Question

Explain the events which led to the out break of French revolution

Answer 1

 

Causes of the French Revolution

1. International: struggle for hegemony and Empire outstrips the fiscal resources of the state

2. Political conflict: conflict between the Monarchy and the nobility over the “reform” of the tax system led to paralysis and bankruptcy.

3. The Enlightenment: impulse for reform intensifies political conflicts; reinforces traditional aristocratic constitutionalism, one variant of which was laid out in Montequieu’s Spirit of the Laws; introduces new notions of good government, the most radical being popular sovereignty, as in Rousseau’s Social Contract [1762]; the attack on the regime and privileged class by the Literary Underground of “Grub Street;” the broadening influence of public opinion.

4. Social antagonisms between two rising groups: the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie

5. Ineffective ruler: Louis XVI

6. Economic hardship, especially the agrarian crisis of 1788-89 generates popular discontent and disorders caused by food shortages.

Answer 2

The events which led to outbreak of French Revolution was that the revolution began in 1789 after King Louis XVI had convened the French parliament to deal with an enormous national debt . The parliament opposed it and declared itself the true legislature of France. When the king resisred to move, a crowd stromed the royal prison , the Bastille , and destroyed it . King Louis was executed . The control of the government passed first to Robespierre and then to a new ruling body , the Directory. Its incompetence and corruption allowed a military leader , Napolean Bonaparte to emerge in 1799 as a dictator and eventually became the emperor