The gap between the rich and the poor widened. The anger instilled in the hearts of the French people due to their king’s severe lack of leadership only favoured the outbreak of the revolution. Economical Factors: The economical crisis in France before the revolution can
When Louis XVI succeeded to the throne in 1774, he was not yet 20 years old. He had an enormous responsibility, as the government was deeply in debt, and resentment towards 'despotic' monarchy was on the rise. Louis also felt woefully unqualified for the job. King, his brothers and Marie Antoinette became fellows of the masonic lodge Trois Frères à l'Orient de Versailles. [11] He aimed to earn the love of his people by reinstating the parlements.
One event which is significant to emphasise this was the calling of the Estate general in 1789. This event showed dramatic weakness of the King as it showed that he could no longer handle the task of the problems occurring in France at the time and needed help from the estates general in order to
What do these things have in common? They all come from in between the years of 1787 and 1799: the French Revolution. To understand why these events occurred, one must understand why the rebellion began, and there are two very prominent causes for the French Revolution: the lack of a system of government, especially the taxation problem, and the inconsistent characters of the Crown (Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette). The primary and most apparent cause of the French Revolution was the system of government at the time in France,as it was not a solid system; there were so many variations. There was an inconsistent court system; there was no single unified system of law, and, also, there was an inefficient form of taxation where the nobles weren’t taxed.
Although finance played a significant role in the deterioration of the relationship between Crown and Parliament, it was not the lone reason, due to the fact that there were other more important factors including foreign policy and Buckingham which caused the collapse in the relationship between Crown and Parliament. Firstly, finance was a critical factor in the breakdown in the relationship. For example, the Forced Loan caused a great amount of tension between Crown and Parliament and therefore, worsened relations. It worsened relations because Charles enforced illegal taxations on his subjects without any form of consent from Parliament. He required that his subjects “loan him the equivalent of five subsidies” and although it was “opposed by significant numbers in the localities,” the taxation still occurred as the government had “employed all its powers to eliminate resistance”.
The extent of France’s financial crisis was enormous enough to bring about the revolution in a form of a landslide to its people. France’s financial situation before the revolution began was a huge economic depression with an ever-increasing Royal debt. The financial system at that time was also very medieval in nature in regards to the inhuman taxes forced to be paid by the French Third Estate, taxes such as the Corvée and the Gabelle. The salt tax was a tax that was used back in the Dark Ages that forced citizens over the age of 7 to buy 7 pounds of salt each year at a commanded price. However, during the reign of King Louis XVI, France has applied a state monopoly on the salt and still forced everyone to purchase the salt at a high price but also at a very low quality.
The inefficient tax distribution didn’t help the cause. The peasants of France were being taxed very high amounts while the wealthy and the nobility paid next to nothing. In England, it started with the royal treasury being completely empty because Queen Elizabeth I never called on Parliament to discuss money. The English Parliament held the power of the purse. When Elizabeth’s successor, King James I came to power, the monarchy had no money left.
Source 1 highlights the main factor in this controversy, the Flight to Varennes, and underlines its significance as the ‘most immediate consequence’ in Louis reign as King. The Flight itself on the 17th June 1791 showed that the king could not work with the National Assembly and that it proved he didn’t support the revolution. Sutherland reveals in the source that the Flight directly led to the failure of the Monarchy stating it had ‘momentous and extensive consequences’. He also emphasises the ‘decline in popularity of the King’, that ‘showed he could no longer be trusted’, and
They were also in a country plagued by a financial crisis with the majority of the population automatically having hatred for the government. The treaty of Versailles also posed a serious threat to the government with the country left embarrassed by its ruling and the war guilt that Germany faced. The extreme right in particular were a threat to the republic. The actions of the Spartacists in particular concerned the leaders of the SPD as they knew that they could not rely on the support of the army in the face of a revolt. Thus a deal was done with the right wing (the pre 1918 military, judiciary and civil service).
Louis XVI's government was very ineffective and inefficient. The estates system contributed to the paucity of his administration as many bureaucratic positions were filled my members of the aristocracy who were ineffective administrators. The upshot of this was firstly high taxation, as nobles etc. all took a cut of tax, and secondly resentment, as the path up the social structure was blocked by nepotism and favouritism. This decentralisation of government through the aristocracy was also inefficient and chaotic.