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Was the French revolution a revolution of all classes against the old system of governemnt
income. They were forced to pay taxes on their income, land, property, crops, salt, tobacco, wine and cider. This were just too much for a hard working individual to pay and on top of all of this, they were forced into military service Members of the third estate were tired of being treated unfairly. Clearly this system was unjust and reforms were necessary.
The major causes of the Revolution were the differences these groups had. France was suffering from harsh economic problems at this time. There was no central treasury to collect taxes and so in many parts of France, the taxes were either not paid, or kept by the accountants. This resulted in a deficit. The government borrowed money to pay for the wars of Louis XIV. These costs greatly increased the national debt, which was, at the time, already too high. When King Louis XVI came into power, he realized that these problems were severe. He appointed Robert Turgot to help ease the financial crisis. However, Turgot faced a crisis when trying to introduce a major reform, to tax the nobles. The king could not tax the nobles unless the Parliament approved of the new tax laws. The people in the courts that voted on these laws were the nobles, called ‘noblesse de robe’ and they therefore rejected Turgot’s reforms immediately. After he failed, Louis summoned the Estates General in 1789. When they met, the representatives from the Third Estate demanded that the three estates meet together, with each deputy having an equal vote. That way, the First and Second Estates could outvote the Third Estate. The King, however, demanded that the three estates meet separately. This caused anger within the Third Estate. The deputies from this class declared themselves the National Assembly. Louis immediately rejected these deputies from the meeting. He eventually decided that it would be best if the three estates met together. He therefore ordered the other two estates to join the Third Estate in the National Assembly.
Although they successfully met together, there was division amongst them. Some wanted to protect their rights, while others wanted to establish a limited, constitutional monarchy. This sparked change amongst the French people. Immediately, after the National Assembly secretly began working on a constitution, the peasants and workers expected relief from taxes and other dues that they paid. Little happened and they faced the same problems of unemployment and inflation.
When Louis brought troops to Versailles, many citizens feared that he wanted to get rid of the National Assembly. As a result, they stormed the Bastille. Other disturbances broke out. People were caught in what was known as the “Great Fear”. The peasants destroyed grain towers and destroyed tax records, showing that they would never pay taxes. To raise money that was needed, the government began to sell off church lands, which angered many Catholics. This was essentially the beginning of the much-needed revolution in France to introduce reforms.
The Revolution was sparked by the discontent of all the [next page]