French Revolution
The definition of structure is things you can’t control. On the other hand the definition of agency is the things that we do have control over. Structure is determined by how it works with agency, and agency is determined by how we follow structure. Knowing how these two concepts revolve around each other helps us by giving us a better understanding of how past societies worked: which in return should give us a better way construct our current societies as well as our future ones. Without structure or agency society is left with chaos. Using the two textbooks “Worlds of History,” and “The Heritage of World Civilizations” I will explain the reasons that allowed the French Revolution to occur.
The first revolution was sparked by the failing structure of the French monarchy after the Seven Years’ War. The war left France deeply in debt, also contributions France made to the U.S. during the American Revolution made their financial situation even worse. When the situation reached its low, King Louis XVI finally agreed to let the Estates General to meet in 1789. The pressure from the people of France left the king with no choice but to let the Estates General meet. This prime of example of how much structure is affected by agency. Since the king’s policies had to work with the people of France, there was no way his structure would be able to with stand without the support from his people. At this point he was starting to lose their trust.
A series of mistakes made by the king allowed for his reign to come closer to its end. The first event to occur came when the king refused to accept the National Assembly’s proposal of a Constitutional Monarchy form of government. The king’s next mistake came when he tried to show his power against the National Assembly when decided to gather his troops outside the cities of Versailles and Paris. The move was made to shut down any thoughts of a revolution, but the citizens were already outraged due...