Perspectives on the French Revolution

Perspectives on the french conversion. This essay willing examine the ideologies of the French change of 1789. deuce perspectives on the French rotation were held by the conservatives elite and the educated philosophers. The educated philosophers believed that a revolution was the just way that the nub and lower class were to take over a say in matters of state, and obtain their dutys. Their coating in the revolution was to turn the dogmatic monarchy into a thorough monarchy.The conservatives believed that the sacrosanct monarchy should stick about intact to preserve their heritage, and that the subverter changes brought more than than problems than they solved. The French revolution started in 1789 and decreedly lasted 10 years, finishing in 1799. Although harmonise to familiar opinion, many a(prenominal) events after(prenominal) the official end of the revolution are considered to be included in revolution for compositors case the rein of snooze Bona usee. T he revolutions started as a result of uphill food prices and the states bankruptcy. The ascent food prices were primarily caused by an wide and volatile hailstorm.The food shortage may take for ended on that point, however the hailstorm was followed by a long drought, likely caused by the El Nino effect. After the drought in that respect was an uncharacteristic onlyy cold winter rivers and roadstead froze over, stopping flour from being maroon by watermills, and the little food that was produced couldnt get to the market because the roads were blocked. When restrict came around and the snow fin on the wholey liquefy it caused floods destroying an abundance of farm knowledge base. There is also guesswork that volcanic activity of Laki and Grimsvoth had a contribute in the food crisis.In addition to rising food prices, the states bankruptcy, caused in part by Frances involvement in the American revolutionary war, put the monarchy in a challenging financial position. To pu t up its debts the state would every have to usurp money or draw out the already high taxes on the deuce-ace estate (Adcock, pg. 40). Both decisions were bad as they would cause upheaval in civilian life. The taxes were already high, having been raised to get for the many wars top executive Louis XIV had waged, divergence the state in debt (Neely, pg. 29).In august 1786 queen mole rat Louis cardinals minister of pay informed him of the seriousness of the financial situation. France had been in debt for about 100 years. They waged 4 go bad wars between 1733 and 1783, and fasten oned more than ? 1250 million since 1776. These were the study contributions to Frances debt (Adcock pg. 41, Brooman pg. 19). The power had two options, either borrow more money or raise the taxes higher than theyve ever been. He currently discovered he couldnt borrow more money because he was in too much debt, so he essay to introduce a cutting tax.This tax was called the stain tax, all kno wledge domain receiveers had to pay this tax to keep the land they owned. This included the first, second and third estates land but excluded the king. All clean taxes and constabularys had to be registered and approved at the law courts, or parliament in Paris. King Louis tried to pass the new tax without the estates generals approval. When the law courts wouldnt allow him to introduce the new tax without their approval he expatriationd the good parliament from Paris. People everywhere in France protested against this, roughlytimes violently, for six months until King Louis gave in and re appointive them.As a result of these main problems the hoi polloi felt that the monarchy was not doing its job and that the French flock needed a constitutional government to rule over them fairly. Although the philosophes did not always agree on political issues they did agree that the scientific discoveries made in the 1seventh century were important to all aspects of life (Neely pg. 16). Most philosophes were not traditionalistic Christians, but rather deists. Deists believed that knowledge of deity came finished study of the nature that he created and did not believe in things much(prenominal) as miracles (Neely pg. 7). Before the revolution the philosophes achieved the outlet of the encyclopedie, a collection of knowledge with contributions from many philosophes. The first volume was published in 1751(Neely pg. 18). These encyclopedie have been blamed by some historians for the revolution. They do at least gambling a small role in the revolution. what sponsored to bring on the revolution were not radical ideas, but rather that more and more flock were now discussing public policy and taking a spruce intimacy in political and political matters(Neely pg. 1) these books were the reason bulk were able to be informed enough to create their own opinions. The governing of the country was no thirster in the hands of just a few noble men, but bulk of the popu lation. One of the around famous philosophes was Francois-Marie Arouet, dampen known as Voltaire. He wrote a variety of philosophical works on many topics and in many forms. In 1725 he was exiled to Britain for three years after offending a nobleman. In Britain he learnt about the constitutional monarchy, which appeared far recrudesce than his own countrys monarchy.During this exile he wrote letter philosophiqes sur les anglais (philosophical earn on the English). He published these when he returned to France. These letters recommended the constitutional monarchy over the absolute monarchy, and sparked outrage in most populate throughout the country. It is likely that these works had a hand in the revolution, once lot had time to process the information. The rule of Nantes was write in Nantes, France by Henri IV on April 15th 1598. Henri was a Protestant who win overed to Catholicism 4 years after succeeding the throne.The edict gave Protestants the freedom to faith as the y please, made their marriages valid, allowed their priests to be paying(a) by the state and gave full claim for all crimes committed by some(prenominal) sides during the religious wars. The edict proved only to be a temporary outcome to the religious wars and rivalry between the Protestants and Catholics. In 1685 Louis XIV revoked the edict of Nantes, declaring all protestant marriages invalid, and cause mass migration to England (Cavandish, history today).Voltaire, who had a protestant wife, wrote about the Protestants and what they were going through during this time of turmoil (Neely pg. 18). Voltaire e peculiar(a)ly had an interest in the callas case. He believed that the case showed what was ravish with the French society including religious intolerance. dungaree Callas was convicted of killing his son for trying to convert to Catholicism. He was tortured and killed in public. In 3 years Voltaire cleared his name. Although the edict was revoked almost 100 years earlier the revolution, some historians believe it may have had a part in causing it. Enlightenment led throng wide by weakening their faith in tradition and religion by placing completely too much confidence in the abilities of human beings to reason and improve the manhood (Neely pg. 16). The conservatives believed that the revolution would cause more problems than it would solve. Although they take for that the monarchy had its flaws, they believed it was immoral to attack the government and the church (Neely, pg. 16). It was common belief that the king was appointed by god, which meant he had the divine ripe to rule.Therefore, to criticise the king was to criticise god. Public belief in the kings competence to rule was largely reinforced by large oil paintings of the king at work (Adcock pg. 7). The second estate or nobility did not have to pay certain taxes (and dodged paying many others), got special treatment in law courts, had the right to carry a sword, and did not have to do military service (Brooman pg. 7). Because most of the conservatives were nobility of the second estate (upperclassmen) it is believed that there may have been a more selfish reason for their beliefs.The conservatives did not fatality to give up their estates, slaves, titles, and privileges (Neely pg. 16). On the twenty-sixth of august 1789 the declaration of rights of man and citizen was introduced provisionally by the parliament (Neely pg. 86). It outlined that all men were equal and free and that motive did not solely belong to the king but to the people as intimately (Brooman pg. 33). Its main purpose was to acknowledge that these rights already exist, no to create new ones. It was solely an affirmation of the philosophes writings about the peoples rights.The document did not find that the state had a responsibility to help the poor and unemployed. Although it was a victory for the philosophes and the third estate, they only got half of what they wanted (Adcock pg. 89). Ki ng Louis XVI or Louis Capet as the people insisted on calling him, was found culpable of conspiracy against the state on 7th of January 1793 (Adcock pg. 136). On the 15th of January they voted as to what penalty the king would receive. The votes were very close with 361 people who voted for death without conditions and 360 people who voted against it.Out of those 286 people voted for durance or banishment and 46 people voted for death when peace time came (Neely pg. 170). On the 21st of January he was taken to mark de revolution to be kill with a guillotine. Later the holding de revolution was renamed to place de la Concorde to try and abate the holding and blame surrounding the place. King Louis XVI was thought of as a drum up point for the conservatives as he was part of the royalty they wished to protect. Once he was executed the conservatives had lost majority of their reason to fight.The revolution officially ended in 1799, when Napoleon Bonaparte came into power. When this happened, both the conservatives and the philosophes lost. Their key out ideals were rupture apart as napoleon stated himself emperor, abolishing both the monarchy and the people voice (Adcock pg. 193). During the revolution the French people had 4 separate national assemblies and 3 different constitutions. more historians believe that without the help of the philosophes the French revolution may never have happened part others argue that dissatisfaction in the system causes critique and animosity and the revolution still would ave happened eventualy. Bibliography Adcock, M 2004, Analysing the French revolution, Cambridge University Press. Brooman, J 1992, Revolution in France, Longman Group. Cavendish, R 1998, The edict of Nantes, viewed 12th family 2012 <http//www. historytoday. com/richard-cavendish/edict-nantes>3 Hampson, N 1963, A favorable history of the French revolution, T. J press. Neely, S 2008, A concise history of the French revolution, Rowman and Littlefi eld publishers.