All of these steps toward a better future lead to the French Revolution. But why was there a French Revolution in the first place? Well, it began when King Louis XVI became the ruler of France in 1774. He was definitely not considered a good king. He heavily taxed the third estate, which comprised of merchants and peasants all together totaling to 98% of the population, in hopes to relieve the financial problems of France.
Known also as Black Tuesday, October 29th left stockholders shattered with recorded losses reaching $40 billion dollars (Kelly, n.d.). Many banks and financial institutions began collapsing which led to irretrievable, uninsured deposits and savings. Fearing further loss, people began spending less which led to a decrease in production and an increase in unemployment. As companies began to fail, the government devised the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in order to protect American businesses. The Tariff placed high taxes on imports leading to a decline in international trade.
Main causes of French revolution were poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Bad weather caused poor harvest for several years, and the French government did not help people. Immediately before the French revolution bread riots broke out. The reasons for differences of American and French revolutions were the leaders. In America, most of the leaders were, wealthy bourgeoisie, who owned vast manors and incredible wealth, so they were concerned about their wealth and their place in the society, they had much to
In source 4 we also learn that much must have depended on diplomatic relations with Maximilian and Ferdinand, however Henry’s allies proved unfaithful and unreliable. Source 4, is written by a member of the Government of England. The government is who Henry and Wolsey would go to for Money for these situations. The Government did not like how much Money Henry kept asking for so this could have been reflected in Keith Randall’s report. Henry spent 1.4 millions pounds on fighting wars between 1511-25 and this set England back a far way.
On the other hand, none of these factors compare to the financial situation in which France, was terrible and is show in (sources B, C, D and E) , making this the most supported interpretation that finance was the main problem of the French monarchy in 1789. This is because all other factors of problems of the French Monarchy come from the financial problems that the Crown had at the time. The evidence to support the interpretation of finance was the main problem of the French monarchy can be shown in source B where it states “lack of money has been beyond the French government’s ability to solve…revenue of 600milions, the King has declared bankruptcy.” This suggests that finance was the main problem of the French monarchy because they were bankrupt. This can be explained by tax issues in source C” We beg the king to remove the clergy the privilege of taxing itself, wanting it to be taxed the same way as the third estate… We likewise desire that all nobles be taxed in the same way in the same way and other privileged people as well.” The extravagance of the court is another reason explaining the bankruptcy in France. “The two privileged orders that still retained control of the government were
In the period 1783 to 93 William Pitt was involved in many different reforms, in areas of finance, administrative and commercial. These were crucial in some way and contributed to Pitt trying to bring about a national revival in Britain. The American War of Independence had had a serious affect on Britain, by ruining government finances, due to the costs of war and the disruption to trade caused by the war. The main problem facing Pitt was the national debt; it had rose, by 91%, to £250 million, with the government expenditure exceeding income by £10.5 million per annum. In addition the interest on the debt alone was £9 million per year.
How serious were the problems Elizabeth faced in 1558? Upon her succession in 1558, Elizabeth faced a number of issues of varying severity. One of the most serious was the financial state of the country; her predecessor Mary I, persuaded by her husband Phillip of Spain, had waged a hugely costly war against France. Unable to afford such a war, England eventually lost Calais, a humiliating defeat, and by the time Elizabeth came to the throne the nation was in debt to the tune of £227,000, much of it borrowed from the Netherlands at high interest rates of 14%. The trade of England’s biggest export, wool, was in decline, leading to massive unemployment and straining foreign relations.
Aside from reducing state revenues for overseas expeditions, the domestic policies of Philip II further burdened Spain and would in the following century, contribute to its decline. This caused inflation and a high tax for all the workers under his rule. The Spending of all this money lead to Spain's first bankruptcy in 1557 due to rising military costs. This eventually led to a failure in leading his people, and it was his debt that truly ended his reign. (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Philip_II_of_Spain) (Spielvogel,456, The Human
The British embarrassed the Confederation by keeping frontier forts on the American side of the boundary set up by the peace treaty. III Weakness of the Articles of Confederation 1.There were many weaknesses and the congress could not establish a common currency. 2. Without money the federal government could not pay or fund the large war debts. Congress was not getting enough money from the states and need lots more.
But this soon changed as Henry VIII doubled household expenditure and started costly wars against both France and Scotland. With his wealth rapidly decreasing, Henry VIII imposed a series of taxes devised by his finance minister, Thomas Wolsey. Soon the people began to resent Wolsey's taxes and a new source of finance had to be found: in 1544, Henry reduced the silver content of new coins by about 50%; this was repeated to a lesser extent the following year. This, combined with injection of bullion from the New World, increased the money supply in England; which led to continuing price inflation. This threatened landowners' wealth, which encouraged the landowners to become more efficient, and enclosure was seen as a way of doing