The bourgeoisie bought these positions and hence were ennobled; by 1765, six thousand families had gained nobility through this method. Hardman, John. He reappointed reform-minded Jacques Necker as the finance minister and promised to convene the Estates-General on May 5, 1789. These include intellectual reasons like the ideas put forward by the philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment… In 1790, Samuel Slater built the first factory in America, based on the secrets of textile manufacturing he brought from England. During the spring and summer of 1788, there was unrest among the populace in Paris, Grenoble, Dijon, Toulouse, Pau, and Rennes. No single event caused the revolution. Kenneth N. Jassie and Jeffrey Merrick, "We Don't Have a King: Popular Protest and the Image of the Illegitimate King in the Reign of Louis XV". The assembly refused to take responsibility for the reforms and suggested the calling of the Estates-General, which represented the clergy, the aristocracy, and the Third Estate (the commoners) and which had not met since 1614. This is reflected by cahiers submitted by members of the Third Estate in March to April 1789: those of Carcassonne demanded that Louis "assure to the third estate the influence to which it is entitled in view of...its contribution to the public treasury". This meant that the discontented Third Estate (damaged by poor policy and low standards of living) were given the opportunity to air their grievances, and when they did not receive the desired response, the Revolution proper began; they denied the authority of the King and set up their own government. Beyond these relatively established facts regarding the social conditions surrounding the French Revolution, there is significant dissent among historians. Furet and others argue that the direct influence of Enlightenment ideas only played a part after the Revolution had begun, insofar as it was used to justify revolutionary action and fill the lack of central, guiding ideology that disillusionment with the monarchy had created. The tax that was collected, a significant sum, was fixed at certain levels by the government through a system of tax farming; private individuals and groups were asked to collect a fixed amount of tax on behalf of the government, and could keep any excess. The discovery of new gold mines in Brazil had led to a general rise in prices throughout the West from about 1730, indicating a prosperous economic situation. From about 1770, this trend slackened, and economic crises, provoking alarm and even revolt, became frequent. The Jacobins attempted to eradicate Christianity in France. Over the next decade textiles was the dominant industry in the country, with hundreds of companies created. It sought to completely change the relationship between the rulers and those they governed and to redefine the nature of political power. [3][4][5], Some scholars have argued that Louis XIV contributed to the monarchy's downfall by failing to reform the government's institutions while the monarchy was still secure. An Austro-Prussian army invaded France, and French revolutionary forces pushed outward. Moreover, corruption was rife, with many bourgeoisie simply attaching the noble particle 'de' to their name or assuming nonexistent titles. As such, there is a vast range of literature on the topic, much of it involving specific methodologies and approaches. Bluche, 1986, 1991; Bendix, 1978; Solnon, 1987. As such, there was significant social tension between the dominant classes at the time of the French Revolution. Harrington (Ed. ), The Year Without a Summer? French Revolution, revolutionary movement that shook France between 1787 and 1799 and reached its first climax there in 1789—hence the conventional term ‘Revolution of 1789,’ denoting the end of the ancien regime in France and serving also to distinguish that event from the later French revolutions of 1830 and 1848. [19], Encyclopædia Britannica cites Prussia as an example of a European state where a strong monarchy succeeded in preventing revolution and preserving its power through reforms from above. There are two main points of view with regard to cultural change as a cause of the French Revolution: the direct influence of Enlightenment ideas on French citizens, meaning that they valued the ideas of liberty and equality discussed by Rousseau and Voltaire et al, or the indirect influence of the Enlightenment insofar as it … However, the nobility refused to help - their power and influence had been steadily reduced since the reign of Louis XIV - and hence Louis was forced to rely upon the Estates-General. Spread of Enlightenment ideas around Europe. It proceeded in a back-and-forth process between revolutionary and reactionary forces. 58–77, Dorinda Outram, "The Enlightenment", 2013, p.45, John Hardman, "The Life of Louis XVI", 2016, Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth, Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau, List of people associated with the French Revolution, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Causes_of_the_French_Revolution&oldid=1005126999, Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 6 February 2021, at 02:52. The Haitian Revolution (French: Révolution haïtienne [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ ajisjɛ̃n]; Haitian Creole: Revolisyon ayisyen) was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti.The revolt began on 22 August 1791, and ended in 1804 with the former colony's independence. The "Era of Enlightenment" presented new ideas such as "liberty" and "equality." This Enlightenment was spread among the educated classes by the many “societies of thought” that were founded at that time: masonic lodges, agricultural societies, and reading rooms. The French Revolution created turmoil across the whole of Europe, via a series of events which continue to captivate and inspire massive debate. [22] Under the Ancien Régime they were part of the Third Estate, as they were neither clergymen (the First Estate) nor nobles (the Second Estate). There is significant disagreement among historians of the French Revolution as to its causes. Furthermore, many governmental offices and positions were sold to raise cash. In 1804, he became Emperor.. Before 1789, France was ruled by the nobles and the Catholic Church.The ideas of the Enlightenment … It is uncertain, however, whether revolution would have come without the added presence of a political crisis. Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, pp. [6], His successor Louis XV was less interested in governing[7] and his reign saw a decline in the power of the monarchy. The patricians began the Revolution, the plebeians completed it". [28] This is also a view advocated by Chateaubriand, who notes in his memoirs that "The severest blows struck against the ancient constitution of the State were delivered by noblemen. Lucas places the break between bourgeois and nobles at the moment of the Estates-General, rather than earlier, asserting that it was only when the bourgeois were relegated to the Third Estate that they took issue with the nobility, seeing themselves as equated to "vulgar commoners". The Seven Years' War was even more costly, at 1.8 billion livres,[39] and the war preceding that, the War of the Austrian Succession, cost another billion livres. In his study of the libelle pamphlets and books, Robert Darnton noted that libelles during the reign of Louis XIV tended to direct their criticism towards individual figures like Cardinal Mazarin and even those that criticized the king's actions directly still had a respectful tone. It involved blacks, mulattoes, French… For France, which with 26 million inhabitants in 1789 was the most populated country of Europe, the problem was most acute. Faced with the heavy expenditure that the wars of the 18th century entailed, the rulers of Europe sought to raise money by taxing the nobles and clergy, who in most countries had hitherto been exempt, To justify this, the rulers likewise invoked the arguments of advanced thinkers by adopting the role of “enlightened despots.” This provoked reaction throughout Europe from the privileged bodies, diets. Those who were socially beneath them had very few rights, and most were also increasingly impoverished. A larger population created a greater demand for food and consumer goods. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Lucas asserts that the bourgeois and nobility were not in fact that distinct, basing his argument with the bourgeois entryism and the suggestion that it makes little sense for the bourgeois to attack a system that they are trying to become part of. However, by 1787, Louis XVI could not get this tactic to work. [27], Moreover, Lucas argues that many fiefs were owned by non-noble—in 1781 22% of the lay seigneurs in Le Mans weren't noble—and that commercial families, the bourgeoisie, also invested in land. The Causes of the French Revolution: Economic & Social Conditions ... art, industry, the sciences - all were affected by the ideas from this movement. Afraid the progressive May 3rd Constitution of Poland (1791) might lead to a resurgence in the power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the growing democratic movements inside … Louis XVI, The Silent King. Given their powerful economic position, and their aspirations on a class-wide level, the bourgeois wanted to ascend through the social hierarchy, formalised in the Estate system. Jeffrey Merrick, "Politics in the Pulpit: Ecclesiastical Discourse on the Death of Louis XV". The Women's March on Versailles is but one example of feminist militant activism during the French Revolution. The first of the general causes was the social structure of the West. [15] The power of the parlements had been curtailed by Louis XIV, but mostly reinstated during the minority of Louis XV. A debate on economic reform and policy in 18th Century France. During the reign of Louis XV, libelles became willing to bluntly criticize both the king and the entire system of the Ancien Regime.[21]. Eight thousand protesters stormed the revolutionary Convention in 1793 to demand price controls on bread and grain. Did you like this video? Turgot was forced to restore regulation and repress the riots. Revisionist historians such as these also contest the view that the nobility were fundamentally opposed to change, noting that 160 signatories of the Tennis Court Oath had the particle 'de'. Collins, p. 1—although Collin does note that this can be exaggerated. The monarchy was no longer viewed as divinely ordained. Eugene Nelson White, "The French Revolution and the politics of government finance, 1770–1815. His tactics for bringing the nobility under control included inviting them to stay at his extravagant Palace of Versailles and participate in elaborate court rituals with a detailed code of etiquette. The vingtième ("twentieth"), a tax of 5% successfully imposed on the nobility, was indeed paid, but this additional revenue was nowhere near enough to allow the Crown to maintain the levels of spending it needed or wanted. Furthermore, due to the obvious financial difficulties of the French Crown and the lack of a central bank, lenders demanded higher interest rates to compensate them for the higher risk; France faced interest rates twice as high as Britain did, which further increased the cost of servicing the debt and hence worsened the Crown's problems. King Louis XVI of France yielded to the idea of a new constitution and to the sovereignty of the people but at the same time sent emissaries to the rulers of neighbouring countries seeking their help in restoring his power. [18] The parlements enjoyed wider support from the commoners, who appreciated their role as a check on royal power. [29] On the other hand, the Marquis de Ferrières believed there was "an accursed cabal" within the nobility who wanted to thwart any possibility of compromise. As such, when the Estates-General was called, its rigid organisation into Third Estate and Second Estate conflicted with the new, informal organisation, and caused dissent; the Third Estate had attained equal status to the nobility, in their view, and when they demanded that the Estates meet as equals, the King's refusal triggered their secession from royal authority. The Cause of the American Revolution . Louis XVI reinstated them early in his reign. France: Manchester University Press, 1999, pp. One of the ministers that Louis turned to in order to resolve the financial crisis was Turgot, financial minister from 1774-1776. A 1789 broadside reflecting the royal government's attempt to limit the sale of pamphlets on the eve of the French Revolution. They elected 600 deputies for the Third Estate, 300 for the nobility, and 300 for the clergy. The French Revolution had general causes common to all the revolutions of the West at the end of the 18th century and particular causes that explain why it was by far the most violent and the most universally significant of these revolutions. The financial crisis of the French crown played a role in both creating the social background to the Revolution, generating widespread anger at the Court, and (arguably most importantly) forcing Louis to call the Estates-General. Omissions? There were many reasons. Others see the social issues as important, but less so than the Enlightenment or the financial crisis; François Furet is a prominent proponent of the former, Simon Schama of the latter. [47], Significant civil and political events by year. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). This placed Louis XVI at a disadvantage when he attempted to coerce and then suppress them in 1787-88. [26] Along the same lines, Behrens contests the traditional view of the failure of the tax system, arguing that the nobles in reality paid more tax than their English counterparts and that only one of the privileges enumerated by the Encyclopédie Méthodique relates to taxation. Help us make more by supporting us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/nutshell If want to know what the French Revolution … When the king sought to increase the tax burden on the poor and expand it to classes that had previously been exempt, revolution became all but inevitable. Monarchs tried to stop this reaction of the aristocracy, and both rulers and the privileged classes sought allies among the nonprivileged bourgeois and the peasants. Furet, the foremost proponent of the 'philosophical society' nuance to this view, says that the ideas of the Enlightenment were discussed in clubs and meetings "where rank and birth were second to ... abstract argument". The capitation ("head tax") was also imposed, a tax that varied with social status and the number of people in the family, but this too was insufficient. The French Revolution is one of the most significant and famous events of world history.Lasting from 1789 to 1799, it resulted, among other things, in overthrowing the monarchy in France.There were various reasons which brought about the Revolution. The parlements were regional courts of appeal which had the de facto power to block the implementation of legislation in their respective provinces. Sources of Making of the West, People and Cultures, Vol. The storming of the Bastille is still honored in France as a national holiday. It was, instead, a series of events that led to the war.Essentially, it began as a disagreement over the way Great Britain governed the colonies and the way the colonies thought they should be treated. In 1770, Louis XV and René de Maupeou again curtailed the power of the parlements, except for the Parlement of Paris,[16] the one which was the most powerful. When the government failed to accurately forecast the levels of tax that they could collect, they did not benefit from any increase in national output. From 1741 to 1785, there was a 62% increase in real cost of living. [33] However, whereas rural peasants could at least sustain themselves with their farms, the poor harvests had a much worse impact on Paris, which played a major role in the rise of the sans-culottes. Usually, they acknowledge the presence of several interlinked factors, but vary in the weight they attribute to each one. [23] This desire for higher social position resulted in high levels of bourgeois entry into the Second Estate throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. [1] Although the earlier reign of Louis XIII had already seen a move towards centralization of the country,[2] the adulthood of Louis XIV marked the peak of the French monarchy's power. These factors include cultural change, normally associated with the Enlightenment; social change and financial and economic difficulties; and the political actions of the involved parties. Updates? The feudal regime had been weakened step-by-step and had already disappeared in parts of Europe. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Jacques Necker, portrait by Augustin de Saint-Aubin after a painting by Joseph-Sifford Duplessis. In North America this backlash caused the American Revolution, which began with the refusal to pay a tax imposed by the king of Great Britain. [31][32] The French publication of Locke's Treatises in 1724 also played an important role in influencing both pre-Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary ideology.[33]. The philosophes—intellectuals whose writings inspired these arguments—were certainly influenced by 17th-century theorists such as René Descartes, Benedict de Spinoza and John Locke, but they came to very different conclusions about political, social, and economic matters. Although scholarly debate continues about the exact causes of the Revolution, the following reasons are commonly adduced: (1) the bourgeoisie resented its exclusion from political power and positions of honour; (2) the peasants were acutely aware of their situation and were less and less willing to support the anachronistic and burdensome feudal system; (3) the philosophes had been read more widely in France than anywhere else; (4) French participation in the American Revolution had driven the government to the brink of bankruptcy; (5) France was the most populous country in Europe, and crop failures in much of the country in 1788, coming on top of a long period of economic difficulties, compounded existing restlessness; and (6) the French monarchy, no longer seen as divinely ordained, was unable to adapt to the political and societal pressures that were being exerted on it. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, Counterrevolution, regicide, and the Reign of Terror, The Directory and revolutionary expansion, https://www.britannica.com/event/French-Revolution, U.S. Department of State - Office of the Historian - The United States and the French Revolution, French Revolution - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), French Revolution - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Marie-Thérèse-Louise de Savoie-Carignan, princess de Lamballe, Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, prince de Bénévent, The growing popularity of the works of a number of intellectuals who argued for social reform, Crop failures in 1788 compounded existing economic restlessness, French participation in the American Revolution that drove the government to the brink of bankruptcy, Resentment among the bourgeoisie about being excluded from political power, The French monarchy, no longer seen as divinely ordained, was unable to adapt to the political and societal pressures being exerted on it, Widespread inequality between the rich and poor classes alongside growing dissatisfaction with the antiquated feudal system among the poor, Establishment of civil equality in the country (but not in the French colonies) and radical social change, The Reign of Terror, during which the Revolutionary government arrested 300,000 suspects, resulting in at least 25,000 deaths, The abolition of the monarchy and the deaths of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, Wars with a number of other countries, including Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain. Arguments for social reform began to be advanced. Marxist historians, such as Lefebvre and Soboul, see the social tensions described here as the main cause of the Revolution, as the Estates-General allowed them to manifest into tangible political action; the bourgeoisie and the lower classes were grouped into the Third Estate, allowing them to jointly oppose the establishment. Prior to the revolution, France was a de jure absolute monarchy, a system which became known as the Ancien Régime. They were each dominated by the regional nobility. [35] In order to service the debt, given the Crown could find no more willing lenders, Louis attempted to call upon the nobility via an Assembly of Notables. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. There were practically no exclusions from the voting; and the electors drew up cahiers de doléances, which listed their grievances and hopes. [17] Alfred Cobban describes the Parlement of Paris as "though no more in fact than a small, selfish, proud and venal oligarchy, [it] regarded itself, and was regarded by public opinion, as the guardian of the constitutional liberties of France. When Louis XVI was executed in January 1793, his severed head was paraded around for the crowd and was met with exclamations of "Vive la République!". [8] Historians generally describe his reign as a period of stagnation, foreign policy setbacks and growing popular discontent against the monarchy. He built a cotton-spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, soon run by water-power. The Enlightenment ideas were particularly popularised by the influence of the American War of Independence on the soldiers who returned, and of Benjamin Franklin himself, who was a highly dynamic and engaging figure in the French court when he visited. These bourgeoisie played a fundamental role in the French economy, accounting for 39.1% of national income despite only accounting for 7.7% of the population. [30], There are two main points of view with regard to cultural change as a cause of the French Revolution: the direct influence of Enlightenment ideas on French citizens, meaning that they valued the ideas of liberty and equality discussed by Rousseau and Voltaire et al, or the indirect influence of the Enlightenment insofar as it created a "philosophical society". 37–39. The later Bolsheviks admired the French Revolution and especially the Jacobins, the extremist French revolutionaries who had instigated the Reign of Terror. [9][10][11][12] His affairs with a succession of mistresses also damaged its reputation. The poverty of many noble families meant that they married bourgeois families; the nobles gained bourgeois wealth, while the bourgeoisie gained noble status. [33] In 1788 and 1789 there were poor harvests, perhaps triggered by the 1783 Laki eruption in Iceland. and estates. [34] This resulted in a breakdown of the stratification that still divided the bourgeois and the nobles, fundamentally changing France's social organisation. French Society in Revolution, 1789–1799. Many experts believe that the same ideologies that sparked the American Revolution had long percolated through French culture. The Enlightenment began in Europe, but quickly spread throughout America in the 1700s and helped set the stage for a revolution against British rule. The ideas of the intellectuals of the Enlightenment brought new views to government and society. [24][25] Such entryism resulted in significant social tension, as the nobles were angered that these bourgeoisie were entering their ranks (despite often having been bourgeois themselves one or two generations previously) and the bourgeoisie were angered that the nobles were trying to prevent them ascending and being disdainful even when they did ascend. This was enabled by several factors. These immediate issues increased the resentment of the underlying problem of the inequality of land distribution, in which peasants made up approximately 80% of the French population, but only owned 35% of the land. While largely left out of the thrust for increasing rights of citizens, as the question was left indeterminate in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, activists such as Pauline Léon and Théroigne de … Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The elections to the Estates-General, held between January and April 1789, coincided with further disturbances, as the harvest of 1788 had been a bad one. The revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte took power in November 1799. After the French Revolution of 1789, Catherine rejected many principles of the Enlightenment she had once viewed favorably. In 1783, Calonne was appointed as financial minister; Calonne, ahead of his time, advocated increasing public spending to drive up consumption and hence increase the country's GDP and tax revenues.