Name Removed Western Humanities Culture and Society 4/10/2013 The French Revolution was a period of great changes

for France. France at the time was under the rule of King Louis XV and the social classes were known as the Three Estates. The Three Estates were treated differently, there was the two privileged estates which were the clergy and nobility, and the rest of the people were in the unprivileged third estate. The different treatment between the privileged classes and the unprivileged classes caused the internal conflicts. The French Revolution would have occurred without the Enlightenment because of France's financial crisis, political issues, and unfair treatment to that existed among the social classes. France's financial crisis was something that had been growing over the years, but King Louis XV had inherited it. In World History: Patterns of Interaction and "World History: Connections to Today" "France's...financial crisis was due in part of years of...government's spending more money thank it takes in.". France just did not have money. They needed to find new ways to create revenue for the country. But the French government only taxed the Third Estate. In it's intent to tax the Second Estate a great controversy rose among the Estates. France did not have a way to create more money when they could not tax the whole population, and those who were being taxed could not pay. France did not have much agricultural production because of drought, this hindered its economy. Arthur Young stated in "Travels in France" "...one third of what I have seen of this province seems uncultivated, and nearly all of it in misery." Farmers were part of the third estate and left with no jobs. The country had a very scarce supply of food. How there was such little food those who suffered the most were those without money to

obtain food, which was the unprivileged Third Estate. Arthur Young also stated "The lack of bread is terrible... the price of bread has risen above people's ability to pay.". The people were hungry, even worse starving. The First and Second Estate were not going through the same suffering as them, so this enraged the people. They were already poor but now they weren't even able to eat. France's economy was creating great tension for the Three Estates, the majority of the people were not happy. The French government was not the ideal government. As said in World History: Patterns of Interaction and "World History: Connections to Today" "France's...financial crisis was due in part of years of...government's spending more money thank it takes in.". King Louis XV inherited a massive debt but did nothing to stop it. The French government had extravagant spending and did not proceed with any measures in order to create more revenue. King Louis XV just waited to the last minute to create a solution. King Louis XV stated "to me alone that legislative power belongs, without any dependence and without any division". He thought of himself as the supreme ruler, he was known to neglect his advisors. He was not at all good at making decisions and keeping them, he was very indecisive. When he tried to impose taxes on the Second Estate, as a last minute action to create revenue for the country, he in the end did not commit to his decision because the second estate disagreed so he called for the Estates General. He never really listened to his people either, when the Estates General met he did not meet with what the Third Estate wanted, which made them unhappy, and they were the majority of the people. The majority of the French people were just enraged because of the condition of France and the way they were being treated. John Hall Stewart stated in "A Documentary

Survey of the French Revolution" the complaints against the king of France "6.That all taxes be borne equally, without distinction...". This is what brought so much controversy among the Three Estates. The existence of privileged and unprivileged did not help when the country with creating revenue, but also it did not bring unity to the people in a way to benefit the country. Those in the Third Estate were brought together by their rage and discontent of the treatment they received by the government and these privileged classes. Roger B. Beck in "World History: Patterns of Interaction" stated "In addition to the growing resentment among the lower classes, other factors contributed to the revolutionary mood...". They were strangled with taxes, starving, and seen as the unimportant class. The Third Estate did not want to be neglected anymore, they wanted to be treated equally. They saw that they needed to rise up against this unfair treatment. They had tried to get attention at the Estates General they were neglected, when they had hunger riots they were neglected, and even when the wrote out their complaints about the King they were neglected. Not because of philosophies but because of all the suffering they had endured as the unprivileged class of France. They resented the government that is why they rose up. If the Enlightenment didn't occur the French Revolution still would have happened. The French Revolution did not base itself of the philosophies of the Enlightenment. It was caused by the financial crisis that was happening that caused the people to suffer. The poor leadership France caused the people to resent the government. And the unfair treatment the Third Estate received also caused them to feel resentment toward the government. The French Revolution would have occurred without the Enlightenment.