in their war, something had to be done.5 This proved to be unfortunate for
the king,
however, this proved to the straw that broke the camels back. The nobles were sick of
being
treated like low-class peasants so they formed their revolt. Now would be a good time to
explain
that the Revolution was not just one Revolution, it was a "series of revolutions, very
different in
their aims..."6 and subsequently the revolte nobiliaire began in 1787. It was a revolt
limited to
the aristocrats, however, because they wanted to get all the power of France. It should
also be
said that not all the nobles were against the king. The young nobles, and some of the
old ones, who
had not yet gotten obscene on their own power still supported the king. These people
were called
Royalists, and were beheaded for their faith. Before their own selfish revolution, the
nobles had
lost so much power, that their economic and political situation affected the other people
in France,
and led to the French Revolution and remotely, the rise of the middle class.
In the obsolete practice of feudalism there is no middle class. The simplicity is
beautiful;
there are the extravagantly rich and the woefully poor. In the eighteenth century, the
rise of a
middle class (bourgeoisie) in France proved to be too much change at one time. The
middle class
were the wealthy land owners, the lawyers, the scientists, the writers and other such
people in
society. Politically, the system had to change to accommodate them. The growth of the
middle
class was originally stimulated by the commercial prosperity of the post 1776 era, and
it
threatened the traditional established aristocraticy.7 They were getting more power in
government,
allowed to buy seats in legal standings and generally getting as powerful as the nobles.
Along
with the peasants, the bourgeoisie felt the burden of poor economic times in
pre-revolutionary
France. Prices were rising but wages were not, taxes were steep and this left the
bourgeoisie
angry toward Louis XVI whom they left responsible. This led the middle class to gather
up the
less educated peasants on a quest for a better government, which they wanted to be a
major factor
of. Unlike the American Revolution where everyone was fighting for a noble cause,
everyone in
France had there own reasons for sticking their neck out. This includes the bourgeoisie
who fought
because of economic difficulties and hope for a better political standing, but the only
group that
could be partially excluded from this rule are the peasants.
The peasants had their own simple, non-deceptive reasons for fighting. That had
terrible
economic and somewhat political problems. Heavy grape harvests meant bad times for wine
making, and since wine was made throughout the country, this was devastating. The price
of wine
fell by 50%, and therefore the peasants got less money and subsequently poorer.8 The
next to fall
was grain prices. Combine the fact that grain was scarce in France at the time and there
were
heavy tariffs for imports, and you get a bad grain economy. The grain harvests in France
had
collapsed a few years earlier and that is why the situation was so desperate. All of
this meant that
the French common person had nothing to fall back to when there was no income. The
standard of
living dropped and there was a consequent famine. Also, to contribute to the massive
famine the
population was growing faster that the food supply. Combine all these factors with the
fact that the
peasants (like everybody) were being heavily taxed, and you get people who are going to
easily
manipulated by a more ambitious group: namely the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie would use
the
peasants as little puppets in their game for more power and control over the aristocrats.
The
peasants were suffering political problems as well. For hundreds of years, they were
being
represented in parliament by one vote. That doesn't look bad when there are only three
votes, but
then you see that the country is made up of a 75% peasant population. The result is an
outcry for
better representation that would make the peasants more eager to revolt if the time
should happen
to come. Mostly, in the eighteenth century, all peasants really had to worry about was
the farm
crops, or other such things, but at the time of the French Revolution the peasants were
affected by
economic and political factors; and also a changing, weakening monarchy.
In the feudal system, a kingdom is only as strong as its king. Unfortunately for
eighteenth
century France, Louis XVI wanted a more equal and democratic nation. He would see that
people
would not be swayed from tradition easily, however. When they saw that he gave up much
of his
power in the name of equality, they pounced on him. In the beginning, Louis XVI was an
absolute
ruler, he was the highest authority.9 But, as the years progressed he saw that the rights
and
privileges were to be retained by the provinces, towns, corporate bodies and the
nobility. This
equal spread of power left himself out of the equation. Additionally, the legal and
administrative
system could be brought to question by anyone. It used to be that the monarch was
untouchable.
Seeing as how Louis was to get his head chopped off, that resolution may not have been a
good
idea. To make things even more equal and just, the commoners had one of the three votes
his
Estates-General. This meant fair representation, but it also meant that the nobles were
upset with
their decline of power and the commoners wanted more of their new-found power. All of
these
ideas seem to be good ones, but ones that would, and did harm his position. One
evidently bad
move was to heavily tax everyone. The peasants were already heavily taxed, so they were
then
brought to famine, the nobles were never taxed before and consequently disgruntled and
the middle
class just did not like it. If Louis XVI were alive today he would probably be a good
politician-
too bad the people were not ready for him in 1789.
Historians have argued for centuries over what started the French Revolution: some
say
economics, some say politics some say the change of social structure. The only logical
answer,
then is that it was a little (or a lot) of all three, resulting in the decline of
nobility, the rise of the
middle class, the anger of the peasants and the fall of monarchy.
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