French Revolution DBQ

            The idea of people revolting against a central figure of power is a very interesting aspect of history. In the late 1700s this idea began to slowly appear in France. The once loyal subjects under the successive generations of kings became angry rebels when under the rule of King Louis XVI. These ideas of rebellion then led to what is now known as the French Revolution. Knowing that a whole nation would not rebel without a person, there had to be multiple reasons as to why the French Revolution ever occurred. The French Revolution was caused by the social and political issues under King Louis XVI, the poor economic state of France at the time, and the enlightenment ideas which were spreading throughout Europe.

            In the time preceding and throughout the French Revolution, there were multiple problems with the existing social system and the government. At this time France was using an Estates System. This was a very corrupt way of dividing the nation into three classes. There was the First Estate, made up of clergy, the Second Estate consisting of mainly nobles, and the Third Estate which was made up of everyone else including the middle class, peasants, etc. What was corrupt about this system was how unfair it was for the majority of French civilians. One reason it was unfair was because of amount of land ownership each estate had. The First Estate being one percent of the population owned ten percent of the land. The Second Estate being two percent of the population owned 35 percent of the land. Lastly, the Third Estate being 97 percent of the population only owned 55 percent of the land (Doc 2). This division of land was very unjust considering, when comparing the amount of land to the amount of people, the Third Estate had a lack of land. The other reason the estate system was unfair was that all of the taxes were paid by the Third Estate (Doc 3). The government was also a huge problem at this time as France led by a very indecisive and poor leader in King Louis XVI. With his rule, he had absolute power yet he wouldn’t make decisions and was not very focused on being the king at all. With a leader like this, a country would fall into chaos. Although King Louis’ rule and the Estates System brought many problems to France, the economy brought further troubles.