King Louis And The French Revolution

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King Louis XVI and the French Revolution The French Revolution was a major event that inviolably changed France and later all of Europe. There were many factors which contributed to the revolution’s severity, but the biggest was how horrible of a king King Louis XVI was. He played a key role in the Revolution; it was his actions and his mistakes which caused and formed the entirety of the French Revolution. King Louis XVI’s mistakes were a big part of his role as being the king during the French Revolution. One of his very serious was his funding of the American Revolution. In the spring if 1776, America entered the American Revolution in hopes to gain freedom from Great Britain, and King Louis XVI saw this as an opportunity for them to humiliate France’s long-standing enemy Great Britain by helping the Americans. Though France was already in a financial crisis, King Louis XVI sent out many troops and large sums of money across the ocean to America. Americans won their independence and everything was going well until 1783, when Britain sank the main French fleet. The end result was that Louis ended up spending 1,066 livres on the American Revolution, which he funded by taking out large loans at high interest rates. Instead of doing what is good for the country, Louis funded the American Revolution and put France is a serious financial catastrophe. He did not care though; he led a life of luxury while the peasantry starved and resorted to stealing bread or going hungry. Another mistake made by Louis was what is known as the Flight to Varennes. On October 5, 1789, a group of 7,000 poor Parisian women decided to march to Versailles in a mob and attack. The next day, scared for his life, Louis consults with Count Axel von Fersen, who formulates a plan for the royal family to escape. The plan was to disguise the royal family and take them from his château La Place
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