French Revolution — Causes
VCE History: Revolutions · French Revolution causes · 8 flashcards, free to study.
Financial crisis, Enlightenment, social tension and key events for VCE History
- Financial crisis of the Ancien Régime
- France was near bankruptcy by 1788 due to war debts (especially American Revolution support), court extravagance, and an inefficient tax system that exempted nobles and clergy.
- The Three Estates
- First Estate: clergy. Second Estate: nobility. Third Estate: everyone else (97% of population), including bourgeoisie, urban workers, and peasants.
- Role of Enlightenment ideas
- Philosophes like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu challenged divine right of kings and promoted reason, liberty, and popular sovereignty.
- What was the Estates-General (1789)?
- An assembly of representatives from all three estates, called by Louis XVI to address the financial crisis. Not convened since 1614.
- Tennis Court Oath — significance
- Third Estate deputies swore not to disband until a constitution was written — a direct challenge to royal authority, marking a revolutionary turning point.
- Role of harvest failures
- The 1788 harvest failure caused bread prices to soar. By 1789, urban workers spent 80–90% of income on bread, fuelling popular anger and the Women's March on Versailles.
- Significance of the storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789)
- Symbolic act of popular revolution against royal tyranny. The Bastille represented despotism; its fall marked the beginning of the revolutionary period.
- What was the Ancien Régime?
- The old political and social system of pre-revolutionary France: absolute monarchy, feudal privilege for nobility and clergy, and no representative government.