Essay On Why Did The Middle Class Win The French Revolution

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The revolution that occurred in France during the eighteenth century became the harbinger for new ideas which originated with righteous proclamations and ended in a reign of terror. I think that it is best to say that the middle class did not win the French Revolution because it ultimately ended in radicalism and violence, which outweighed the potential gains of the revolution. Because of the financial crisis that had befallen France in 1789 due to their stiff competition with Britain to for supremacy and support for the American Revolution, many voices began to advocate for reforms in the economy and the national government. In light of this, pamphlets began to flood the populace bringing about new ideas of reform such as, Rousseau’s social …show more content…

The Declaration defines a set of collective and individual rights for all men while emphasizing the principles of popular sovereignty, in contrast to the divine right of kings that characterized that of the French monarchy. It sought to establish social equality and that all citizens would be considered equal in the eyes of the law which ultimately assisted in eliminating the special rights of the nobility and clergy. However, we begin to see where part of the revolution fails when it starts to become more radical and committing to its insistence of more power and relief from economic distress. After the execution of Louis XVI at the guillotine, the revolution began to spiral into a reign of terror due to the formation of the Committee of Public Safety which instated new policies to dispose of those that they saw as …show more content…

Yes successes were obtained but at the cost of many failures. The revolution did abolish the monarchy and the feudal systems, giving citizens a feel for liberty, equality, and power while giving rise to social theories of equality between the rich and the poor. Nonetheless, the revolution brought plenty of war and terror to France, on top of never forming a successful government; many lives were lost due to consistent wars and mass executions throughout the reign of terror and the revolution could never really gain full protection of the lower class. Because these issues ran their course throughout the French revolution it can be seen as a failure. Thousands were executed with questionable charges, trials were not practiced, war ravaged the country, and people who questioned the ruling of Robespierre were killed. The revolution should’ve been a tool for the third estate to reform and build a government that could benefit them, but the end result was far from that. The transition from a monarchy to a republic was a bloody transition that ended in a losing situation because of the amount of lives that were lost and the establishment of a proper government did not happen as it should

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