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Why did France have a revolution in 1789
On 4th of May 1789 the French king, Louis XVI, called the Estates General, in an attempt to rescue France’s ailing fortunes. This set the ball rolling down the road to revolution. The causes of the revolution had not appeared over night but were the result of many years of poor governing. This was the last straw, and on the 14th of July the patience of the Parisian workers hit boiling point and the Bastille was stormed, it was demolished brick by brick, around the country other peasants had had enough and were also revolting, this marked the beginning of the French revolution. By the end of the revolution France would emerge as a democracy, run by the people, for people, and the feudal system would have been abolished. Nobles would have been stripped of their powers and privileges, and the king would have been beheaded.
Long-term political woes played a part in the French revolution. In France before 1789 the system of government was an absolute monarchy and the French people were encouraged to believe that the king was all-powerful. This system was not in itself a cause for revolution, and there is not much evidence that the French had a problem with the system, but absolute monarchy relies on a strong monarch. Louis XIV was a strong king and promoted growth in manufacturing in France, making it the envy of Europe, but his successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI were not strong governors. Both took part in long costly wars and suffered brutal defeats, for example the French army was crushed by the Prussians, and also the Seven Years War against Britain (1756-63). This system of government particularly began to show weakness in the run up to 1789, French farmers suffered a series of awful harvests, and the country had acquired huge debts to foreign creditors, this drove the King to increase taxes on the poor and to have to cut spending which angered peasants.
Intellectual causes were a factor in the French revolution. France sent soldiers to fight in the American war of independence to get back at the British after losing the Seven Years War, this may have worked against France though because thought the British were defeated, many French soldiers cam back talking of the wonders of democracy and the freedoms it brought. Many of theses soldiers may have wondered why they were fighting in another country for freedoms they did not have in their own. Again I do not think that this was one of the principal causes of the revolution because the soldiers fighting were not from the 3rd estate, but most of the people who revolted were. I think that it was more an example of what a revolution could achieve, and set a framework for any possible revolution. Most importantly it put the ideas of revolution into the minds of French people, who would probably have had no idea of how else a country [next page]