The French Revolution: Social Causes

Causes Of The French Revolution

• Poor Economic Situation

• High Unemployment and high bread prices

• The king at the time of the French Revolution was a weak king.

In France there were 3 different Estates. The people in the first estate were the catholic clergy. They were 1% of the populatioin and owned 10% of the land and payed 2% in Taxes. The people in the second estate were the wealthy nobels. They were 2 % percent of the Population and owned 20% of the land but did not pay any taxes. Everyone else was in the third estate. The people in the third estate were 98% of the population they did own 70% of the land BUT had to pay 50% in taxes. The third estate felt used because they were about 98% of the population of france and they only had one vote in everything. They were also mad that they had to pay so much taxes and food was so expensive. Enlightment thinkers really influenced the french revolution by their thoughts about fair government. July 14th, 1789 was a very important. On that that day an angry french mob stromed into the Bastille. The Bastille was a prison in paris which had less than a dozen prisoners at the time. This was the starting point if the revolution. In October of that same year somewhere about 6,000 parisian women started to roit in paris due to the high bread prices. They were accompanied by a couple of men. Then they broke into the versailles, this is where the king lived. They demanded for the king and the queen to come with them back to paris. Once the king and queen went they never ever returned. A few years after the king and his wife were excuted by a machine and haad their head chopped of.