French Revolution

HIS 4B

What were the primary causes of the French Revolution?

There were a lot of causes that led to the revolution. There were a lot of social, political and even economic conditions that led to the revolution as well. These conditions consisted of: the lower and middle classes being very unsatisfied, the ideas of interest in new ideas about government, and financial problems caused by the costs of wars.

The peasants (Third estate) hated certain advantages of the clergy and nobles. They did not have to pay most taxes. The Third estate (peasants) had to provide almost all the country's tax revenue. Many members of the middle class were also troubled by there social class status. They were the most important people in the French society but were not recognized as that because they were placed in the third estate.

One of the main reasons I believe caused the French revolution was the financial problems. These problems developed because the nation had gone deeply into debt to finance fighting in the wars, and because of that the government went almost bankrupt. The only way to get more money was to barrow or raise the taxes.

Other primary causes of the revoluiton were the rise in enlightenment ideas. A lot of people during this time were coming up with lots of different theories and they were striking the peoples attention. Also, there was Food scarcity in the years immediately before the revolution, and of course this caused plenty of chaos. I'm sure there were plenty of more causes but that's all I got for right now.