CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION DBQ
Historical Context: The French Revolution of 1789 had many long-range causes. Political, social, and economic conditions in France made many French people discontented. Most disaffected were merchants, artisans, workers, and peasants. The ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers brought new views of government and society. The American Revolution also influenced the coming of the French Revolution.
This diagram illustrates the three French estates in 1789 and the land each held during the Old Regime.
In the south of France there is a taille [tax on the land and its produce]. There is an injustice in levying the amount each person must pay. Lands held by the nobility are taxed very little. Lands held by commoners are taxed heavily. . . . September 5, 1788: The poor people seem very poor indeed. The children are terribly ragged. June 10, 1789: The lack of bread is terrible. Stories arrive every moment from the provinces of riots. . . . The price of bread has risen above people’s ability to pay. This causes great misery. July 1789: . . . I was joined by a poor woman who complained of the hard times. “The tailles and feudal dues [rents owed the lords] are crushing us,” she said.
Source: Arthur Young, Travels in France and Italy During the Years 1787, 1788, and 1789, E.P. Dutton & Co, 1927 (adapted)
That the king be forced to reform the abuses and tyranny of lettre de cachet [a letter allowing a person to be jailed without trial]. That every tax . . . be granted [by the Estates General] only for a limited time. That the taille [a tax on land] be borne equally by all classes. . . . The meetings of the Estates General . . . shall be scheduled for definite times. . . . In order to assure the third estate the influence it deserves because of its numbers, . . . its votes in the assembly should be taken and counted by head.
These are excerpts from the cahiers (lists of grievances about the king, taxing, and voting) brought to the Estates General.
The Revolution had been accomplished in the minds of men long before it was translated into fact. . . . The middle class . . . was sensitive to their inferior legal position. The Revolution came from them—the middle class. The working classes were incapable of starting or controlling the Revolution. They were just beginning to learn to read.
In The French Revolution, historian Albert Mathiez claimed that leadership fell to the middle class because of what those people knew about Enlightenment ideas.
Source: Albert Mathiez, The French Revoluion, Grosset & Dunlap, 1964 (adapted)
The condition of France alone did not bring about the overthrow of the monarchy. . . . For the sufferings of the people were not greater than they had been before. . . . The ideas of the philosophes were not directly responsible for the outbreak. . . . [T]he spark that changed thought into action was supplied by the Declaration of American Independence. . . . [T]he American example caused the Revolution to break out.
Lord Acton, a professor at Cambridge University, suggested another point of view.
Source: Lord Acton, Lectures on the French Revolution, Macmillan, 1910 (adapted)
Question 1
What was the most important cause of the French Revolution?
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