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The French Revolution
Part 1
Explain the causes of the French revolution.
The French revolution, in many ways, was a turning point in history. Although it is such a complex episode,
this paper seeks to explain the causes of the French revolution, and show how those causes led directly to
the ascent of the Moderate Revolution, the Terror and finally to the epoch of the Napoleonic empire.
The main causes of the Revolution have always been a controversial debate among historians, however
this paper proposes that the French Revolution was caused by, in order of precedence, a combination of a
rise in population leading to famine and failure of infrastructure, oppression of the Third Estate (Lower
class and bourgeoisie), a rise in Enlightenment ideals (supported somewhat by evidence , an absolute
monarchy with a weak monarch, financial difficulties on all social planes and an introduction to
revolutionary ideals from the American revolution.
“A leading cause of social stress in France...was its large population.”1 From the 1500s to the 1800,
population increase was very minor. In the early 1800s, France (Video watched in class) had a population
of 20 million people, but with the decline of disease, this increased by 8 to 10 million people. Infrastructure
that had held for hundreds of years simply began to collapse under the population increases. Prisons were
overflowing, and the state could not cope.
Furthermore, in the years leading up to the revolution, a famine struck France. As bread was the staple in
Revolutionary France, increases in the price of flour were felt very quickly among citizens and “were loudly
protested at grain markets and baker’s shops”2. However, it was the government who tried to fix the food
crisis, so the price and availability of bread became linked to the effectiveness of government, and the
1
George Mason University....