FRENCH REVOLUTION

French Revolution

        Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the differences between the three estates, an impoverished government, and a king who could not control the policy of his country ended in what it is known as the French Revolution. Apart from the discrepancies that broke up the estates, there existed other difficulties which made the matter worse. Meanwhile, fighting overpriced wars led France going bankrupt and when the Estates General met, in 1789, it was certainly evident that King Louis XVI did not have control of the meeting because he did not expound the representatives on any proposals for discussion. In addition to what it is enlightened above, as soon as King Louis was guillotined, it set up the reign of terror under the Jacobins government.

As regards the inequitable division of social classes, the French population was divided into three states. The first state was constituted by the clergy, the second state consisted of the nobility and the third one contained the peasants, yeoman farmers, urban workers, middle class shopkeepers and prosperous businessmen, that was nearly 90 % of the population of France. Considerable differences separated the clergy and the nobility from the rest of the populace. On the one hand, the members of the third state were forced to do military service, they could not hunt or fish on nobles’ estates, they had to pay taxes to their lord, the king and the church and they also had to pay for the use of the lord’s mill, oven and winepress. On the other hand, nobles and clergy lived in luxurious palaces, they did not have to do military service, they had practically complete authority over the peasants and what is more, they were exempted from paying any taxes.

By 1787, the nobility, the clergy and King Louis XVI with his family were living in extravagant palaces and chateaux and they were also spending a lot of money in sumptuousness. In contrast, the peasants and the farmers were starving as a consequence of three very bad harvests which led them having smaller incomes. Meanwhile food prices were increasing extremely, so they were unemployed and unable to procure food or jobs. Besides that, the French government was insolvent because France had spent a great deal of money in wars. Then, the King looked for the nobility to support him restructure the tax system for he wanted them to start paying some of the taxes but, they rejected to do so. When the Estates General met in 1789, the king expected that the representatives of the three estates would approve new taxes, the nobles and the clergy looked forward to maintaining their privileged lifestyles and the peasants yearned for solutions to their problems.

King Louis XVI was a decent family man who was more connected with his relatives than the political crisis he was dealing with during the events of 1789-1790. Although he was an absolute monarch, which meant that he had control over the policy of France, he did not know what exactly he should do when the National Assembly set up. During that period mentioned above, King Louis provided money for the nobles who were in exile and living in other European monarchs. He also wrote to the Kings of Prussia, Spain and Sweden as well as the emperors of Austria and Russia asking for an alliance to put down the revolution, and what is more, he and his family made an attempt to escape to Montmedy but they were apprehended and brought back to Paris where they stayed imprisoned. Finally, when the constitution was proclaimed in 1791, Louis signed an oath of loyalty.

After King Louis was executed in 1793, it began a period known as “The Terror” in which thousands of people who were suspicious of anti-revolutionary movements were sent to the guillotine. When the Jacobins stated that “Terror is the order of the day”, several regions of France rose up against the new Jacobin government. As the solidity of France was really threatened, the Convention set up a Committee of Public Safety that was led by Maximilien Robespierre. As a consequence of the fear of traitors that grew in France after the revolution, the Committee took as an emergency measure the creation of revolutionary tribunals which changed the already existing law. This law declared that people suspected of treason should be locked and there was no necessity of witnesses because any kind of evidence was enough to condemn enemies. It also proclaimed that any offences under that law would be penalized with death. By mid-1794, the terror had died out and Robespierre found himself at the centre of the blame for the Reign of terror and in the end he faced the guillotine as thousands of people.

Taking into account what it has been described all along this paper, it is clear enough that the unfair division of the social classes in which the peasants were the most affected in all senses and the dreadful decisions that King Louis took as an absolute monarch during the events of 1789-1791 led the way to the French Revolution. It is also evident that the period that followed Louis execution, which is known as the Reign of Terror, combined with the mentioned events, marked the beginning of a new era for France.