FRENCH REVOLUTION Theme Statement

The birth of liberal democracy during the French Revolution continued to expand as the growing middle classes demanded more political power to be equal with the economic clout. Nationalism began to play a significant role in the way people and countries viewed themselves. The flourishing Industrial Revolution is what gave rise to the middle class as they were about to use the technological advances in transportation, communications, and the production of energy to enhance their position in society. While a growing number of people flocked to the cities in search of a better life, a substantial portion of the population remained in the countryside and isolated to the changes of the century. In 1789 the French Revolution began.

Napoleon look forward to the revolution, and supported it. In 1793 at the siege of Toulon, loyalist leaders and British troops clashed in fearsome battle. Napoleon fought heroically and the British were driven out. As Napoleons reward he was given a promotion to general and his own infantry unit.

Ufortunitly Napoleon ran into some bad luck, the leader of the French Revolution Maximilien Robespierre became power hungry and lost control. His own men mutinized against him and executed him. Bonapart was also captured and briefly imprisoned because he was a member of Robspierres faction. Napoleon was freed just two months later.

In 1795 a revolt began in Paris over a new constitution that was presented by the National Convention, the National Convention was name the of the new government that had taken power in France. Napoleon received orders from Frances military leader to defend the convention, and control the situation. Upon his arrival Napoleon realized that the crowd had turned into an ugly mob. Napoleon was able to take control of the situation, disperse the mob and restore peace. Paul Barras who was in control of the French military was so impressed with Napoleon he promoted him to commander.

Causes of the French Revolution
In France, 1789, they still had the same social system, Anacin regime (old order). But, little as anyone would guess, this three-class system was going to change drastically and soon.The first class, or First Estate, is the Clergy. Like always at this time, this class enjoyed enormous wealth and power. This First Estate owned about 10% of the land, collected tithes, and paid no direct taxes.

They also provided social services and helped out running schools, hospitals, and orphanages.
The Second Estate was made up of the nobles. These people had rights and good jobs in the government, the army, the courts, and the church. With these rights came strict royal control over them.

The nobles didn't like the bureaucracy for fear of loosing their freedoms to the middle-class.
The Third Estate was everyone else in France. This was the largest estate- estimated at 98% of the total population. The Third Estate was further divided into three parts.

The highest was the
bourgeoisie, or middle-class. The next class is the peasants. They made up the bulk of this estate-9 out of 10 people in France were peasants. Finally, the poorest people, the city workers, made up the last part of this estate.Along with the Old Regime, the economy was falling apart. Louis XIV left the country in debt and wars worsened the economy.

This went on, and in 1789, half of the income tax went to paying off the debt.
The government tried to raise money, but in the 1770's, there was a decline and in the 1780's bad harvests brought the economy down. All these problems really effected the people, then riots broke out. The country was falling apart. People did try to help France.

The heirs to Louis XIV tried, but failed. Then, the nobles told the king to summon the Estates General. They would start the French Revolution.
By the end of 1788, France was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Riots spread, and nobles, fearful of taxes, denounced royal tyranny. As a result, Louis XVI summoned the Estates General to meet at Versailles in May, 1789.
To prepare, Louis had all three estates organise chairs, notebooks, that listed the problems of France. Most chairs called for fairer taxes, freedom of the press, and more meetings of the Estates General. Some peasants demanded the right to kill animals that harmed their crops. Tax collectors were considered "blood suckers of the nation who drink the tears of the unfortunate from goblets of gold".

Representatives to the Estates General from the Third class party were elected by men who owned property. They were mainly lawyers, middle class officials, and writers. They studied the complaints in the cahiers thoroughly.
From the beginning, the Estates General was final on the issue of voting. Originally each estate would meet separately and vote as a group.

This allowed a two on one situation. The Third class suggested that the three groups should meet and vote together.
Weeks later, the Third estate took a daring step. They stated that they represented the people of France and went on to form the National Assembly.

They invited members of the other estates to help them write up a constitution. Days later, they were locked out of their own meeting place. They believed that this was set up by the King to send them home. The Third Estate then went on to take the Tennis Court Oath, vowing not to disband until they had a constitution drawn up for France.Later on, the Clergy and many nobles joined the National Assembly, which forced King Louis to accept the Constitution.
ONE OF THE REASON OF FRENCH REVOLUTION S;
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Now I want to talk about the Social Structure in France in that time:
France, in the early 1700's, still had a government locked into the middle ages.

French society was made up of three classes called estates. The First Estate consisted of the clergy, the Second, nobility and everyone else belonged to the Third estate. Of France's population of 24 million, only 500,000 people belonged to the First and Second Estates together. The nobility and clergy enjoyed special privileges, while resentment grew among the less privileged.

Many of the clergy lived in luxury. They provided religious services and priests operated schools and helped the poor. The church collected a large tax from the peasants (Third estate) and owned 10 percent of the land in France. Although it brought in a huge income, the church did not have to pay any taxes to the government on it's property. Instead, it made a yearly gift to the government and determined how large this gift would be.

The First estate was divided into two groups: lower clergy and higher clergy. The higher clergy spent huge sums of money on hunting dogs, horses, carriages, fine furniture and art work. Members of the lower clergy were parish priests who mostly lived in poverty.
The nobility owned a quarter of all land in France. They received generous gifts and pensions
from the King.

Some owned large estates, and still paid almost no taxes. The nobility also received produce, labour and fees from peasants on their estates. However, not all of the nobles were wealthy or powerful. Some often sought to undermine the King's rule. The nobles insisted on keeping and expanding their privileges at the expense of the peasants.

Most of the Third Estate lived in poverty. Old fashioned ways of farming were one reason for this poverty. The other was taxation. Because the clergy and nobles paid almost no taxes, the heaviest tax burden fell on the peasants.

They had to pay taxes to both the Roman Catholic Church and the King. In some regions, taxes took 60 percent of peasant family income. Every time the government needed more money, it raised the peasant's taxes. An army of government tax collectors terrorised the peasants into paying.

By 1789, French peasants were in an angry state. They wanted a fairer tax system and an end to payment fees to the lords of the manors.
THE OTHER REASONS AND THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS:
Both the French and Russian revolutions occurred because of two main reasons. Both of these revolutions were the direct results of bad leadership and a bad economy. These two reasons along with other factors caused both of these revolutions.

Although they were both similar, they also had differences. A difference between the two is that the Russians had an unsuccessful "pre-revolution" in 1905. Another difference between these two revolutions is the fact that the French turned towards a democracy while the Russian government became communist. In 1905 , Russia had a prerevolution that was put down of the Czar. Instead of learning from this prerevolution, Czar Nicholas II, made a very big mistake by in not introducing some reforms to correct the problems.

So because of his actions, the situation grew worse. In 1917, the Russians were fighting in World War I. A good majority of the Russian people were weary and uncontent with the way the war was going and with the Czar's rule. This uncontent along with economic hardships caused riots and demonstrations to break out. The Czar called for the army to put down the revolution as they did in 1905.

But the army joined the revolt and the Czar was kicked out of power soon afterwards. A temporary government was set up to decide on what kind of government Russia was gonna set up. Two political parties were set up. The Bolsheviks were one of the two.

The leader of the Bolshevik party was a man named Lenin. Lenin was a firm
believer of the theories and ideas of Karl Marx. So with his slogan of "Bread, Peace and Land", Lenin gained the support of the peasants and gained control of Russia and set-up a communist state. The French revolution was also caused by a bad ruler and a bad economy. During the early 1780's a big percent of annual budget went towards king Louis XVI's lavish estate at Versailles. France also had no central bank, no paper currency, no ways of getting more money, and an out-dated tax system which only taxed the poor who had no money to begin with.

Signs of revolution first appeared when the peasants stormed the fortress known as the Bastille looking for gun powder. The Bastille incident set off revolts all over France and Louis was soon deposed
afterwards democratic government was set-up in place of the old monarchy. A doctrine called the Declaration of the Rights of Man and citizen served as a basis for the revolutionary French leaders. The French set up a government in which an elected legislative group met annually. It also consisted of an elected judiciary and an executive headed by the king (The king had no real power and only served as a figure head).

Both the French and Russian revolutions had similar causes but ended up with different results. Both of these countries had different internal factors which cause the results. The Russians had Lenin and the French had the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. I would also like to point out 1 more similarity between these two revolutions and that is the fact that both Czar Nicholas II and King Louis XVI were executed soon after the revolutionaries took power. It's just strange to see how two similar countries with so many similar reasons for revolting would end up with so very different governments.