WORLD HISTORY
The French Revolution
CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION:
• The church, the notables and the king were the main power icons of France.
• There was monarchy in France which was ruling France for over several centuries it was called
the ancient regime, it was the monarchical form of government having strict traditions.
• Church and the aim of notable was to protect this ancient order.
• France at that time follows the roman catholic church hence protestants were degraded.
• Aricbishops and bishops were the power house among with the nobles .
• They all enjoy privileges like the tax exemption even the landlord can hunt in the lands of
peasants. If a landlord is having any type of clash with the peasant then the landlord was
allowed to appoint judges and lawyers. These were called feudal law courts.
• The peasants were not allowed to use sea water nor their cattle could drink from any salt
spring. The peasants were not allowed to enter their cattles into the lands of their landlords but
also landlord could hunt in the peasants land. The peasants were forced to purchase wine
from landowner and to work on their vineyards.
• Education was under the supervision of the church.
• France was a country known for its precious cultivable lands and crops but at that time there
were food shortages and government hasn’t introduced any incentive to improve the
cultivation INSTEAD there were internal trade barriers as well. 75% of the peasants relied on
bread as their major component of diet but their 50% of income was to spent on bread.
• Traders were suffering from the internal trade barriers and the competence of the English
goods as well as France had less development of textile industry under the commercial treaty
of 1786.
• 1 MILLION peasants were surfs while several had to share the profit and loss with their
landlords. However, the majority was to pay rents.
• Usually, the commanding positions of army were given to the nobility.
• Bishops and archbishops receive 60000 livres a year.
• Much of the taxes were spent on the royals, the nobility and the church.
• The ultimate power lied into the hands of the king, the nobility and the church.
• There was separate system of laws followed in France, the ROMAN law in southern half and the
COMMON law in the north as well as there were differences in customs thus there was a
communal divide present.
• There were parlements(a court that oversee the orders of the king) but the king by a declaration
letter de cachet could pass any order without their approval.
• The church owned one fifth of the land of France and had an yealy income of almost
500000000 francs.
TAXES o
, ✓ Taille tax on land, a tax on the estimated income of an individual and if the peasant has gained
a surplus and has raised income so tax will be revised.
✓ Poll tax on the head of each household.
✓ Veingtie`me tax on all the property usually it is 1/6th of the income.
✓ These all state taxes deprives the peasants from half of their income.
✓ Gabelle tax was on every person of at least 8 years of age. It was on the salt.
✓ To collect taxes, the companion peasants were appointed by the government. These were
called the tax farmers.
✓ Using the mills also requires taxes to be paid.
✓ Hearth tax for the use of local roads and bridges.
✓ Corvee tax was on labour.
✓ For example, the king appointed intendants to administer the localities, called
departments, in France. The intendants were royal agents and their job was to carry out royal
wishes in their departments. They were often hated by local parlements, however, who did
their best to ignore and resist them.
✓ There were custom duties on trade.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THEIR LEADERS
• Voltaire, who was very critical of the role, wealth and influence of the Church, and
attacked religious intolerance. He was also critical of the entire French legal system and
its frequent miscarriages of justice. Thus he promoted secularism.Montesquieu, who
was critical of despotism and autocratic power. He wanted a system of checks and
balances, where one part of a system of government, for example an elected
parliament, could check the actions of ministers and the king. He was impressed by the
British system, where parliament controlled law-making and could check the
government. Montesquieu advocated the rule of law: that everyone should be equal
before the law and subject to the law of the land. He introduced the separation of
powers into the judicials,legislative and executive functions.. Diderot, author of an
encyclopaedia of ‘sciences, arts and crafts’, who was determined to advance
knowledge. He was a great advocate of independent thinking, and was anxious to
promote a critical and questioning attitude to everything. Rousseau, who argued for
more education, was a great thinker who wrote about power and liberty. He proposed
many ideas on how there could be both authority and freedom for men in the same
society. Quesnay, who wrote on economics and argued against the constraints on the
free production and movement of goods which existed at the time in France. These men
challenged established ideas, institutions and social structures.
• It marks the beginning of the scientific revolution so the people began to question the
authority of the church. It urges the sense of skepticism among the peoples so they
begun questioning. Rousseau encourages the sense of liberty and equality as well as he
believes man are born free. He believed in a social contract among the people and the
government.
The French Revolution
CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION:
• The church, the notables and the king were the main power icons of France.
• There was monarchy in France which was ruling France for over several centuries it was called
the ancient regime, it was the monarchical form of government having strict traditions.
• Church and the aim of notable was to protect this ancient order.
• France at that time follows the roman catholic church hence protestants were degraded.
• Aricbishops and bishops were the power house among with the nobles .
• They all enjoy privileges like the tax exemption even the landlord can hunt in the lands of
peasants. If a landlord is having any type of clash with the peasant then the landlord was
allowed to appoint judges and lawyers. These were called feudal law courts.
• The peasants were not allowed to use sea water nor their cattle could drink from any salt
spring. The peasants were not allowed to enter their cattles into the lands of their landlords but
also landlord could hunt in the peasants land. The peasants were forced to purchase wine
from landowner and to work on their vineyards.
• Education was under the supervision of the church.
• France was a country known for its precious cultivable lands and crops but at that time there
were food shortages and government hasn’t introduced any incentive to improve the
cultivation INSTEAD there were internal trade barriers as well. 75% of the peasants relied on
bread as their major component of diet but their 50% of income was to spent on bread.
• Traders were suffering from the internal trade barriers and the competence of the English
goods as well as France had less development of textile industry under the commercial treaty
of 1786.
• 1 MILLION peasants were surfs while several had to share the profit and loss with their
landlords. However, the majority was to pay rents.
• Usually, the commanding positions of army were given to the nobility.
• Bishops and archbishops receive 60000 livres a year.
• Much of the taxes were spent on the royals, the nobility and the church.
• The ultimate power lied into the hands of the king, the nobility and the church.
• There was separate system of laws followed in France, the ROMAN law in southern half and the
COMMON law in the north as well as there were differences in customs thus there was a
communal divide present.
• There were parlements(a court that oversee the orders of the king) but the king by a declaration
letter de cachet could pass any order without their approval.
• The church owned one fifth of the land of France and had an yealy income of almost
500000000 francs.
TAXES o
, ✓ Taille tax on land, a tax on the estimated income of an individual and if the peasant has gained
a surplus and has raised income so tax will be revised.
✓ Poll tax on the head of each household.
✓ Veingtie`me tax on all the property usually it is 1/6th of the income.
✓ These all state taxes deprives the peasants from half of their income.
✓ Gabelle tax was on every person of at least 8 years of age. It was on the salt.
✓ To collect taxes, the companion peasants were appointed by the government. These were
called the tax farmers.
✓ Using the mills also requires taxes to be paid.
✓ Hearth tax for the use of local roads and bridges.
✓ Corvee tax was on labour.
✓ For example, the king appointed intendants to administer the localities, called
departments, in France. The intendants were royal agents and their job was to carry out royal
wishes in their departments. They were often hated by local parlements, however, who did
their best to ignore and resist them.
✓ There were custom duties on trade.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THEIR LEADERS
• Voltaire, who was very critical of the role, wealth and influence of the Church, and
attacked religious intolerance. He was also critical of the entire French legal system and
its frequent miscarriages of justice. Thus he promoted secularism.Montesquieu, who
was critical of despotism and autocratic power. He wanted a system of checks and
balances, where one part of a system of government, for example an elected
parliament, could check the actions of ministers and the king. He was impressed by the
British system, where parliament controlled law-making and could check the
government. Montesquieu advocated the rule of law: that everyone should be equal
before the law and subject to the law of the land. He introduced the separation of
powers into the judicials,legislative and executive functions.. Diderot, author of an
encyclopaedia of ‘sciences, arts and crafts’, who was determined to advance
knowledge. He was a great advocate of independent thinking, and was anxious to
promote a critical and questioning attitude to everything. Rousseau, who argued for
more education, was a great thinker who wrote about power and liberty. He proposed
many ideas on how there could be both authority and freedom for men in the same
society. Quesnay, who wrote on economics and argued against the constraints on the
free production and movement of goods which existed at the time in France. These men
challenged established ideas, institutions and social structures.
• It marks the beginning of the scientific revolution so the people began to question the
authority of the church. It urges the sense of skepticism among the peoples so they
begun questioning. Rousseau encourages the sense of liberty and equality as well as he
believes man are born free. He believed in a social contract among the people and the
government.
