What is your interpretation/ thesis of the origins of the French Revolution?
You may endorse one of the views you have read for class or may wish to compose an original thesis. In either case, it should be concise.
A. de Tocqueville: The administrative centralization of the Old Regime failed to grant greater political participation to the middle classes and writers, who created alternative centers of authority which detested inequality and envisioned alternative political organizations.
D. Mornet: The ideas of the Enlightenment spread to literate elites in the city and across the countryside who fought for greater liberty and equality since the Old Regime did not provide them with opportunities for finding employment and social mobility.
A. Soboul: The rising middle class (bourgeoisie) revolted against the Old Regime because it desired greater economic liberty and legal equality to replace feudalism with capitalism by winning the sans-culottes to its side, since both social classes lacked legal privileges.
R. Chartier: The desacralization of the monarchy constituted a cultural origin to the French Revolution since French subjects no longer treated the king with the respect due to a monarch possessing the divine right to rule, which made it possible to oppose the absolute monarchy culminating in Louis XVI's execution.
Francois Furet, Revisionist of the "Revolutionary Catechism"
ReplyDeleteRead his obituary from the New York Times online:
Francois Furet
The Revolution was able undermine the Old Regime when the bourgeoisie, seeking economic liberties restricted by the Old Regime's privilege system,were joined by commoners, who's ideas were changed by the spreading of Enlightenment ideaologies.
ReplyDeleteThe increasing social and economic disparity between the aristocracy and the common man, coupled with the rising tax burden on the average citizen made France ripe for change. These socioeconomic factors operating in the backdrop of new Enlightenment ideas, which espoused the concepts of social equality, sparked the French Revolution.
ReplyDeleteThough the Revolution was in part caused by economic strains and a lacking political bureaucracy, the most influential cause of the French Revolution was a change in ideas brought on by the Enlightenment. These enlightened philosophies spread, through books and pamphlets, to all classes of the French population and incited them to revolt in order to defend their rights for equality, liberty, and freedom from oppression.
ReplyDeleteInspired by the American Revolution and the Enlightment thinkers, the French Revolution was the result of the rising prices of bread and taxes on the bourgeoisie and peasants, as well as the desire of the bourgeoisie and peasants to obtain social equality, economic freedom and legal liberty.
ReplyDeleteThe French Revolution was precipitated by commoners' exasperation with rising economic discrepancies between them and the overprivileged elite as well as the newly popular doctrines of freedom and equality brought on by the spread of Enlightenment ideas.
ReplyDelete-Kaledora (I couldn't make an ID...)
Throughout the French revolution, the common people felt undermined by the economic inequalities between them and the social elite, and the Enlightenment ideas were created and spread throughout Europe to bring them social equality and their eventual freedom.
ReplyDeleteDesacrilization of the king fueled by new Enlightenment ideas, when coalesced with common people's general hatred of inequality and rising bread prices, brought about the French Revolution.
ReplyDeleteDuring a period of economic difficulty, the French Revolution was triggered by the people's frustration with the absolute rule and its transgressions, and public opinion turned against the monarchy as the Old Regime was continuously undermined by Enlightenment thinkers who focused on liberty and equality.
ReplyDeleteAs the King's divine power slowly began to lose in political power, the frustration of the people coupled with enlightened ideas destroyed the Old Regime's political sense and sparked the French Revolution.
ReplyDeleteThe French Revolution was triggered by a confluence of events, occurring during the late 18th century, including invention of the printing press that helped spread new ideas of equality and rights of men. The Third Estate was increasingly dissatisfied and frustrated by their poor living conditions and heavy tax load while seeing the nobles living in luxurious conditions.
ReplyDeleteThe french Revolution was the manifestation of anger of the general population on the french regime's everyday social inequalities and rising bread prices. The french regime was not able to silenced this like previous attempts of revolutions because of its enormous debt therefore leaving it in the hands of the people.
ReplyDeletethe one on top is me
ReplyDelete-Abdoulaye Mouflet
During a time characterized by a harsh economic crisis, an ambivalent king and weak government, the Third Estate, inspired by the American revolution and new Enlightenment ideals, rejected the lack of equality and liberty in the Old Regime's society and sparked the French Revolution
ReplyDeletethe post on top was me (Rhea Rizk)
ReplyDeleteThe French Revolution wasn't a sudden act that rose out of nowhere in the 18th century. It was a long anticipated revolt of the lower classes' unmet needs, rise of a new bourgeoisie class, and most importantly a common disapproval of the absolute monarchy. Its causes vary from the little bread riots to the large scale wars, and not one detail doesn't take part in its importance in History.
ReplyDelete-Kristina Makarian
The desacrilization of the king of France, the spread of Enlightenment ideas and the hatred of the absolute monarchy, inequality and many long-standing institutions gave the bourgeoisie, frustrated with their political power, the courage and incentive to act upon their discontent and provoke the French revolution.
ReplyDeleteThe French Revolution was brought about by the consummation of the combined factors of the important economic and political troubles plaguing the French monarchy and the significant social divisions present within and between the different existing social orders, resulting in a large-scale upheaval of both the popular and elite bourgeois classes in reaction to what they perceived as the source of the hardships they experienced.
ReplyDeleteThe post from December 14 at 5:59 was Julian Keeley
ReplyDelete