What Impact Did the French Revolution Have on the Institutions and the Social Groupings of the Ancien Regime?

Karl Marx based his interpretation of the French revolution, as a series of class based struggles, resulting in the triumph of the proletariat. The followers of this belief, who have come to be known as Marxists, have become significantly familiar with several of the revolutions social corollaries. From these judgements and examinations, one can observe the French revolution was predominantly a bourgeoisie revolution rather than any other. The French revolution had a significant impact on all the social grouping and significantly varied in the nature of the impact. Although the French Revolution had a generally positive impact on the bourgeoisie, there were many factors that influenced a negative aftermath, for the first, second and third estates.

As Marxists argue, the bourgeoisie were the main beneficiaries of the revolution and possessed many advantages that none of the other institutions and social groupings came close to. Beginning from the earliest years of the revolution, laws and decrees were passed that directly benefited the industrialist bourgeoisie, such as, and most significantly, the abolition of internal customs barriers, guilds and price controls. The main bourgeoisie being the business men used the abolition of price controls to fortify their beliefs of "laissez-faire". Internal Customs barriers meant that business became harder and more difficult to flow, therefore the abolition of this insured that they would earn more and businesses would boom. The introduction of a uniform system of weights and measures, which came to be known as the metric system, further contributed to successful business. One significant law passed, was the prohibition of workers' association. A major problem business owners faced was the ability for their workers to strike. This law made their actions illegal, and the government would have to deal with those individuals. The mercantile and industrial bourgeoisie did not in fact carry out the revolt, only benefited from it coincidently. It was not until the bourgeoisie began its political involvement in 1791. Many of the political decisions were carried out by bourgeoisie leaders, and several representatives were implemented in the constituent assembly and convention, therefore these decisions would principally be directed to serve the bourgeoisie population. One of these decisions was the voting system that only allowed property owners to vote. This meant that the votes would count more