Lecture notes
Causes of the French Revolution
- Module
- History
- Institution
- The University Of Manchester (UOM)
A brief overlook of the causes of the French Revolution, including an outline of the main historiographical debate on the topic.
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Causes of the French RevolutionLecture Notes
Traditional historiography would hold that the primary causes of the French Revolution were class
conflict (between burghers and aristocrats; Marxist view is that of a capitalist economy revolting
against the feudal system, a “capitalist revolution”); spread of Enlightenment ideas (equality of
men, partition of rule between legislative, executive and judicial powers, encouragement to resist
unjust rule, etc.); and the fiscal crisis of the monarchy (French involvement in Seven Years’ War
and the American War of Independence drives the government into debt, leads to attempts at tax
reform, leads to unrest among the nobility who insist that new taxes can only be approved by the
Estates-General, the assembly of the French Orders – Nobility, Clergy and the Third Estate).
The above is largely known as the Marxist view – which places particular emphasis on the idea that
the Revolution was inevitable and that the burgher representatives of the Third Estate arrived to the
Estates-General of 1789 with revolution already in mind. Widespread view because of the authority
held by Marxism as a philosophical movement in France.
Francois Furret was among the first to assault the Marxist view in a significant and determined
way. He argued that the French Revolution lead to a new way of conceiving politics and the
creation of dramatically new political institutions. Evidence of this is the sharp break between
the past and the present - recognized by the Revolutionaries themselves.
Examples of the break include the Revolutionaries’ term ancien regime (literally – the former
regime; a means of referring to the feudal, absolutist government coined during the Revolution
itself!), the creation of a new Revolutionary calendar beginning at the year 0, and sharp opposition
to the main traits of ancien regime society:
Legitimacy of privilege (Revolutionaries work towards establishing a single legal system
that applies to all citizens of France, rather than separate rights for separate groups)
Society of Orders (Revolutionaries abolish the relics of feudalism, including the division of
the nation into three Orders, or Estates; already apparent in the naming of the National
Assembly, one assembly for one nation)
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