“The main reason for Revolution in France in 1789 was the

unpopularity of King Louis XVI”

Do you agree with this statement?

The French Revolution of 1789 occurred for many reasons, it reflected the
French peoples need for change in an outdated regime, and it culminated
in Louis XVI’s loss of absolute power, and the ruling of France was, for the
first time in its history, in the hands of the people.

One of the long term reasons for the French Revolution was the
unhappiness of the Third Estate. They were taxed heavily, as the country
was in debt, but the 1st and 2nd estates did not want to be taxed at all,
although for example the Archbishop of Paris had an annual income of
50,000 livres a year, whereas a typical master carpenter would earn 200
livres a year and have to pay tax on top of that. There was a tax on salt
that was so high that many peasants could not afford to pay it, and as the
only was pf preserving food then was to put salt on it, most peasants had
no way of preserving food. This was a real problem because the peasants
were so poor that they could not buy much food anyway, and they were
giving a lot of their harvest in taxes. They had to give taxes to the Church,
the King and their Landlord. The peasants also had no access to ovens,
mills and winepresses apart from the Landlord’s, so they had to use their
Landlord’s, but they still had to pay to use their Landlord’s oven, mill and
winepress, and pay for them. Male adult peasants were also forced to do
military service, although it will be hard for their family to survive without
them. By the late eighteenth century the Middle Class had also been
introduced, but they were still part of the third estate. Most of the middle
classes were educated, and had Some of the Nobles and Clergymen have
lost their wealth, so they are actually poorer than some of the third estate.
However, the poorer 1st and 2nd estate still had many privileges and paid
little or no tax, whereas the richer third estate, or middle class, were still
heavily taxed, had no privileges, and still could be called upon to fight at
any time. The estates system was now outdated, and the Middle Classes
were extremely disgruntled.

During the Eighteenth century, there was a revolution in America,

and Louis XVI sent troops over to help the Americans against the British.
The English troops heard the Americans’ ideas of liberalism, the idea that
liberty is extremely important and they spread them when they arrived
home in France. Also the ‘Philosophes’ were questioning traditional ideas
about the way the country was ruled, the teaching of the church and
moral beliefs. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier was a philosophe, he
investigated why things burn, and questioned whether there was a
substance inside all things that burn called phlogiston. However he found
out that oxygen was needed to make things burn. Lavoisier also proposed
reforms such as abolishing the taille and introducing old age pensions.
Another philosophe was Voltaire, he questioned the power and beliefs of
the catholic church. Voltaire wanted toleration of other religions, and
changes in ruling of France to hand over more power to the people. The
third estate were especially attracted to these new ideas, because they
wanted equality, as this would mean that they would need a fair trial, they
could not just be sent to prison. Also this would lessen the tax burden as
the other estates would have to pay tax as well. This time was called the
age of enlightenment.

Also, Louis XVI and his wife were unpopular, which did not help the
situation. Louis’ wife, Marie Antoinette, led a lavish life at the Palace of
Versailles, and bought many fashionable dresses, and at one time,
gambled for three days straight. Marie Antoinette was also unpopular, as
she liked to dress up as a peasant, and had a model peasant village.
Peasants felt that she was mocking them. She also spent large amounts of
money on gardening Versailles, which the people felt was not justifiable
when the country was in so much debt. Louis was unpopular because of
his indecisiveness and lack of interest in politics. Louis was also unpopular
because he spent too much money fighting in America, although he knew
the country was in debt, and he never listened to advice.

To add to the already mounting discontent, the freak weather in

1789 made an even greater economic crisis. On the 13th July 1788 a
hailstorm destroyed the vegetable plots, orchards, cornfields and
vineyards. A drought followed, meaning that the harvests were very small.
A very cold winter followed the drought, as a result the rivers froze over,
therefore the watermills could not grind the corn into flour. When the ice
thawed in the spring, the floods ruined even more of the farmland.
Consequently, the price of food went higher, as there was a critical
shortage, and this meant that the peasants had to spend nearly all their
money on bread. This meant that the peasants had no money to spend on
clothes, shoes, candles or fuel, therefore the factories that were making
these supplies had less of a market to sell to, so they lost money and had
to sack many workers. The workers that were sacked had even less
money, so they could not afford these supplies, so there was a vicious
cycle. The peasants were even more discontent because of their hunger,
and there were many riots. Although the weather could not have been
Louis’ fault in any way, the people still grew angrier with their king, and
this could have been the spark that set off the main revolution. This
means that this was a short term cause that made the people very angry,
and probably angrier than they would have been if there had not been the
long term causes building up.

Louis called the Estates general, a kind of parliament made up of

representatives from all three estates, to try and solve the crises in
France. The estates general had not met since 1614, and Louis did not
have to listen to it if he did not want to. The first meeting was on the 5th
May 1789. The estates were told to split up and meet in separate rooms
after speeches by the King and his ministers. However the third estate
were not happy about this, as each estate has one vote, and therefore the
other estates could outvote the third estate. The third estates refused to
meet in a separate room, and would only meet if they met with everyone
else in a ‘national assembly’. However the first two estates refused to do
this, but after weeks of argument, the third estate said that if they could
not meet as a national assembly, they would carry out the work
themselves. They were defying Louis by not acting according to his rules.
Louis organised a royal session of the third estate, and wanted to tell the
third estate to act by the rules. However, the second estate know joined
the third estates. The next morning the deputies arrived to find the doors
locked, and the king’s guards guarding it. This angered the deputies and
they found the nearest empty building, a tennis court. In the court, they
made an oath not to stop meeting until they had found changed the way
France was governed, and made all people equal. Louis decided to let the
people have their national assembly, as they were so determined. This
was the beginning of the end for Louis’ absolute rule.

I think that Louis’ unpopularity was not the main reason for
revolution in France. There had been mounting discontent with the rule for
years, and the freak weather was nothing to do with Louis. I think that the
main reason for revolution was the new ideas from the age of
enlightenment, and I think that Louis was unfortunate that the regime was
becoming outdated in his reign.