He reigned from 1775 until his execution in 1793. Throughout his reign as King, he bankrupted the country while aiding the Americans who were at war against the British during the American Revolution, causing a raise in taxes and the price of grain. The peasants started to riot. And on July 14th 1789, the peasants stormed the Bastille, starting the Revolution, and the downfall of the King and the monarchy in France. After that, Louis and his family were arrested, and were brought to Paris.
In 1894 the biggest news in France was the conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, a general of Jewish decent accused of treason and was sentenced to life imprisonment. While accused of giving French military information to the German embassy in France he was sentenced to imprisonment in a French colony, Devil's Island. After new evidence led towards a new suspect, high military generals suppressed the information and framed Dreyfus. The conviction was led by a group of Anti-Semites, most notably Edouard Drumont, the director and publisher of the anti-Semitic newspaper, La Libre Parole. So during the Dreyfus Affair of late 1800's, anti-Semitism was on the rise already.
The Reign of Terror DBQ Mitchell Manansala Modern Wold History Honors Period 7 Mr. Kozay 1/24/2014 Bloodshed was one meaning for this point in time. The year 1789, posed as a critical point in Europe as it served many interesting events, and one in particular, the French Revolution had stood its place in history as the King, Louis XVI, was stressed as problems arose, making matters around the government and all throughout France worse. His weakness led to his execution starting the The Reign of Terror, lead by chief prosecutor, Maximilien Robespierre, who proceeded to killing counterrevolutionaries, making the revolution even more radical than it was beforehand and made the once and superior government less proficient . The government made choices against the counterrevolutionaries and for the people, and have gone to certain extremes just to meet the values of peace and liberty. This leads to the question, “Was The Reign of Terror Justified?” Justified meaning that the methods the government established were satisfactory to accomplish the goals set forth by the revolution.
For much of his life, Darnay feels his family, the Evremondes’, “have done wrong, and are reaping the fruits of wrong” (Dickens 117) and “[injured] every human creature who came between [them] and [their] pleasure” (Dickens 117). Darnay flees from France to escape the cruelty of his uncle. Leonard Manheim, in Volume 1 of Dickens Studies Annual: Essays of Victorian Fiction, also points out that while fleeing, Darnay drops the “hated appellation Evremonde, adapting his new surname from his mother’s noble name of D’Aulnay, eliding the aristocratic de in deference to British taste” (Manheim 230). This shows Darnay’s resentment toward his own family and his want to disassociate himself from his birth family. Even though Darnay flees to France and changes his name to rid himself of his uncle’s cruelty, he still feels “responsible for it, but powerless in it” (Dickens 117).
However Wikipedia and the textbook place different levels of importance among these main causes. Spielvogel seemed to believe that the lack of governmental power within the government of France and the increasing economic debt were the main reasons the peasants revolted against the royals and nobles. He says “A growing resentment of the entire seigneurial system, with its fees and obligations, greatly exacerbated by the economic and fiscal activities of the great estate holders-whether noble or bourgeois-in the difficult decade of the 1780s, created the conditions for a popular uprising”. He also states that the fall of the Bastille and the king finally surrendering to the demands of the Third Estate led to the peasant population “taking matters into their own hands”. Meanwhile, Wikipedia places less importance on the violence of the revolution and more on the diplomatic and political causes and changes of the Revolution.
Using the documents and your knowledge of the period, (a) explain the reasons for agrarian discontent and (b) evaluate the validity of the farmers' complaints. Document A Source: The platform of the People's (Populist) party (1892) The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the legislatures, the Congress, and even touches the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized .... The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of the capitalists.
The Monarchy’s absolute rule and ancient regime were tested by the growing influence of the Enlightenment, which challenged traditional ways and ideas. Lavish spending and irrational mistakes made by the royal family worsened the nations ongoing economic debt, installing fear and famine in the lives of French citizens. In the face of a changing world, the old order succumbed to its own rigidity, falling to the ambitions of a rising bourgeoisie. These significant long-term causes created an atmosphere of discontent and confusion in France, allowing an angry and frustrated Third Estate to utilise the Estates-General meeting to their advantage. It was this event that lit the spark for the Revolution of France.
The Positive Effects of The French Revolution Around the late 18th century, the overspending of King Louis XVI and his ancestors, coupled with the countries involvement in the American Revolution, pushed France to the edge of economic collapse. The urban workers and peasants not only suffered from the overspending of the royal family, but also from poor harvests and the high price of their daily food—bread. Many of them showed pessimism and hatred towards the government that forced them to pay high taxes but failed to protect their natural rights. To deal with the economic crisis, Louis XVI called the Estates-General, an assembly with representatives from French clergy, nobility and peasants, to meet in 1789 so he could increase the taxes that the Third Estate paid. The meeting of the Estates-General eventually led to the beginning of The French Revolution.
Walpole, from an aristocratic family, a Member of Parliament and owner of an established printing press publishes this novel in 1754. In his literary guise as editor in the first preface, Walpole writes that the novel’s moral is “the sins of the fathers are visited on their children.” The sins Walpole is referring to are basically all related to usurping the Castle of Otranto. These hidden transgressions thus culminate into violence, murder, and deception, in an attempt to secure the castle without being a rightful heir. As a result, the forces of supernatural retribution begin to manifest in fearful apparitions. They serve as warnings to the villain Manfred, who is the king of Otranto.
Which then resulted in the madness of the two classes to change and fix how France was being governed. In revolting against the government, the guillotine was created to eliminate the people acquainted with the Marquis, and or any aristocrat convicted. The sides of the lower classes being scared had then swapped, and the government once overpowered by the Marquis was now ruled by the common revolutionist. Dickens, Charles. “The Gorgon’s Head” A Tale of Two Cities.