The French Revolution

A detailed Summary of The French Revolution

The French Revolution is one of the most significant events in history. It was more far reaching than the American and the English revolutions, and it had a bigger impact on 19th century Europe (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). By the end of the revolution the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, had been written. These two documents had been fashioned from the beliefs of two political philosophers, Montesquieu and Rousseau. Frances political history leads to the creation of a revolutionary environment, and in return started the revolution.

The framers of the declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female citizen drew their thoughts from the political philosophers, Charles Louis de Secondant, Baron de Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. These were the 2 most influential philosophers in the 18th century.

Montesquieu was a lawyer, a noble of the robe, and a member of a provincial parlement (Kagan, 603). Montesquieu favored the separation of powers in government. He felt that liberty is only found in moderate governments (Kagan, 604). Montesquieu broke government into 3 different kinds of power: the legislat

In 1788, King Louis XVI summoned the Estates General to take care of the problems arising with the estates; this was the beginning of the end of Louis (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). Then later that year the Third Estate decided to change its name to the National Assembly and disregard the King (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). The thoughts of the philosophes filled the Bourgeoisie heads with thoughts of free commerce and more liberal freedom (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). They believed that equal rights and responsibilities should overrule privilege. France was in even greater debt than before because they aided America in their revolution, by sending Americans weapons and men, which cost France vast amounts of money (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). Louis XVI didn't take anything from the debt he just kept spending like it was nothing (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). Instead of putting a tax reform in to place, he just tried not to anger the nobility (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). On January 4th 1773, Louis the XVI was executed (http://historywiz.com/frenchrev.htm)

The Third estate was made up of the Bourgeoisie, wage earners, and peasants, who made up the majority of the population (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). The second estate was made up of the Nobility (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html).

The First State was made up of the Clergy (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). They had the smallest number, only about 100,000 (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). The First and Second estates had a lot more privileges then the Third estate, the biggest privilege being no taxes (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). This caused great unhappiness from the Third estate. The growth of trade and industry caused problems too. Prices on good rose steadily (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). The Bourgeoisie benefited the most from this constant rise in prices. They became wealthier and more powerful (http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html). The bourgeoisie hated the tax system even more then before because they had to spend their money p

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Approximate Word count = 1588
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History