Causes & Course of the French Revolution
- Analyze the social, financial, and intellectual causes of the French Revolution
- Explain the significance of the events of 1789
- Describe the ideals expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man
A society of unequal orders
Pre-revolutionary France was divided into three legal estates. The First Estate (clergy) and Second Estate (nobility) — a tiny minority — enjoyed privileges and paid almost no taxes. The Third Estate — everyone else, from wealthy bourgeoisie (merchants, lawyers, professionals) to urban workers and the peasant majority — did the work, paid the taxes, and had little political voice. This system of legal inequality, called the Old Regime (Ancien Régime), bred deep resentment, especially among the educated, ambitious bourgeoisie who absorbed Enlightenment ideas of equality, natural rights, and popular sovereignty.
Financial crisis and the road to 1789
The immediate trigger was bankruptcy. Decades of war (including aid to the American Revolution) and a lavish court left the crown deeply in debt, and a poor harvest sent bread prices soaring. Unable to tax the privileged orders, Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General in 1789 for the first time since 1614. When voting rules threatened to silence them, Third Estate delegates broke away, declared themselves the National Assembly, and swore the Tennis Court Oath to write a constitution. Popular anger exploded on July 14, 1789, when Parisians stormed the Bastille, and peasants rose across the countryside in the "Great Fear."
The ideals of 1789
In August 1789, the National Assembly abolished feudalism and issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, proclaiming that "men are born and remain free and equal in rights." It enshrined liberty, equality before the law, property, and popular sovereignty, guaranteeing freedom of speech and religion and the principle that law expresses the general will. The revolution’s slogan became "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." But the promise had limits: Olympe de Gouges protested women’s exclusion with a Declaration of the Rights of Woman, and the Assembly’s reforms left many, including women and the enslaved, outside full citizenship.
Group the causes into a memorable set: long-term (Old Regime inequality, Enlightenment ideas), financial (war debt, tax injustice), and immediate (bread prices, the Estates-General crisis). A strong causation answer names one from each layer.
Briefly explain how the structure of French society under the Old Regime contributed to revolution, and describe the significance of the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
- 1.Describe the estates: the First (clergy) and Second (nobility) estates held privileges and paid little tax, while the Third Estate carried the tax burden with little political voice.
- 2.Connect structure to grievance: this legal inequality angered the Third Estate, especially the educated bourgeoisie who embraced Enlightenment ideas of equality and rights.
- 3.Introduce the Declaration: in August 1789 the National Assembly proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
- 4.Explain its significance: it asserted liberty, equality before the law, and popular sovereignty as universal principles, directly repudiating the privilege-based Old Regime.
Which grievance did the Third Estate hold against the Old Regime in 1789?
The Revolution’s equality had real limits. The 1789 Declaration proclaimed universal rights but excluded women (as Olympe de Gouges protested) and initially the enslaved. Note both the ideals and their boundaries for full credit.
The Tennis Court Oath of June 1789 is significant because in it the Third Estate delegates:
On DBQ or LEQ prompts about causes, weave Enlightenment ideology into the material causes: financial crisis created the opening, but Locke’s and Rousseau’s ideas gave the Third Estate the language of rights and sovereignty to justify overturning the Old Regime.
Answer the 2 checkpoints as you read.
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