The Largest Change Of French Revolution
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The Largest Change in the French Revolution
The largest element in the French Revolution was the loss of power under the monarchy. The largest contributor to the monarchys loss of power was the amount of debt France was in leading up to the Revolution. In the past 25 years before the French Revolution France had been involved in two costly wars. “The French monarchy emerged from the Seven Years War (1756-1763), defeated deeply in debt.” (KOT 594) The monarchy also fully supported and contributed most of their money to the American Colonial Revolution, which pushed Frances economy to the brink of not being able to stabilize itself. “In 1774 Louis XVI in an attempt to regain what he conceived to be popular support, dismissed Maupeou, restored all of the parlements, and confirmed their old powers.” (KOT 594) Louis XVI in 1774 sealed the fall of the French Monarchy in giving back the power to the parlements during a time of economic depression. By letting the parlements have their power the monarchy lost all their rights to tax the nobility, who at this time was the only social group that had money worth taxing besides the monarchy. When the nobility regained their power they were also quick to gain all of the popular public support, due to a monarchy that was losing all favor in the public eyes. There was a lot of sexual activity going on in the monarchy that was uncovered to the public before the revolution took place. All these factors made it impossible to tax the country, which in turn made the king resort to the Estates General
Louis XVI made it so that “The Estates General of France, a medieval institution that had not met since 1614, could consent to new taxes.” (KOT 595) The reinstatement of the Estates General forfeited all control that the monarchy had over the government. The Estates General soon lost authority to the largest faction, the 3rd Estate which offered a plan to make all estates have equal right with a National Assembly. The National Assembly had conflicting views of the French Monarchy and the rights of the citizens. The National Assembly believed “every man is born with inalienable and imprescriptible rights; these are the freedom of all his opinions; the care of his honor and his life; the right of property; the entire disposition of his own person, his industry, and all his faculties; the communication of his thoughts by all possible means; the pursuit of well being and resistance to oppression.” (Hunt 73) The King Louis XVI assembled the royal army in an effort to stop the National Assembly and to direct power back to the monarchy and Estates General. This caused the Fall of Bastille where in the end the Louis XVI forfeited to the National Assembly. He was forced to visit Paris and had to accept that he had lost power over the state and the militia, because Paris now had its own National Guard which he had no control over.
The National Assembly created the new