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Throughout History, hundreds of thousands of people have died whilst fighting to overthrow a government that had ceased to lead the country in the way that it should. The French Revolution was caused by many factors including bankruptcy, the degradation of the feudal system, and a ruler who did not rule. It was a dark time for France but eventually, the country came through and became the country it is today. The Enlightenment idea of equality was tested during the French Revolution about taxation. France’s involvement in the American Revolution left France close to bankruptcy and in an attempt to rectify the situation heavy taxes were imposed. Aristocrats and the clergy were largely exempt from taxation and whilst they only made up around twenty percent of the population, taxing just the commoners did not bring enough money in. Worse still the lack of taxes paid by the upper class angered the lower class. They wanted a system like the one in America where rank was based on achievement and tax was balanced depending on income.
The middle class was not entirely for this but eventually, in the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, they declared: ‘ A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.’ This comes from one of the most important documents in the revolution and was written by the revolutionaries themselves. It was part of a statement of what they believed to be basic human rights and has since been used in human rights movements. Whilst taxation did not cause much blood to be spilled, it caused conflict, both between the revolutionaries and the king and the revolutionaries themselves; in the end, the conflicts were resolved and France was left with equality between the social classes. Rousseau's idea of a ‘social contract’ between the ruler and the people was used to justify the revolution.
The theory was that the people allowed a government or ruler to lead them but if they didn’t do their job properly the people could abolish the government and start again which is what the French did. The worst harvest in forty years left the people starving, whilst their king lived in luxury. Despite their pleas for help, the king did nothing in the end they ordered King Louis XVI to sign their new constitution, which removed many of his powers. Eventually, the National Assembly removed the monarchy altogether. A French newspaper reported: ‘ The crowd, besieging every baker’s shop, received a parsimonious distribution of bread, always with warnings about possible shortages the next day. … I was curious to see what sort of bread was being eaten at court or served at the ministers’ and deputies’ tables. Nowhere could I find even rye bread. Everywhere I saw only beautiful bread, of the finest and most delicate quality.’ This was written by one of the people who experienced the food shortage and saw firsthand the luxury that the rich lived in. The writer may, however, have been unhappy with the upper class and wrote in such a way as to discredit them. The food shortage caused much suffering but it allowed the people to justifiably get rid of the monarchy so the country could move forward.
The French monarchy caused more trouble than it did well; the royal family fought wars that they did not need to fight and ended up running France into debt, they made their people pay for their lavish lifestyle, and did nothing to relieve the hardship faced by the people. Shortly after he signed the new constitution, King Louis XVI was executed; his wife followed nine months later. By executing the king the people had completely abolished and were free to start again; doing what Rousseau said they had the right to do. Henry Essex Edgeworth, an English priest who traveled to the place of execution with the king, wrote: ‘... they dragged him under the axe of the guillotine, which with one stroke severed his head from his body.
All this passed in a moment. The youngest of the guards, who seemed about eighteen, immediately seized the head, and showed it to the people as he walked round the scaffold; he accompanied this monstrous ceremony with the most atrocious and indecent gestures.’ This source was written by a priest who witnessed the death of the king making it quite reliable. It gives us a good idea of how gruesome the execution was giving us an idea of the horror of that day. Whilst the king was weak, he was completely innocent and did very little to deserve the death penalty however, his death allowed the nation of France to move forward to a modern and fair government. The French Revolution helped Europe emerge from the Middle Ages. Despite the rise of Napoleon, the ideas of the revolution stayed in France and eventually, feudalism was abolished, the French monarchy was abolished, France, and eventually all of Europe was left in the fair and civilized state that we know them to be in today. Adrien Duquesnoy, a representative for the estates general wrote: ‘...Thus the clergy of second degree and almost all provincial noblemen, who were recently oppressed by bishops and court nobles, should consider themselves fortunate to be relieved of this aristocracy.’ This tells us about how the people were freed from a strict social structure, however, it is not entirely reliable.
The man who wrote this was probably a revolutionary and therefore supported the things that were done after the revolution; he says that everyone should be supportive with the phrase ‘should consider themselves fortunate,’. The piece is quite biased. Removing the medieval ideas was essential in making France the nation it is today. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed both during the French Revolution and in the war that came straight after it. It allowed France to be relieved of an unfair system that allowed the wealthy to gain money and the poor to lose what little they had. Ineffective kings had caused France to become a country in debt and plagued by hardship, the enlightenment freed the people of France; and later, the rest of Europe followed.
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