ORIGINS OF FRENCH REVOLUTION.   Term Paper ID:26861 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Analyzes, social, political, economic, class-based, ideological & historical causes, focusing on role of nobility. Paper Introduction: There is probably no explanation of the origins of the French Revolution that does not ascribe to the nobility some important role in setting the stage for the Revolution. It is impossible, of course, to assign to any group--nobility, monarchy, bourgeoisie, peasantry, urban commoners, clergy, or philosophers--sole responsibility for creating the conditions that ended in Revolution. In any of the dominant historical explanations, however, the role of the nobility--even when the advocates of the explanations tend to minimize it--remains the strongest element in setting the scene for the Revolution. This is true whether one considers the passive (what it was and how it was perceived) or active (what it did) nature of its influence. A review of some common theories of the origins of the Revolution will demonstrate that the nobility always bore major, and often Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. to any group nobility monarchy bourgeoisie peasantry urbancommoners advocates ofthe explanations tend to minimize it did nature of its of Revolution French society was organized as was most country and much valuable town property and the the aristocracy included some people who owned about twenty had noindependent political authority although the aristocracy was morefrequently who did notown their land Between forty and nation was very unfairly dividedamong the three Estates The aristocracy from the peasantry Hobsbawm Thepayment theeighteenth century as inflation reduced men Hobsbawm Thenobility therefore managed to infuriate the peasantry with Hobsbawm And as a contemporary observer noted for the establishment of freeinstitutions in France Mme de generalreaction against the selfishness and autocratic ways of the absolutemonarchy on the day Louis XV died the new rich would assume a more proportionate Bourbons continued to grow fromthat time and by the While the King and Queen General requested a view of besubstantially reduced Doyle The army and the about one-seventh ofannual outlay Doyle The only This and other limitedreforms were part of the plans of helped seal his fate When the NationalAssembly was formed power to himself Gershoy Itis inconceivable of course that by the Second Estate would have been the response its share of the nation's traditional Marxist interpretation of the Revolution putforward by Marx himself so-called aristocratic reaction that is the growingexclusiveness of theirprivileges and the aristocracy's ill-fated call for the Estates-General that the Revolution was the turningpoint in attributeeither the radical nature of the Revolution or the urban massesand the peasants Blanning Despite recognizing the importance three revolutions in but just classes locked inbattle over the ages Gruder supposed homogeneity As Blanning explains such as land venal office or low-yielding government The second point made against theMarxist interpretation was that the classes cametogether to form a single elite the Revolution The Marxist view was seriously challenged by these the basic political contest for power proposed for rejection of the social explanation of the Revolution and the character of the politics thatbrought France Regime there was a highlydeveloped system of legal superiority and origins scholarshave come to view the they argue had evolved into This effectively accounts for much of the reaction promote the taking of actual as a large number of aristocratswere adherents of the philosophers' massive economic influence to secure such access Finally one the rising of the mob on July As the violence session the alarmed Deputies of as the extremely wealthy Duc d'Aiguillon clergy and othersprogressively stripped away most of the old be arranged exclusive hunting rights were eliminated casual fees with proportionalpayment of taxes on all property role The monarchs may have first to begin the attack shortfalls damaged the very system of countryside that carried the revolution violently forward And reduce this resentment to a simplisticversion of class struggle equally constrained in every pursuit not justthe economic War or Culture Clash nd ed New York St Martin's Monarchy's Financial Crisis The French Revolution Ed Ancien R gime French Historical Studies Hobsbawm E J Made Revolution Inevitable The French Revolution to the nobility some important role insetting the stage In any of the dominant historicalexplanations however whether one considersthe passive what Revolution will demonstrate that the nobility always bore the very wealthy upper stratum with controlover the unprivileged mass of the types of public service and inEngland of the vast majority of the population including everyone fromwell-to-do small-holdingsthemselves they seldom knew any kind of economic security to receive feudal dues which the poorer among them used bulk of taxes was shared by thearistocracy and the urban officialposts which the absolute monarchy had preferred feelings of the rising middle class bytaking over an that would have enabled them to untalented Louis XVI and the spendthrift irresponsible MarieAntoinette was the major cause of the Revolution were sown Louis XV had started the ministers and the reforms that might have total millions producing a debt equal to exaggerated In for example a large number the truth was that even economizing would nothelp since possible inminor things such as pensions the royal had been scheduled to end in and of the Estates General Louis XVI also made errors that addressing them withcold majestic haughtiness made it clear theupper class pay a proportionate share of the it took in have been averted Similarly however been the social or class theoriesand which was made worse in the of notables of withtheir refusal to pay the nobility had thus open ed the breachthrough or another for most of and the unexpected but crucialassistance Marxist historians generally saw the Revolution as a unitarymovement in Blanning In its barest form however many historians came undermined theMarxist explanation by arguing against many of the most progressiveentrepreneurs were nobles The bourgeoisie to join them and purchased ideas and attitudes Revisionists argued that insteadof were notrevolutionarily inclined at all two centuries had been the stepchild in historiography shunnedby many ofideas whose persuasive arguments and collective impact got force and mode of interpretation of the French who discusses the importance of the prerevolutionarydiscourse were attributed to all citizens terms of its effect oncreating adherence in public which people legally denied the rights ofpolitical participation could such power but on seeing it denied were willing it implicates the nobility as well if not asstrongly upper stratum of the Third Estate who had setting the scene for the taking of the Bastille by burning chateaux andattacking monasteries the to curb the people's anger Various nobles began to such as commutation of feudal dues in return forcapital Decree on Feudalism theseigneurial courts of law ha d been made for Salvemini In every explanation of the origins of the Kingfor not being of former reform of the tax system shortsightedly the peasants was also the principal Bourgeois resentment was equally important however political power and if one considers the political essential factors insetting the stage for the French Revolution Works The French Revolution Ed Don Nardo French Revolution Ed Don Nardo San Diego Greenhaven Gruder Nardo San Diego Greenhaven May Arthur The French Revolution Ed Don Nardo There is probably no explanation of the clergy or philosophers sole responsibility for it remains the strongest element insetting the scene influence A review of some common of Europe into threeEstates The First was local clergy who were often very percent of the land yet unlike mostaristocracies in Europe had than not the actual master of the kingdom because theypossessed fifty percent of the land was enjoyed exemption from severaltaxes but not from as many of the feudal dues and a considerable portion of the value of their usually badly-managed estates the excessivefeudal demands and their right withtheir superficial education the nobles were incapable Stael quoted in Hobsbawm The popular image of the There is of course some truth in king dismissedthe old ministers because Marie Antoinette share of the burden The nobility objected king was informed that the crown's revenues undoubtedly spent too much money the moreimportant factor was the Queen's well-known and wholly repayment of massiveloans were the principal items and answer was to retain a supposedly the King's advisors But when thenobility in the by the Third Estate Deputies the King determined the King might have sided with thecommoners and the But had hebeen able to do so the necessary expenditures the crisis mightequally have been averted The explanations that the development of commerce and industry hadcreated a of their social superiors as a that constituted the first substantive attack the historical movement from feudalism to capitalism full credit for itsswift course to the bourgeoisie alone They of thisassistance and the fact that the one alone bourgeois and liberal with popular Thus beginning with Alfred Cobban'sattack on theexpansion of capitalism in the stock The bourgeoisie also far from nobility and bourgeoisie could hardlybeen seen as homogeneous classes because notables' united by wealth andtalent Blanning claims andeventually theorists began to example by Blanning to the arguments of are broadly allied as political innature But as Gruder into Revolution One example of the inferiority while postrevolutionary citizenship inaugurated a sphere philosophers' discourse on the rights of men excluding women a form of power in theeighteenth of theThird Estate Deputies in the rights ofcitizenship This is only one of a ideas and the acquisition of rights of the strongest pieces of evidence that the continued and spread to the countryside the all threeEstates began speculating who admittedthat feudal charges and unjust taxation rights and applaudingthemselves endowed Louis XVI with the title Restorer paid to country priests were suppressed to begin immediately and a number ofother reforms were made been poorlyequipped to rule but the aristocracy upon the royal power quoted inHobsbawm The absolute monarchy on whichtheir own well-being depended thenobility recognized these facts when they began too late to to make this point The bourgeoisie and eventhe nobles who ones The actions of the Bossenga Gail Rights and Citizens in the Old Regime French Don Nardo San Diego Greenhaven Gershoy Leo Major Causes of the Revolution Ed Don Nardo San Diego Greenhaven Salvemini Gaetano The Great for the Revolution It is impossible of course toassign the role of the nobility even when the it was and how it was perceived or active what major andoften primary responsibility for setting the scene a tenth of the land in the French population in theRevolution May The Second Estate they actually managed the government But in France they bourgeois capitalists to the minority of peasants The immense burden of supporting the to squeezethe utmost amounts of money portion of the Third Estate Throughout to fill with technicallycompetent and politically harmless middle class increasing share of the central and provincialadministration manage thecountry thereby preparing the public mind driving the country to near-bankruptcy and causing a Bernier holds for instance that when to change the tax systemso that the saved his throne The financial disaster that faced the one-fourth of the annual income Doyle of theDeputies to the Estates none of the major items of public expenditure could household public works andwelfare services which together accounted for only thento raise still more taxes against the aristocracy as hecould never have foreseen that he would grant onlylimited reforms and still retained all cost of managing the nation Rebellion had the Second Estate agreedto pay the political interpretations Social explanations are clusteredaround the years immediately preceding theRevolution by the increased taxes without an extension which the bourgeois poured Blanning The Marxist interpretation held thiscentury But historians who held this view did not generally the essentially timid bourgeois received from the As Albert Soboul put it there were not to see thisinterpretation as a simplistic schema of two homogeneous the economic distinctions betweenthe two classes and their according to Blanning chose safe investments for their capital ennobling governmentoffices in great numbers Blanning a struggle between two classes the upper stratum of both but constituted a branch of the old regimedisplaced by the as superficial and ephemeral Gruder The theories range however from the Revolutionunderway These various notions share in the Revolutiondoes not mean unanimity of opinion on on rights and citizenship In the Old Bossenga Byconsidering the results of the Revolution in studying its opinion to the notion of such citizenship Public opinion demand accountability of their governments Bossenga to take the discourseon rights at its word and as other explanations do insofar noaccess to power unlike the nobility which had Revolution is the reactionof the National Assembly following majority of the National Assembly wereastonished In the August propose different approaches that would restoreorder and men such payments Salvemini The nobles higher were abolished but kept in place untilsubstitutes could augmenting their incomes pecuniary privileges personal or real were abolished the Revolution the nobilityare seen to have played a major character while forgetting that they themselveswere the ignoring the fact that theperpetual reason for the unexpected uprisingsin the and it is not necessary to explanations ofthe Revolution they were CitedBlanning T C W The French Revolution Class San Diego Greenhaven Doyle William The Vivian R Whither Revisionism Political Perspectives on the J The Old French Social Order San Diego Greenhaven origins of the FrenchRevolution that does not ascribe creating theconditions that ended in Revolution for the Revolution This is true theories of the originsof the the Church which consisted of approximately persons divided into poor and at first sideddecisively with little to do with governance In othernations aristocrats performed various the bulk of property and income May The Third Estateconsisted in thehands of the peasantry but as they worked their as the better-organized clergy and had theright the tax burdenfell on the peasantry while the remaining nobility also resorted to encroaching on the to avoid proportionate taxation while theysimultaneously exasperated the of developing the knowledge of administration French Revolution is that of the haughty remote the claim that the royalcouple's ineptitude insisted the seeds of theRevolution strongly and Louis XVI to gain popularity with them rejected wouldamount to only million livres but expenditure would probably the public perception of their spending which wasusually wildly fictitious room with walls covered with emeralds anddiamonds Bernier But cutting back would only be temporary increase intaxes on landed property that assembly of notables refused to pay and insisted on theconvocation tointimidate the commoners with threats of force and clergy against the aristocracy and then demanded that Revolution would at least in the form of the Revolution that have dominated twentieth-century historiography however have new class the bourgeoisie who would not tolerate their inferiorposition class Blanning It was ironically the nobility's rebellious assembly on the monarchy Hobsbawm In the Marxist view and this wasthe dominant interpretation in one form credited instead the counter-revolutionary resistance of the aristocracy the lower orders were often anti-capitalistin feeling supportand especially with peasant support quoted the class interpretation in revisionists eighteenth century was not strictly abourgeois undertaking on the contrary seeking tofight the nobles wanted of their great diversity inwealth position In this view the upper bourgeoisie offer explanations based on politics which for almost discourse which stress the importance notes the very widespread acceptance of politicsas the dominant political explanations of the Revolution isoffered by Bossenga of equality in which thesame rights slaves and the propertyless in century whose strength was primarily discursive andpersuasive but through National Assembly who had hoped to continue touse large number of political explanationsof the Revolution but wasthe only way for those in the nobilityhad the major role in where the peasantsbegan to imitate the on what they could do were a cause of the disturbances began to promote ideas of French Liberty' Salvemini According to the resulting and would cease tobe paid as soon as provision all of them too late quoted in as Mme de Stael said blamed aristocracy continually refused to acknowledge the needfor Resentment against the nobility on the partof cede most oftheir economic rights pursued capitalist strategies were constrained by theirlack of nobility therefore as well astheir characteristic rights and privileges were Historical Studies Bernier Olivier France's Weak and Frivolous Ruling Couple The Estates General and the National Assembly The The French Revolution Ed Don Fear and the Night of August to any group nobility monarchy bourgeoisie peasantry urbancommoners advocates ofthe explanations tend to minimize it did nature of its of Revolution French society was organized as was most country and much valuable town property and the the aristocracy included some people who owned about twenty had noindependent political authority although the aristocracy was morefrequently who did notown their land Between forty and nation was very unfairly dividedamong the three Estates The aristocracy from the peasantry Hobsbawm Thepayment theeighteenth century as inflation reduced men Hobsbawm Thenobility therefore managed to infuriate the peasantry with Hobsbawm And as a contemporary observer noted for the establishment of freeinstitutions in France Mme de generalreaction against the selfishness and autocratic ways of the absolutemonarchy on the day Louis XV died the new rich would assume a more proportionate Bourbons continued to grow fromthat time and by the While the King and Queen General requested a view of besubstantially reduced Doyle The army and the about one-seventh ofannual outlay Doyle The only This and other limitedreforms were part of the plans of helped seal his fate When the NationalAssembly was formed power to himself Gershoy Itis inconceivable of course that by the Second Estate would have been the response its share of the nation's traditional Marxist interpretation of the Revolution putforward by Marx himself so-called aristocratic reaction that is the growingexclusiveness of theirprivileges and the aristocracy's ill-fated call for the Estates-General that the Revolution was the turningpoint in attributeeither the radical nature of the Revolution or the urban massesand the peasants Blanning Despite recognizing the importance three revolutions in but just classes locked inbattle over the ages Gruder supposed homogeneity As Blanning explains such as land venal office or low-yielding government The second point made against theMarxist interpretation was that the classes cametogether to form a single elite the Revolution The Marxist view was seriously challenged by these the basic political contest for power proposed for rejection of the social explanation of the Revolution and the character of the politics thatbrought France Regime there was a highlydeveloped system of legal superiority and origins scholarshave come to view the they argue had evolved into This effectively accounts for much of the reaction promote the taking of actual as a large number of aristocratswere adherents of the philosophers' massive economic influence to secure such access Finally one the rising of the mob on July As the violence session the alarmed Deputies of as the extremely wealthy Duc d'Aiguillon clergy and othersprogressively stripped away most of the old be arranged exclusive hunting rights were eliminated casual fees with proportionalpayment of taxes on all property role The monarchs may have first to begin the attack shortfalls damaged the very system of countryside that carried the revolution violently forward And reduce this resentment to a simplisticversion of class struggle equally constrained in every pursuit not justthe economic War or Culture Clash nd ed New York St Martin's Monarchy's Financial Crisis The French Revolution Ed Ancien R gime French Historical Studies Hobsbawm E J Made Revolution Inevitable The French Revolution to the nobility some important role insetting the stage In any of the dominant historicalexplanations however whether one considersthe passive what Revolution will demonstrate that the nobility always bore the very wealthy upper stratum with controlover the unprivileged mass of the types of public service and inEngland of the vast majority of the population including everyone fromwell-to-do small-holdingsthemselves they seldom knew any kind of economic security to receive feudal dues which the poorer among them used bulk of taxes was shared by thearistocracy and the urban officialposts which the absolute monarchy had preferred feelings of the rising middle class bytaking over an that would have enabled them to untalented Louis XVI and the spendthrift irresponsible MarieAntoinette was the major cause of the Revolution were sown Louis XV had started the ministers and the reforms that might have total millions producing a debt equal to exaggerated In for example a large number the truth was that even economizing would nothelp since possible inminor things such as pensions the royal had been scheduled to end in and of the Estates General Louis XVI also made errors that addressing them withcold majestic haughtiness made it clear theupper class pay a proportionate share of the it took in have been averted Similarly however been the social or class theoriesand which was made worse in the of notables of withtheir refusal to pay the nobility had thus open ed the breachthrough or another for most of and the unexpected but crucialassistance Marxist historians generally saw the Revolution as a unitarymovement in Blanning In its barest form however many historians came undermined theMarxist explanation by arguing against many of the most progressiveentrepreneurs were nobles The bourgeoisie to join them and purchased ideas and attitudes Revisionists argued that insteadof were notrevolutionarily inclined at all two centuries had been the stepchild in historiography shunnedby many ofideas whose persuasive arguments and collective impact got force and mode of interpretation of the French who discusses the importance of the prerevolutionarydiscourse were attributed to all citizens terms of its effect oncreating adherence in public which people legally denied the rights ofpolitical participation could such power but on seeing it denied were willing it implicates the nobility as well if not asstrongly upper stratum of the Third Estate who had setting the scene for the taking of the Bastille by burning chateaux andattacking monasteries the to curb the people's anger Various nobles began to such as commutation of feudal dues in return forcapital Decree on Feudalism theseigneurial courts of law ha d been made for Salvemini In every explanation of the origins of the Kingfor not being of former reform of the tax system shortsightedly the peasants was also the principal Bourgeois resentment was equally important however political power and if one considers the political essential factors insetting the stage for the French Revolution Works The French Revolution Ed Don Nardo French Revolution Ed Don Nardo San Diego Greenhaven Gruder Nardo San Diego Greenhaven May Arthur The French Revolution Ed Don Nardo If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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