French Revolution

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of the poor people during this time. The people was very upset about with all the government spending and debt. For they were the ones paying for it in their taxes, the peasantry was poor and consisted of the peasants over the population. The poor were very upset and parts of it rebelled which contributed to the start of the revolution. Marie Antoinette and taxes. There were many other causes as well, although some changes were bad like women lose some ground, it helped pave the way to modern France.

Another cause of the revolution was political. King Louis XV said, “L’etat c’est moi.. . . It is in my person alone that sovereign power resides.” After the Enlightenment, this meant to most Frenchmen that the King had too much power. Also, as Friedman and Foner write, Louis XVI still claimed to rule by the divine right of Kings, but even Hobbes in the 17th century had declared that kings had no such right. Therefore, many French men and women rejected the claims of Louis XVI.

From all of the evidence above, it is clear that the situation in pre-revolutionary France was deeply unfair. Taxes were paid by the Third Estate but not by the other two. Aristocrats and the clergy had plenty to eat, but poor people could not even buy bread. Especially in terms of Enlightenment thinking, kings tried to exert too much power and to justify their actions by the outdated concept of the divine right of kings, The French wanted true freedom and equality, but in the short-term they got Napoleon and in the longer run the monarchy was restored. Today, people around the world seek greater freedom and equality also, but will they be more successful than the French.