1.1 What were the causes and immediate outcomes of the
1789 revolution?
France 1774 - 1789
Louis inherited a precarious financial situation when he became King in 1774.
- The Estates General was a body which could be called in a crisis to pass the
King’s edicts
- It had representatives from every Estate
- It had last been called in 1614
- It was only called when there was a radical/important change
Appointment of ministers
Louis XV appointed Turgot in 1761, who:
- Wanted free trade
- Wanted a tax reform - Property tax without exemptions -> Refused by Paris
Parliament because the people in the court had a vested interest as they did
not want to start paying taxes
- Was dismissed by Louis XVI because the parliament opposed him
Louis XVI appointed Necker in 1776, who:
- Wanted to cut venal offices (inheritances of jobs & land)
- Published royal finances in the ‘Compte Rendu’ to create confidence and
attract loans (focussed on expenditure on court, did not include costs of wars)
- Argued that they should be optimistic and finance things by loans
- Was unpopular with Marie Antoinette and her court clique
- Resigned in 1781
Louis XVI appointed Calonne in 1783, who:
- Advocated reform - land tax, free trade, gaining confidence (like Turgot)
- Believed Royal Edicts could not become law until passed by Paris parliament
- Had refused to loans in 1785
- Had a difficult relationship with Louis XVI
- Was sacked
Intervention in the American War of Independence
,France was defeated by Britain in the Seven Years War (1756 - 1763) where they
lost huge amounts of territories and the peace settlement was a humiliation. France
wanted to support the Americans so that the British Empire would be damaged.
- The war cost France 1.3 billion livres.
- The war was about liberty and equality.
- One slogan was ‘No taxation without representation’, ironic.
- French soldiers came back with these ideas.
Revolt of the nobility
The Assembly of Notables were summoned as they were considered as more pliant.
The nobility were demanding that Louis XVI called the Estates General
The reforms were presented to the Paris Parliament who blocked them so he exiled
them to Troyes, a small town far away.
The Assembly of Notables demanded that the Estates General be called, who had
not met since 1614.
This triggered an Aristocratic Revolt which caused disturbances throughout France -
assemblies of notables meeting, rioting. Accusations of ‘ministerial despotism’.
Causes of the revolution
Social Economic Political
- Peasants lived in - Peasants had to - The low and
awful conditions pay very high middle class
and wanted a taxes. wanted to be
change. - Louis XVI was represented at a
- The middle class severely in debt political level.
was growing (from because of his - A desire for
700 000 in 1700 to extravagant equality, followed
2.3 million in 1780) spending on wars by a desire for
and they were and luxuries. democracy and
unable to work in - Prices were rising then national
higher-class jobs; as real wages sovereignty.
the only way to do could not keep up - The nobility and
that was to inherit so poverty and Marie Antoinette
it. The society hunger increased. influenced Louis
wanted a system - The venal system XVI a lot so that he
which gave more meant jobs were didn't make
, opportunities given to those who reforms which
based on talent inherited them not would have
rather than based on their benefited the
background. They skills, which made majority of the
were more them inefficient and population but
numerous and the system did not reduced their
resented the work. power.
privileges of the - The working class - Soldiers who
First and Second suffered from fought in the
Estate. The poverty and American War of
increasingly rich hunger, leading to independence
and educated a revolt of the came back with
middle class lower classes. revolutionary
disliked the living - Possibly the middle thoughts, ‘no
conditions they class was growing taxation without
faced. More literate and wished to representation’.
and educated make more money. - Louis XVI
people meant there - Bad harvests from dismissed the
was more 1788-1789 and a notables leading
organised criticism fall in trade and to a political crisis
of the ancien employment and division
regime. caused urban amongst the King
- Within the cities discontent. and his
there was also government. He
discontent. Paris dismissed the Paris
was the most parliament when
influential because they wanted to see
of its population the royal accounts
and had lots of and then recalled
workers. They lived and mismanaged
in overcrowded them. When they
and unhealthy refused to pass the
conditions so they taxes he
resented imprisoned the
restrictions opposition’s
imposed by leaders in the
employers and city Bastille, sparking
authorities. countrywide
protests wanting
reform.
- The government
was seen as
inefficient and
corrupt.
- French peasants
believed the
Roman Catholic
Church had too
much power and
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