French Revolution | A Recap

So the French Revolution roughly took place from 1789-1799, but before we talk about that, let's take a look at what French society looked like before the revolution.

France prior to the 19th century, late 18th century, ran on an absolute monarchy.  Monarchs at the time held the Divine Right of Kings, which instilled the belief in monarchs that their power came from God and that they should only have to answer to God himself.

In this system, any and all decisions were made by the monarch, and all other citizens were to show strict obedience to the monarch.  Obedience was a norm of this time as a lack thereof could very likely result in death.  This makes a strong and contrasting comparison to the compliance that the average adult would face in our day in age, in 2024.  So how did we get there?  Well, let's look at some early movements that helped pave the path, slowly, towards today's society.

French society before the late 18th century was roughly made up of 3 classes of people (3 Estates).  They were the 1st Estate (clergy, Church), the 2nd Estate (nobles), and the 3rd Estate (Bourgeoisie, city workers, and peasants).

The Church and clergy owned 10% of the land and made up about 0.5% of the population.  The nobles made up about 2% of the population and held the majority of the wealth.  Then we had the 3rd Estate which made up about 98% of the population, yet had no say or influence with the government.  Additionally, they were taxed heavily. Sounds hard to believe doesn't it?  That the majority of a population lived their lives completely powerless (for some it may sound familiar).  That is the strength and hold of religion at the time.

Yet, around this time in France, in the 1780's, society was ever so slowly losing faith in the power of religion.  This loss in faith slowly increased and circulated through the people, ever since Charles I of Britain was publicly executed in 1649.  This was an 'eye-opener' for European society that showed the mortal side of a monarch.

When the revolution started in France, the ruler at the time was King Louis XVI.  This king, the grandson of Louis XV was known as a weak leader.  He would procrastinate on decisions, and would mostly trust the advice of his wife, Marie Antionette over his advisors.  Both the king and his wife were known for overspending, though France was severely in debt.  Antoinette was known as 'Madam Deficit'.  Helping to fuel the fire of society, Antoinette was the daughter of Austrian royalty and Austria was a longtime enemy of France.

This debt was the result of a number of factors.  The spending of the monarchy, especially the Palace of Versailles (6% of revenue roughly).  Additionally, wars such as the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War were expensive as well.

For France's contribution to the American Revolutionary War, this was the result of borrowed money.  To make matters worse for the monarchy, when the French soldiers returned from America, they were changed men, who had endured and seen Americans fight and win their liberty and freedom.  Perhaps, a stronger king might have had the foresight to have known what they were 'fighting for', rather than exacting revenge by teaming up with a brand new, enlightened society that was destined to phase out the monarchial paradigm.

Along with the motivated French soldiers of the 3rd Estate, the Philosophes of France were spreading words of the Enlightenment movement through ever-increasing printed materials.

Furthermore, the start of the revolution can be marked by King Louis XVI calling a meeting of the Estates General in which the three Estates met to discuss taxes.  Now just before this meeting was called, Louis made some blundering mistakes by trying to tax the nobles, and, entrusting financial ledgers to a man who then published the ledger for the masses to see (Necker).

These occurrences helped to set an environment that boiled over between the Estates, and an outraged 3rd Estate broke away and became the Asemblee Nationale.

The Assemblee Nationale then wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.  Eventually, the power of Louis XVI was diminished greatly and he was beheaded publicly for treason after he tried to flee France.  Nine months later, Antoinette was beheaded.

By 1792, the First Republic of France was created and French society was forever changed, though, France had not seen the last of monarchies as the style of government flipflopped for decades up until around 1871.

By this time, one thing was for sure, absolute power was a thing of the past, and peoples' lives generally mattered now.