The French Revolution Essay -- essays research papers

The cut transitionThe years before the French innovation (which started in 1789 AD.) wereones of vast, unexpected change and confusion. One of the changes was thedecline of the power of the nobles, which had a severe impact on the loyalty of whatsoever of the nobles to King Louis 16. other change was the increasing powerof the newly established centre of attention class, which would essence in the monarchybecoming obsolete. The angry and easily manipulated peasants, who were used bythe bourgeoisie for their stimulate benefit were another significant change, andfinally the decline of the traditional monarchy, that for so long had ruled,were all factors to the main point that the French Revolution was caused by apolitical base, with social disorder and economic unstableness contributing tothe upheaval. All of the sub-factors relate with one-another, but are separatein their own ways.For centuries, the French noble was well set in society. He foundprosperity and security in t he old regime, and all he had to do was pay homageto the king, and provide the king with his services. This all came to a gradualstop, however beginning with the loss of the nobles power over their own landat the hands of Louis XIV.1 This was the foundation of the revolte nobiliairein the fact that it form a basis of mistrust, and anger for the monarch.2 Inthat time the feudal formation was still being practiced, so social status wasbased on the amount of land you could attain. With no land, the nobles sawthemselves to be as putting surface as the common folk. Even in their arrogance they sawthat they were losing power. The abutting blow to the pride of the nobles came fromLouis XV, who passed a bill to let wealthy commoners procure prominent spots inpolitical and social positions. This event shows how debased and money hungrythe government had become, by letting anyone find steep up in the political chainjust by aliment the gluttonous king. The next king, Louis XVI saw that themajority of France (75%) was peasants and serfs. Consequently, to try to controltheir happiness (and prevent the Revolution), he had the Estates-Generalabolish the feudal system, in which they held no ranking.4 This made thenobility extremely unhappy. With no feudal system, they no drawn-out were muchhigher up politicly than the commoners. The next noble atrocity came with LouisXVI making the nobles pay taxes. Ever since... ...hat the monarch was untouchable. Seeing ashow Louis was to get his head chopped off, that resolution may not have been agood idea. To make things even more equal and just, the commoners had one of the cardinal votes his Estates-General. This meant fair representation, but it alsomeant that the nobles were upset with their decline of power and the commoners valued more of their new-found power. All of these ideas seem to be good ones,but ones that would, and did accidental injury his position. One evidently disadvantageously move was toheavily tax ever yone. The peasants were already heavily taxed, so they were thenbrought to famine, the nobles were never taxed before and consequently disgruntled and the middle class just did not like it. If Louis XVI were live(a)today he would probably be a good politician-too bad the people were not readyfor him in 1789.Historians have argued for centuries over what started the FrenchRevolution some say economics, some say politics some say the change of socialstructure. The only logical answer, then is that it was a little (or a lot) ofall three, resulting in the decline of nobility, the rise of the middle class,the anger of the peasants and the fall of monarchy.