French Revolution Causes And Effects

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Term Paper Title	French Revolution Causes And Effects
# of Words	3137
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	12.55

     French Revolution Causes and Effects
Often in society whenever some particular groups of people acquire too much power or wealth, it will create a class struggle.  This usually results in a chain of events that will cause society to change its practices.  Whether it is the American Revolution,  the Civil Rights movement of the 60's and 70's, or in the case of the French Revolution,  people were willing to lose their lives,  just so they could have equal and unbiased treatment.  It is almost as if there is an unwritten set of checks and balances for society, and when one group tries to abuse its power another will take action to balance it.  This is very evident during the rule of King Louis XVI and his dealings with the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie.  The results of the actions of all three groups led to the rise of the revolution and eventually a whole new France.
The first problem was that France, after aiding the American Revolution,  was now bankrupt, and Louis needed to replenish national coffers.  The nobility and the clergy side of the Estates General, a representative voice of the people,  refused to relinquish their tax exemption causing the Third Estate- the middle class to suffer the burden.  The winter of 1789 was particularly harsh, due to a poor grain crop, the price of bread was high, which also created unrest since France was the most populated European country at the time and could not adequately feed it (Hartman 1).   This had a severe impact on the peasant and farmers making it almost impossible to survive.  At this same time the bourgeoisie was supporting laissez-faire, economic freedom without government intervention,  economics but also wanted to end feudalism, in an attempt to create their own power base.  All of this led to the calling of the Estates-General.
    As soon as the three Estates began to meet, the conflicts surfaced.  On the first day of the meetings, Louis and his ministers failed to introduce a program of reforms for the deputies to consider.  This raised doubt about the monarchy's commitment to reform.  More important it allowed the political initiative to pass the Third Estate.  The deputies boldly challenged the Crown's insistence that the three Estates meet and vote separately.  The Third Estate refused to be certified as just the Third Estate rather than members of the Estates General as a whole (Doyle 88).       Over a short period of time the Third Estate built up in strength winning over more deputies....

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