The French Revolution

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In the latter years of the eighteenth century, France was an aristocratic bureaucracy, presided over by sovereign monarch Louis XVI. France was ruled under the Ancien Régime; a social and political system established by the French in the early renaissance period of the fifteenth century, until the late eighteenth century where it was violently overturned in the French Revolution. ‘ Under the Ancien Régime the richer a man was, the less he paid.’1 The French Revolution, beginning in 1789 was an era of social and political upheaval that saw the collapse of the absolute monarchy and its prejudice class system. Before the French Revolution of 1789, France was subject to a social division dictated by ones circumstance of birth and wealth. The entire French population of twenty-three million was separated into three estates; the Nobility, Clergy and the Third Estate. This hierarchical division is often thought to be greatly responsible for the social discontent and unrest that would see the violent events of the French Revolution. The segregation of societal groups in post-renaissance France, the despotic monarchy, France’s involvement in the American War of Independence as well as pervasive food and financial crisis’ all played a significant role in the emergence of the French Revolution.

The three orders of social class; the Nobility, Clergy and the Third Estate were greatly disproportionate. At the outbreak of revolution in 1789, France had a total population of twenty-three million, only four hundred thousand of these were nobles. A further one hundred thousand were a part of the Clergy, a societal group with its own entitlements made up of priests, monks and nuns. The remainder of the population were a part of the Third Estate;...

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...ance, dictated by ones privilege of birth and wealth, lead to the uprising of the Third Estate and essentially the upheaval of the monarchy. It can be said that the class system hierarchy in post-renaissance France contributed to the events of the French Revolution to a large extent; it can also be said that the French monarchy, involvement in the American War of Independence, as well as the consequential financial and food crisis’ were also major contributing factors to the French Revolution of 1789.

Works Cited

1. Doyle, W 1989, The Oxford History of the French Revolution, Oxford University Press, Walton Street Oxford, Great Britain.

2. Lefebvre, G 1967, The Coming of the French Revolution, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, United States.

3. Mettam, R 1988, Power and Faction in Louis XVI's France, T.J. Press, Oxford, Great Britain.

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