Assignment on The French Revolution

Course Title : World History and Civilization

Course Code : GED- 2107

Prepared For:

Dr. Abdullah Al Masud

Assistant Professor
Department of General Education
Northern University Bangladesh

Prepared By:

Name: Hasna Hena Juthi ID: 47230200636

Name: Puja Basu ID: 47230200702
Name: Rumpa Paul ID: 47230200677
Name: Jannatul Maowa ID: 47230200580
Name: Lamia Afrin Joya ID: 47230200557
Name: Aarohi Yeasmin Ratna ID: 47230200670

Section: 6B
Department of English Language & Literature
Northern University Bangladesh

Date of Submission: 10-05-2025

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 Table of Content

SL No. Description Page No.

1 Cover page 1
2 Table of Content 2
3 Introduction 3

4 A Monarchy in Crisis 3

5 Causes of French Revolution 4- 9

6 Major Events of French Revolution 9- 11

7 Effects of the French Revolution 11-12

8 Conclusion 13

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Introduction

The French Revolution of 1789 had far-reaching effects on the social and political life of people.
The revolutionary principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity generated a new political force,
namely, dynamic nationalism, which first swept France and was responsible for the overthrow of
absolute monarchy and the privileges of the feudal lords. In its wake it brought new ideas and
conceptions which made drastic changes in realm of politics, law and government. The
revolution shook France between 1787 and 1799 and reached its first climax there in 1789.
During this period, French citizens razed and redesigned their country’s political landscape,
uprooting centuries old institutions such as absolute monarchy and feudal system. The disruption
was caused by widespread discontent with the French monarchy and the poor economic policies
of Louis XVI, who met his death by guillotine as did his wife Marie Antoinette.

A Monarchy in Crisis

When Louis XIV was on his death bed, he had recognized the inefficacy of war as a mean to
realize his aims. He had, in the process of achieving his ambitions involved France in series of
war, had taxed his people to their utmost capacity and drained away the wealth of nation and had
brought untold misery to them. So when he was nearing his end he called his great-grandson, the
future Louis XV and advised him to take a lesson from his failures and to wage any more wars
and to relieve the people from the burden of taxation. But he and his successor Louis XVI
unheeded the advice and gradually the political, social and economic conditions so degenerated
that the situation get out of control and precipitated a great Revolution which brought untold
misery to millions of people and uprooted numerous families and wars, calamitous to the
monarchy which involved France in long and bloody wars. As the 18 th century drew to close,
France costly involvement in the American Revolution and extravagant spending by Louis XVI
and his predecessor had left the country on the brink of bankruptcy. In the fall of 1786, Louis
XVI controller general, Charles Alexander de Calonne, proposed a financial reform package that
included a universal land tax from which the privileged classes would no longer be exempt.
(Dayal, 1989)

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Causes of French Revolution

Let us now discuss the causes of the French Revolution. For the sake of convenience we divide it
into four categories.

 Social
 Political
 Intellectual
 Economical

Social Causes

France was divided into three Estates or Classes

 The Clergy
 The Nobles
 The Commoners

The first two classes were called the “privileged” classes and the third was the under-privileged
class.

Privileges of Clergy

The privileges of the clergy dated back to medieval times when the Church was supposed to be
the guardian of the “souls” of the people and looked after their education and tended the weak
and invalid. In the lieu of spiritual service the clergymen were granted large estates and the
Church owned a good deal of landed property. In the 16 th 17th 18th centuries the name of the
Church had suffered much on account of the corruption and vices of the clergymen and the
consequent Reformation movement, yet the clergymen in the 18 th century still enjoyed their old
privileges and influence. To others who wished to achieve position and influence the Church was
the only avenue for achieving this, and ambitious people joined the religious order. In the social
and political matters the clergymen always made common cause with the noble and all attempts
to impose taxes on them were resisted bitterly.

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Privileges of the Nobles

The nobles in France formed a hereditary caste and unlike England, the sons of French nobles
kept themselves aloof from the commoners and were jealous of their rights. They enjoyed a
numbers of privileges which dated back to the heydays of feudalism and though Richeliue and
Mazarin had deprived them much of their political power, their privileges were still intact. The
nobles often monopolized trade and were extremely rich and lived in a grand style. They did not
pay any direct taxes and were exempted from a number of indirect ones. The nobles could be
classified into big nobles and lesser nobles. The former usually lived at court and vied with one
another in leading a luxurious and licentious life and in trying to win the king’s favour. The more
money they could fleece, the greater was their own share. They perpetrated all sorts of atrocities
on the helpless peasants who could not even appeal to the nobles against them.
The lesser nobles mostly lived in idle, gay and purposeless life on their estates and contributed
very little the economic or political progress of the country. They were satisfied with an
easygoing life, enjoyed shooting and hunting. They have same privileges as big nobles and
exempted from taxation and other burdens from the masses groaned.

The Miseries of Masses

The masses comprised as the third estate, were composed of peasants and the new middle class
“bourgeoisie” both belonged to the under-privileged classes
1) The Peasants
The peasants were subjected to “triple taxation” they paid taxes to the king, to the nobles and to
clergy. The king claimed both direct and indirect taxes. The direct taxes comprised the “taille” or
the land tax, a poll tax per head and income tax which amounted to one-twentieth of the
peasant’s income. The indirect taxes comprised salt tax, customs and excise duties and forced
labor on the roads.
2) The rise of the Bourgeoisie
A new middle class had steadily emerged through the last two or three centuries. It consisted of
the bourgeoisie or towns- people who controlled commerce and industries and worked for a
living in some profession or the other. They mostly controlled all industry through guilds. They
had become fairly rich on account of overseas trade in tobacco, wine, spices, tea, coffee and
cotton with the colonies and quite a few of them could compete very favorably in wealth with the

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nobles. But they belonged to the underprivileged class and were subjected to taxation. They were
inspired by the French philosophers and the successful revolt of the American colonies against
Great Britain and by their “Declaration of Independence”. They attacked the privileges of nobles
and were in sympathy with the peasants. (Dayal, 1989)

Economic Causes
Though there had been considerable economic and agricultural development in the 17 th century
under Richelieu and Colbert, agriculture was still backward and quite often they were famines
and food riots. King Louis XVI had just spent millions of francs helping the American colonies
fight against the England. Because of this and others debts, just the interest payments on loans
took up over half of the France’s economy. Then in 1788 France was hit by a terrible drought
that nearly destroyed the entire year’s harvest and the jobless, starving people began to riot.
(Knowles, 1919)

Political Causes

Degeneration of Monarchy
Political condition after Louis XIV was far from happy. The monarchy though still absolute had
degenerated in many respects. Louis XV was an easy-going man, pleasure-loving monarch
whose court was steeped in immorality and licentiousness. He was deeply under the influence of
mistress like Madame de Pompadour who was responsible for the Austrian alliance in 1756 and
all its evil results in terms of loss of colonies and foreign commerce and prestige.
Louis XVI who succeeded him in 1774 was weak-willed through religious, pious, kind and
moral. He lacked all those qualities of leadership and kingship which were required at this
crucial time in history of France, when the king was faced with a grave financial and political
crisis. He was too much under the influence of his young and beautiful queen, the Austrian
princess, Marie Antoinette, who was intensely hated by the French people because she was
foreigner. She had no love for the French people and was extravagant and unsympathetic. While
France was passing through a serious financial crisis and was faced with the problem of food,
she was lavishly spending money on her pleasures and was absolutely unconcerned about the
miseries of people. The monarchy was, in short, incompetent and utterly unable to solve the
question of the nobles’ privileges and the problem of food and thus allowed the condition to drift
and deteriorate.

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Centralized Government

The administration had been highly centralized in the 17 th century and continued to be so in the
18th. Everything in the state was decides by the council at Versailles which hardly any time to
devote to the affairs of the state. Too much centralization had deprived local officials of all
initiative and unnecessary delay was caused by references to the central government even over
trivial matters.

Influence of American Revolution

The revolt of the American colonies against Great Britain had a tremendous impact on the minds
of the Frenchman. France had joined the colonies against England in the war of American
Independence and the French soldiers under Lafayette had fought in America and defeated the
English. The success of revolt of the colonies and their Declaration of the Independence and a
subsequent adoption of a new constitution based on the principles of equality and liberty and on
the principles of the separation of powers as enunciated by Montesquieu deeply influenced the
French soldiers returning home after the war and the French people through them.

Intellectual Causes

The writings of philosophers had a tremendous impact on the minds of people and created a
revolutionary awakening in their minds and formed intellectual creed of the French Revolution.
The common man was now convinced that the Church and State had made an unholy alliance to
exploit him and so both of them should be revolutionized. In creating intellectual awakening in
France the following philosophers played a notable part.

Voltaire

He was a great philosopher, historian, poet, dramatist and satirist of his age and was a very
widely known. He ridiculed Church by means of his sarcasm and satire, and completely shook
people’s faith in it. He indirectly undermined their faith in the theory of the Divine Right of
Kings. His writings had a tremendous effect on millions of people not only in France but in
whole Europe

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Montesquieu

He was more of a political philosopher then a Deist. He was deeply influenced by the English
culture and political institutions. He attributed the comparative happiness and prosperity of the
English people to their liberal constitution and advocated the adoption of the similar institution in
France. He ardently supported the principle of the Separation of Powers, the independence of the
three organs of State, the Executive, the Legislature and Judiciary from one another

Financial Causes

Unfortunately, both the King and the nobles failed to appreciate the gravity of the financial crisis
and did not realize that if the Ship of State foundered on the rock of financial bankruptcy, the
nobles would also sink along with the monarch. The noble remains adamant, and the King
continued to vacillate. Minister after minister was appointed to improve the financial condition
but without the cooperation of monarch and the nobles the crisis continued to deepen.

Turgot as Finance Minister

Louis XVI appointed Turgot as Finance Minister. Hopes rose high, as he was a friend of Voltaire
who wielded considerable emotional influence on the people. He abolish the guilds and to
introduce free corn trade but he was strongly opposed by the nobles and the clergy so was
dismissed in 1776.

Jacques Necker
He was great banker and financier and enjoyed the confidence of the moneyed class of France.
But as he was a Protestant he was hated by the nobles. Yet he succeeded in raising loan to enable
France to fight against England in war of American Independence. He issued a pamphlet entitled
“Accounts rendered of the Financial Condition”. It mentioned the sources of income but at the
same time it drew the attention of masses to the colossal expenditure at court. There was a hue ad
cry by the masses against this so the King dismissed him.

The States-General 1789

The king decided to summon this medieval institution which had not been met since 1614. The
State-General was an assembly of the three Estates, the nobles, the clergy and the masses.
Whenever it was summoned, the three Estates met, deliberated and voted separately and the

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votes of any two Estates could outweigh the vote of third, irrespective of the strength of each
estate. As always the clergy and nobles voted together against the masses. But the Third Estate
was adamant and on 10 June 1789 it proclaimed itself a “National Assembly” and invited the
other two Estates to join it. The King was opposed this move and shut the doors of hall where the
meeting of the Third Estate to be held.
The King was frightened into submission and ordered that the three Estates could sit together and
vote “by head”. Behind his outward submission, he was scheming to crush the Assembly and
mob violence by force and under pressure of his courtiers, he dismissed Necker. Necker was
popular in people and they hoped that he will be able to solve the financial as well as food
problem. The Paris mob was infuriated and on the 14 th of July stormed the “Bastille”, the symbol
of “Bourbon Despotism”. This was hailed as the end of Absolutism and marked the beginning of
the great French Revolution.

Major Events of French Revolution

Reign of Terror

In June 1793, the Jacobins seized control of the National Convention from the moderate
Girondins and instituted a series of radical measures, including establishment of a new calendar
and the eradication of Christianity. They also unleashed the bloody Reign of Terror, a 10 month
period in which suspected enemies of the revolution were guillotined by the thousands. Many of
the killings were carried out under orders of Robespierre, who dominated the draconian
Committee of Public Safety until his own execution on July 28, 1794. His death marked the
beginning of the Thermidorian Reaction, a moderate phase in which the French people revolted
against the Reign of Terror excesses.

Storming of the Bastille

The Storming of the Bastille: Prise de la Bastille which occurred in Paris, France on 14 July
1789, was an act of political violence by revolutionary insurgents who attempted to storm and
seize control of the medieval armory, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. After
four hours of fighting and 94 deaths, the insurgents were able to enter the Bastille. The governor
of the Bastille, Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay, and several members of the garrison were
killed after surrender. At the time, the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris.

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The prison contained only seven inmates at the time of its storming and was already scheduled
for demolition but was seen by the revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuse of
power. Its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution.

In France, 14 July is a national holiday called Fête national française which commemorates both
the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille and the Fête de la Fédération which occurred on
its first anniversary in 1790. In English this holiday is commonly referred to as Bastille Day.

King Louis XVI

In a context of civil and international war, Louis XVI was suspended and arrested at the time of
the Insurrection of 10 August 1792. One month later, the monarchy was abolished and
the French First Republic was proclaimed on 21 September 1792. The former king became
a desacralized French citizen, addressed as Citoyen Louis Capet (Citizen Louis Capet) in
reference to his ancestor Hugh Capet. Louis was tried by the National Convention (self-instituted
as a tribunal for the occasion), found guilty of high treason and executed by guillotine on 21
January 1793. Louis XVI's death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous
French monarchy. Both of his sons died in childhood, before the Bourbon Restoration; his only
child to reach adulthood, Marie Therese, was given over to her Austrian relatives in exchange for
French prisoners of war, eventually dying childless in 1851.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted by the National Constituent
Assembly of France on August 26, 1789. It is a fundamental document of the French Revolution
that established the rights and freedoms of the French people. The declaration was influenced by
Enlightenment ideals and emphasized the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. It
proclaimed that all men are born free and equal, and that they have natural and inalienable rights,
including the right to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. The declaration
also laid the foundation for the development of constitutional law in France and influenced the
drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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French Revolution Ends: Napoleon’s Rise

On August 22, 1795, the National Convention, composed largely of Girondins who had survived
the Reign of Terror, approved a new constitution that created a bicameral legislature for first
time in France.
Executive power would lie in the hands of a five members Directory appointed by the
parliament, Royalists and Jacobins protested the new regime but were swiftly silenced by the
army, now led by a young and successful general named Napoleon Bonaparte.
On November 9, 1799, as frustration with the leadership reached a fever pitch, Bonaparte
appointed himself as France’s first consul for the first time and the for the consul for life. The
event marked the end of French Revolution and the beginning of Napoleonic era.

Effects of the French Revolution

The revolution fundamentally reshaped French society and governance by abolishing feudal
privileges, establishing republican principles. It spreader revolutionary ideas across Europe,
inspiring future movements for democracy and human rights.

End of Monarchy: It established democracy in France and ended the monarchy. Additionally, it
prompted other nations to declare war on France. It also contributed to Napoleon Bonaparte’s
rise to power.

Political Parties: France is now a multiparty system due to the revolution. Political
organizations that fought for control, such as the Jacobins, Cordeliers, etc., grew due to the
freedom to associate. By denouncing poor policies, these parties kept the government in check
and touch with the people.

Modern Nationalism’s Growth: A nation’s commitments are prioritized over the interests of
any one person or group of people according to the nationalism concept. The French Revolution,
a major factor in the emergence of nationalism throughout Europe, started the development of
the modern nation-state.

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French Land Ownership Changed: Feudalism included a practice known as manorialism,
which made peasants reliant on their land and their lord. To finance the church, tithes were one-
tenth of annual output or earnings collected as a levy. During the French Revolution, both of
these tariffs were eliminated.

Bourbon Rule In France Comes To An End: A French Dynasty known as the House of
Bourbon governed France for more than 400 years. The French Revolution ended its dominion.
In France, the monarchy was abolished in 1792, and the Republican system of government took
its place. Although the Bourbon monarchy was reinstated following Napoleon Bonaparte’s
defeat in 1815, it lasted until 1830 before it was eventually abolished in the July Revolution.

Declaration of Human Rights: The constitutional assembly published the Declaration of

Human Rights, which guaranteed political freedoms such as the right to own property and
freedom of expression, press, association, and religion.

Rule of Law and Constitution: The French Revolution established the rule of law. Before 1789,
France lacked a written constitution to protect individual freedoms and rights. The executive,
judicial, and legislative branches were separated under the Constitution.

Liberalism’s Expansion: Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy centered on equality

and liberty. With the motto “liberty, equality, fraternity,” the hereditary aristocracy was toppled
during the French Revolution, and France became the first state in history to provide universal
male suffrage. Two significant occurrences symbolized the Revolution’s triumph of liberalism.
On the evening of August 4, 1789, feudalism was abolished in France.

Global Impact

Many nations drew inspiration from the ideals the French Revolution gave rise to, which altered
modern history irrevocably. People all around the world were opposing the repressive monarchs.
Over the years, the French military helped the concepts of equality and liberty grow throughout
the globe.

As the French radicalized the 18th century’s political and social structure, they emerged as the
main force to be considered. By ending feudalism, the French Revolution paved the way for
future advancements in personal freedom, democratic values, and equality of life.

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Conclusion

The main legacies of the French Revolution were the concepts of liberty and democratic rights.
Over the nineteenth century, when feudal systems were abolished, these expanded from France
to the rest of Europe. Colonized peoples modified the concept of freedom from servitude to fit
their migrations and establish independent nation-states. Rammohan Roy and Tipu Sultan are
two examples of those who reacted to the ideologies propagated by revolutionary France.

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