French Revolution in 1789

As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in The Tipping Point, “The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. ” Symbolised by the Tennis Court Oath and the Storming of the Bastille, the outbreak of the French Revolution was caused by a buildup of many factors, finally causing the anger and frustration manifested in the French people to reach the tipping point as they took to the streets. This led to social and political upheaval, especially in Paris.Through examining Louis XVI’s inability to rule, the spread of Enlightenment ideas and the social structure of the Kingdom of France, this essay argues that the Enlightenment Ideas were the main cause for the outbreak of the French Revolution, the cause of the tipping point. King Louis XVI’s intelligence was never doubted by his people.

He had been raised as the Dauphin of France since 1765 and was determined to be a good king. However, he did not have the qualities of a leader. Lacking in self-confidence and firmness, he was easily influenced.After France’s involvement in the American Revolution, she was in a major economic and financial crisis.

Jacques Necker was called back to the office of Director-General of Finance. During his second term as Finance Director-General, Necker pushed many policies which helped the people of the Third-Estate, such as protectionist measures on the grain market. Necker also played a big role in the reconvention the Estates-General of 1789, the first since 1614. He advocated doubling the representation of the Third-Estate, which was had little say in state matters considering that they made out 98% of the population.

He was thus seen as a hero by the peasants, a minister who would stand up for their rights and livelihood. Having been sympathetic towards the Third-Estate and reconstructed the ministry, conservative nobles of King Louis XVI’s privy council did not favour Necker, and influenced the King to dismiss him on 11 July 1789. In another case, when the Third Estate failed to reconcile the three Estates to settle the powers of the three orders, the Communes declared themselves renamed as the National Assembly, and intended to conduct the nation’s affairs with or without the other estates.Under influence from his privy council, King Louis XVI decided to annul the National Assembly’s decrees, command the separation, and restore the Estates-General.

He then closed the hall, Salle des Etats, where the National Assembly met. These decisions made by the King under the influence of his privy council were not intended by Louis XVI to be violent nor a symbol of Monarchal oppression. However, Parisians presumed that Necker’s dismissal marked the start of a conservative coup by the King and feared that the sudden concentration of Royal Troops at Versailles would be used to shut down the National Constituent Assembly.These events were amidst the period of the Great Fear. The Parisians decided to take action before the Monarch and thus Stormed the Bastille, signifying the start of the French Revolution.

Thus, the King’s inability to lead had caused him to make decisions influenced by his privy council, fueling the French people’s fear and enabling them to take action against the Monarch. However, King Louis XVI’s tendency of being controlled by the nobles or his ministers has been well-known among the French even many years before the revolution.In the 1770s, King Louis tried to shift the burden of taxation to the upper class by engaging economic reformers such as Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and Malesherbes. This greatly angered the nobles and resulted in the parlements insisting that the King did not have any rights to levy new taxes, also resulting in the dismissal of the two reformers. Even after the Seven Years War, King Louis XVI once again advocated a tax to be paid both by the nobility and the peasants.

However, the parlements was again able to defend the nobility’s right to be exempt from these taxes.King Louis XVI’s goodwill for his country was disposed through the influence of his ministers. The French people were aware of these issues and knew that the King was frequently influence by the nobles. Despite causing much rage among the French, King Louis XVI did not face overwhelming opposition from the people.

Thus, the King’s influenced decisions could not have been the trigger to the fear of the Parisians, leading to the outbreak of the French Revolution. The unfair social structure can also be seen as a cause of the French Revolution. The Kingdom of France was 98% peasants, and 2% nobles and clergy.However, the upperclass had significant influence in the ruling of the nation, thus resulting in many state policies being in favour of them.

Peasants were required to pay the tithe, taille, vingteme and the capitation. Further royal and seigneurial obligations also have to be paid. These taxes were burdensome in good times and devastating in harsh times. However, the nobles and clergy were exempted from taxes, with the exception of two modest taxes, placing the tax burden on the already poor peasants, wage-earners and the educated and cultured Bourgeoisie, together comprising the third estate.

Nobles also had further privileges in the military, gained through family links, whereas the peasants could not even have insignificant posts in the government. This unfair social structure and government system caused great resentment among the third estate. This resentment had been portrayed in newspapers and plays like The Marriage of Figaro (1784) in which there was a line: “What have you (nobles) done to deserve so much? You just went through the trouble of being born - nothing more”. The food crisis of 1788 exacerbated the discontent.In summer, storms and floods caused harvest to fall in seigneurial dues and defaults on leases.

The freezing weather and flooding during the winter also caused bad harvests, forcing the price of bread to soar. The ignorant King Louis XVI did nothing to enforce policies which would prevent landowners from using this crisis as an profit-making opportunity. In the countryside, vagrancy became a serious issue and violent riots against the seigneurs and by the peasants, broke out in many parts of the country. In April 1789, these peasant uprising in the countryside had significant manpower, and started to arm themselves.The arming of peasants signified the start of a revolt.

However, the revolts were mainly in the countryside, far from the capital. Paris, the main political power centre and the heart of France was still free from armed revolts. The fear in the capital was the fear of aristocratic conspiracy and not similar to the fear of anarchy in the countryside. Paris, being the spark where the French Revolution turned into a massive wildfire, was relatively free from violence of the peasants caused by the unfair social structure.Thus, the Storming of the Bastille and the Tennis Court Oath could not have been directly linked the the countryside revolts.

Even if the unfair social structure fueled the outbreak, it could not have been the trigger factor as the Ancien Regime was in place since the 15th century. The discontent of the Third Estate existed even during Louis XV’s reign. Furthermore, harvests had been bad since the volcanic eruption of Loki in 1783, and France’s inability to adopt the potato as a staple crop contributed to the widespread famine.Thus, the unfair social structure, worsened by the unfavorable weather, could only have fueled the outbreak of the French Revolution and not trigger it. The Enlightenment Ideas also played in big role in the onset of the French Revolution. Philosophes such as Voltaire, Montesquieu and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, along with writers, played an indelible role in exposing the ugly truths and pretensions of the French society.

These Enlightenment Ideas could have been said to clear the cloudy lenses of the French people, allowing them to see reality as it is and inspired them to take action.Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his book The Social Contract, described the relationship between man and society. He proposed a society where the people forfeit the same amount of freedom and in return receive the protection and welfare from the government. The Sovereign will hold no force other than legislative power and can only act by means of the laws, solely the authentic acts of the general will. This equal-power relationship challenged the divine right of the King in France. Rousseau’s theory addressed the existing problems of the hierarchy and proposed a hopeful future for the people of France.

The American victory in the War for Independence also brought faith and motivation to the French people. The American Revolutionary War ended the century-long colonisation of thirteen British colonies in America. This war was sparked off by local militias who fought against the British with their desire for independence. This victory of sheer numbers against the mighty Kingdom of Great Britain gave the discontented French the hope and motivation of a revolution.

With the influence from Philosophes and the American Revolutionary War, the monarch of France now had to face unparalleled determination of his people.This could be seen through the formation of the National Assembly where the Communes decided to take state matters into their own hands without the approval of the monarch. However, as this determination infested the minds of the French, they were addicted to this idea of a revolution and thus adopting a polarised mindset. When King Louis XVI dismissed Necker, tried to close the National Assembly and brought many troops to Versailles, the French saw this as a threat towards the revolution and started having fears of a aristocratic conspiracy.Parisians stormed the Bastille in order to get arms to be ready to face the oppression of the state.

This event signified the power of the people and the start of a bloody revolution. Thus, the Enlightenment Ideas which made the French more aware of the ugly truths and gave them the faith and determination, were responsible for the outbreak of the French Revolution. However, it is argued that the King had the power to control the spread of Enlightenment Ideas and thus his inability to rule the Kingdom was responsible.The King could have imposed laws to restrict the media, censoring all materials that could provoke discontentment. As the absolute monarch, he could have taken action without consulting nor questioning.

This reasoning has been used frequently to push all blame to King Louis XVI’s. However, though absolute monarch in name, King Louis XVI’s inability to lead the French Kingdom has already caused him to lose much power and credibility not only among the public, but within his own privy council. He lacked firmness and was easily influenced by the nobles and even his own wife, Marie Antoinette.He was unable to enforce any reforms he had planned for and dismissed the well-liked Jacques Necker because of external influence. Saying that King Louis XVI could have restricted the spread of Enlightenment Ideas and yet stating that he lacks t leadership and the ability to rule are simply contradictory and do not hold as a logical argument.

Even if King Louis XVI had tried to restrict the spread of these Enlightenment Ideas, it would have been practically impossible considering the size of the French Kingdom and the sheer number of people.There was much freedom of speech and writing, allowing the expeditious spread of these ideas. It has also been proven in history that powerful leaders can fall easily because of the power of the people. More modern example of revolutions such as the Russian Revolution, the Xinhai Revolution and even the 2011 Libyan Civil War has shown that even the most powerful dictators or autocrats can fall when his people turn malcontent, even if drastic and violent measures are taken.

Thus, King Louis XVI had no power in controlling the Enlightenment Ideas.King Louis XVI’s inability to lead and the unfair social structure was not new to the people of France. Being powerless, they had been believing that could not do anything to improve the life of the French. However, the spread of Enlightenment Ideas had brought hope and an ideological transformation, causing the French to believe so strongly in a revolution. When the progress of transformation was threatened by the Monarch, the determination in reform sparked the fear within the Parisians.

In order to hold on to and protect their beliefs, they defied the monarch and resulted to violence, as seem during the Tennis Court Oath and the Storming of the Bastille. As Mao Tse Tung once said, “As far as our own desire is concerned, we do not want to fight even for a single day. However, if circumstances force us to fight, we can fight to the finish. ” The Enlightenment Ideas cultivated in the minds of the French had made them believe that it was the right time to fight against the monarch, causing the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789.Voltaire, famous for his wit, was a polemicist who indefatigably fought for civil rights, frighting for fair trial and freedom of religion.

Being a polygenist, he defied Christianity and biblical monogenism. In his 1759 novella, Candide, ou l’Optimisme, he wrote “It is up to us to cultivate our garden. ” Before the Revolution, the Catholic Church had great political power and was the only form of public worship allowed. Voltaire went against convention, encouraging free thought. The dark side of French society was also exposed through plays and newspapers, provoking the French to view their society in a new light.