French Revolution

The French Revolution, a political and social transformation, sought to dismantle the Old Regime of France and replace it with a more appropriate government. The Old Regime kept the nobles and clergy exempt from paying the towering taxes, forcing the middle and working classes to carry this burden. In as much as France was bankrupt, the king should have increased the nobility's taxes. That would have helped them get out of debt quicker. Forcing the high taxes on poor peasants, most of who could not even pay them, would not help stop the downward spiral. In a time of skyrocketing bread prices, the peasants and workers had a hard enough time paying the taxes. The absolute monarchy practically gave the king unlimited power.

Therefore, it is somewhat obvious that this form of government was unpopular to the people who were not of "high-ranking" class. The rise of the Enlightenment ideas gave the bourgeoisie more reason to rise up and rid France of the absolute monarchy. King Louis XV sent foreign troops into Paris and Versailles to prevent rebellions. This only made the situation remarkably worse. All of these problems and many more helped spark the French Revolution.

France was bankrupt by the expensive wars fought over the past years. The American Revolution alone cost France two billion livres. The monarchy spent more money than it was taking in from taxes, sending them into an even greater debt. The solution to the problem was to tax the nobility and clergy, not just the commoners. Reforms were proposed with this solution but turned down because the nobility and clergy did not want anything to change. The reforms supposedly violated the rights of the nobility. Being ordered to pay taxes must have been the right that was violated; give me a break. They did not want their taxes to rise, but instead raised them on the middle and poor classes. The commoners, known as the Third Estate, demanded greater political equality and the reduction of taxes.

The commoners then called themselves the National Assembly. Their Tennis Court oath requested a constitution that would reduce the royal people's power. This defiance of authority caused King Louis XV to order troops from other countries into France to keep the rebellion to a minimum. He did not use French soldiers because they would be less likely to use force on their own people. That makes sense but did he actually think the people were going to accept the fact thathe was trying to use force on them? In order to defend themselves against the foreign troops, middle class people took over the Bastille in search of arms.

This was not just a "rag-tag" mob of poor peasants who seized the prison looking for weapons. Source 9 gives us an insight of the people who took over the Bastille; they were not all poor individuals. (Wiesner, et al, 132) In fact, the highest numbers found on this table consisted of locksmiths, cabinetmakers and other higher-ranking individuals. Another incentive that led to the attack of the Bastille was the replacement of royal finance minister Jacques Necker. As Hardy, a bookseller said, worthy ministers were being dismissed and replaced by others who had no merit at all in public opinion. (Source 13, p.139)

Bread was also scarce and there seems to be a logical explanation for this. With a large number of foreign troops coming into the country, they have to be fed. Young seems to share this justification in Source 11, where he states: "The assembling of such a number of troops has added to the scarcity of bread." (p. 136) Along with a great deal of army troops eating their bread, rising bread prices certainly did not make workers or peasants too pleased. Bad harvests did not make the situation any easier to deal with either.

In Source 11, Arthur Young explains how horrible the want of bread is. The riots and disturbances it causes requires the military to preserve peace in the markets. (Wiesner, et al, 135) Source 5 shows the towering prices of wheat during 1726-1790. Bread prices were so high, people could not afford to buy it because they did not make enough money. Source 7 illustrates the percentage of income