Jonathan Weiss 11/25 Moscow-French Revolution essay
What where the three main causes that lead to the French Revolution?
The French Revolution, The Result Of King Louis Presence as a Monarch
King Louis XVI ruled France from 1774 until 1793 taking on many different positions between being an absolute monarch, to sharing power with others such as the
Jacobins Club. Although many wealthy citizens adored Louis for how he ruled France, the majority tended to loathe him due to his common tendencies of devastating the lives of the underprivileged citizens. In King Louis’s intolerant organization of France, Louis made many insolent decisions which led to the revolt of the majority of the citizens of
France known as “The French Revolution”. Although many historians have argued that the French Revolution is due to “The Enlightenment”, closer examination shows that the
French Revolution was due to Louis’s poor decisions such as participating in wars that
France couldn’t afford, allowing the majority to live in despair and impoverished settings, and banning those under the Nobility and Clergy from participating in government.
The Kings decision to ally with America for the sake of hurting Great Britain was a main cause that led to the French Revolution as the war that France entered in, left them poor and desperate to obtain money even if it meant hurting the lives of others. The citizens of France were outraged by how the King handled his disastrous mistakes as after loosing previous wars such as the “Seven Years War”, he did not learn from France’s mistakes and lost twice as much of Frances property in the American Revolution within each year. This war, fought by an expensive French army led to the loss of “possessions in North America. Not only did this war cost France many of it’s overseas colonies, it had cost nearly twice as much per year as the previous year”1. Because of such extravagant losses, France would solve their problems through loans, writing off debt, and most importantly; raising taxes and bread prices which would lead to the frustration and

1 Watson Institute for International Studies, Part II: Crises and Change (Rhode Island: Brown University), 13.

starvation of the peasants. Moving forward, the citizens of France despised how the King was living in luxury and how his mistakes were placed not on his part, nor the rest of
France’s, but only on the peasants. The monstrosity of his decision and way of living, was the “result of years of extravagance intensified by the expense of the American War of Independence”2. Because of two selfish choices of proceeding his mistakes through means of placing the responsibility of the war on the poorest of France and not sparing any of his luxury, the peasants became bitter and would eventually raise riots against the injustices that they faced. total federal expenditures exceeded revenues during many years in the 1790s. With taking loans from other countries as another solution to solving
France’s financial ruin and not paying the countries back, France would double the tax of peasants as more countries gave France less money due to mistrust. Because of this,
France not paying the countries back became an epidemic to the peasants as they would continue to give up what little they had left to France and eventually revolt. This constant raise of taxes was due to how “the high amount of money owed made it harder to get more loans”3 which would lead to resistance as the mistrust of countries would lead to the higher taxes imposed on the poor. Because of France’s poor decisions and unorganized plan to come back from the financial downfall that immerged from the American
Revolution by placing all responsibility on