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The Causes of the French Revolution (notes):
• The French Revolution was the result of a conglomeration of social, economic and political issues
that underpinned eighteenth century French society
• Poorly combated by France’s incompetent and indecisive monarch, this pinnacle of social and
economic inequity, financial crisis and mass political and ideological friction, ultimately
compelled the people of France to challenge his absolute authority and redefine their nation on the
opposing values of ‘Liberte, Egalite’ and ‘Fraternite’
• The events of the French Revolution heavily influenced the remainder of European history and
laid the foundation for the post-modernistic society

Social Causes
• The ancien, or ‘previous’ regime; the heavily inequitable and fundamentally impractical
political and social system that governed pre-revolutionary France
• France under the ancien regime was established upon the concept of privilege and birthright
• Whilst the monarch inherited divine right by which to rule the kingdom, his subjects derived their
rights and status from the membership they inherited to one of the three divisions, or Estates, of
French society
• Overseeing all Estates was the Monarchy , which, in the late 18th century was lead by LouisAuguste, head of the bourbon dynasty
• King Louis XVI was an absolute monarch who possessed sovereign legislative power and whose
actions were accountable to God alone
• Louis XVI possessed massive general influence and his subjects often had to compete for his
favour or rely on his benevolence to compensate for the unreliability of the law
• Just below the social standing of the king was the 1st Estate, an overall wealthy and prestigious
Estate comprised of around 130,000 ordained members of the Catholic church
• The Catholic church was the only church sanctioned by the monarchy, a necessary endorsement
as the authority of the clergy consolidated the monarch’s divine right to rule
• The Catholic Church was deliberately and critically intertwined with the social, political and
economic anatomy of France and was bestowed with a considerable amount of political influence
and responsibility to ‘educate’ society
• The Church honoured this responsibility by perpetuating superstitious ideals about God, the
afterlife and the fundamental importance of the church, in doing so, reinforcing their own social
standing, underpinning the authority of the monarchy and accumulating mass wealth
...

• This exemption was commonly challenged by Government ministers and as a compromise,
church leaders agreed to provide the state with a don gratuit, or ’voluntary gift’, every five years
...
This frustration was a crucial source of political tension with the King
Despite comprising 98 percent of the nation, the third estate was at the bottom of the French
social hierarchy, and consisted of the bourgeoisie, peasants and the artisans
The bourgeoisie, or ‘upper middle’, class consisted of merchants, intellectuals, bankers,
manufacturers, doctors, engineers and lawyers
The bourgeoisie had similar wealth and social status to the 2rd Estate, but the French Monarch,
influenced by the clergies and nobles, ranked them as the 3rd Estate and marginalised them as
such
The peasants, however, were not financially strong, as they were heavily exploited by the other
Estates
Strapped with a range of taxes, tithes and feudal dues, the 3rd Estate carried the devastating
burden of their nations current economic crisis, whilst the majority of the upper Estates flaunted
lifestyles of opulence and gluttony
The presupposed taxation inequity and general oppression of the 3rd Estate was a long-standing
source of social and political vexation which, when coupled with the frustrations of the Lower
Clergy and 2nd Estate, festered into an almost national resentment for the operation of society
...
Though her Austrian descent predisposed her for unpopularity,
it was largely through her frivolous spending habits that she became the much loathed symbol of
royal excess, preferred national scapegoat and bearer of the fitting nickname ‘Madame Deficit’
...
This, coupled with relentless taxing from the monarchy was overwhelming the Third
Estate, most of which had descended into poverty and were struggling to feed themselves, let
alone their families
• Louis XVI, whilst not as oblivious as he was stereotyped as being, was not nearly competent nor
persistent enough to make any real progress towards reform

• Fearing revolts from the Third Estate and desperately seeking relief from the Crown’s mammoth
debt, Louis XVI instead, tasked various ministers of finance over the course of the 1780s, with
evaluating the situation and proposing a solution
• The first of these was Jacques Necker, who attempted some minor reforms, though was dismissed
by the other King after he published a report on the income and expenditure of the State that
advertised false surplus
• Hired to replace Necker, was Jacques Turgot, who sought to minimise the expenditure and
corruption of the royal court and attempted to compel the King to increase tax revenue, by
retracting the tax exemption privilege of the 1st and 2nd Estates
• These radical propositions, merged with the resentful attitude of Marie Antoinette and a string of
prestigious nobles, eventually forced Turgot into resignation, leaving France’s economy in a dire
condition and enraging the Third Estate
• The next Finance Minister of France in 1783 was Charles-Alexandre Callone, who's proposition
to abolish tax privileges and internal tax barriers was also dismissed, driving him to borrow from
foreign bankers in order to meet the expenditure of the royal court
• Whilst it offered immediate relief, this policy was barely a solution, propelling the national debt
from 300,000,000 to 600,000,000 Franks within the span of only three years
...
This major act of defiance
challenged the absolutism of Louis XVI and fuelled a nationwide ‘aristocratic revolt’
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They refused to enforce financial minister
Etienne Briennes' fiscal reforms targeting the 3rd Estate, radically asserting that new taxes could
only be approved by the three Estates combined
• Though Louis XVI warred with the parliament over legislative sovereignty for eight solid months,
in 1788, the nationwide protests and demonstrations against the monarchy, ultimately compelled
Louis XVI to surrender
...

• The ‘aristocracy revolt’ served as an ultimate demonstration that much of the populace of France
were willing to sacrifice their own social and political liberties for equality; a powerful message
to the monarchy that served as a significant catalyst for the revolution

Ideological Causes
• Despite France’s urgent need for reform, It was only when the enmity of the people collided with
a series of progressive ideals opposing the rigid social, political and economic institutions of the
Ancien regime, that the need for total social, economic and political overhaul was truly realised
• Largely emboldened by the recent American Revolution, the ideals were centred in rational
questioning and empirical research, concepts that directly contradicted the previously unopposed
perpetuations of the church and challenged the foundation of monarchical power
• The 18th Century philosophers, thinkers and writers, otherwise known as the philosophes,
expressed the urgency of this intellectual movement, through public dialogues and publications
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They laid claim to an accountable, representative government that would defend
their freedom and equality, based on popular sovereignty, rather than absolutism
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This relentless, somewhat childish inflexibility was the
monarchy’s ultimate downfall

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