The Causes of the French Revolution

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at a number of factors that contributed to the French Revolution including the role of the bourgeoisie, the extent to which tensions between and within the First, Second and Third Estates stimulated the revolutionary fervor amongst the peasants and the middle class, and the ideological role of the Enlightenment. The paper also looks at the view of Steven Kreis that the Enlightenment and the American example merely fueled bourgeoisie discontent. Thus, the paper concludes that although all the theories have an element of truth, the idea that the revolution was fueled by bourgeoisie discontent seems the most persuasive.

From the Paper:

"Steven Kreis subscribes to the theory that the newly empowered French bourgeoisie had developed a collective sense of its great significance and power in the new French 18th century economy. Many members of the bourgeoisie, such as the powerful merchants, manufacturers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, intellectuals produced by the rapidly expanding industrial sector, had acquired tremendous amounts of money. This social segment owned 20% of all the land, but they could not use their wealth to gain status or privilege. Unlike the aristocracy and clergy they had to pay taxes on what they had earned through toil, not through birth. Thus the bourgeoisie were angry at the current social segmentation of France, and wanted members of the French Roman Catholic Church, army and government positions opened up to members of the Third Estate. They believed that such positions should be allocated upon merit, not upon past aristocratic parentage."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Kreis, Steven. "Lecture 11: The Origins of the French Revolution." The History Guide: Lectures on Modern European History. 2000. October 30, 2006. http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture11a.html

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