Causes of the French Revolution
The French Revolution in the 18th century was when the Peasants of France fought for their independence. The revolution started because the peasants were unhappy with the way France was being run. They didn’t like that they had to pay the most taxes. They also couldn’t get any of the well-paid jobs and they were starving. These are some of the causes of the revolution.
Monarchy
The monarchy at the time of the revolution was king Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette. Being married to Marie Antoinette didn’t really help Louis’s position as king. Marie Antoinette was very disliked by the people of France but was said to be very beautiful and graceful. People thought that she wasted the country’s money on herself and interfered with the running of the country. It was also said the she liked to gamble.
One of the main causes of the revolution was that the people of France didn’t like the king, but they had good reason. Louis didn’t seem to care much about the country, more about his own family, making clocks; locks and he had a passion for hunting. The reason that France was annoyed at the king was that he didn’t run the country fairly and at the calling of the Estates General, Louis wasn’t listening to the complaints. But the reason the king was acting the way he was at the meeting was because his 11-year-old son had just died so this was a hard time for him. But this was no excuse for the way he ran the country. With the peasants being most of the population, he was losing respect from more then half the population of France.
Estates
France at the time was separated into three groups or “Estates”. The First Estate was the Clergy, The Second Estate was made up of the Nobles, and the Third Estate was the peasants, urban workers and landless labourers. The king ruled over everyone. A big reason for the peasants to revolt was the way the French people were being taxed. The peasants were annoyed by the fact that...