1 / 11

Causes of the French Revolution

Causes of the French Revolution. The Ancien Regime. 18 th Century France was a feudal society. The country was divided into three classes: Clergy, Nobles, and everyone else. The first two classes contained 3% of the population, and the third class contained 97% of the population.

dasan
Download Presentation

Causes of the French Revolution

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Causes of the French Revolution

  2. The Ancien Regime • 18th Century France was a feudal society. • The country was divided into three classes: Clergy, Nobles, and everyone else. • The first two classes contained 3% of the population, and the third class contained 97% of the population. • Nobles and clergy paid few taxes, but peasants and bourgeois were taxed heavily.

  3. Louis XIV: The Sun King • Ruled from 1643 (when he was four) until his death in 1715. • Ruled as an absolute monarch, and never called on the Estates-General. • Said “L`état c`est moi”: I am the state. • Moved the capital to Versailles. • Involved France in three major wars, which severely depleted the royal treasury.

  4. Louis XV • Ruled from 1715 (age 4) to death in 1774. • Fought the Seven Years War (1756-1763) against Britain, during which France lost most of its colonies to Britain, including New France (Quebec). • These losses, and the extravagance of his court, weakened the treasury and discredited the monarchy.

  5. Louis XVI • Came to power in 1774, at age 20. • Decided to support the American Revolution, as revenge for French losses to Britain in 1763. • Spent over one billion livres on the war, enough to feed and house 7 million French citizens for one year.

  6. Growing Economic Crisis • France is bankrupted by its spending on the Seven Years War and the American Revolution. • Poor harvests in 1788 worsen the crisis. • The price of bread rises to the equivalent of one month’s earning for the average worker. • The court at Versailles continues to spend lavishly.

  7. Response to Crisis • Two different finance ministers, A.R.J. Turgot and Jacques Necker, had tried to tax the nobility to raise money for the government. • Both had been fired by Louis XVI. • Necker was an enlightenment thinker, and was popular with the people.

  8. The Spread of the Enlightenment • Many people, especially in Paris, became influenced by Enlightenment ideals. • These included democracy, equality, and freedom of press and of religion. • Enlightenment thinkers challenged the absolute power of the monarchy, the power of the church, and the privileges of the aristocracy.

More Related