French Revolution: Causes and Impact
The French Revolution of 1789
The French Revolution of 1789 was the most important phenomenon of 18th-century Europe. Its significance marks the start of the Contemporary History period. From a political perspective, it meant the elimination of the Old Regime. Absolute monarchy was replaced by parliament or, in general, the Republic. This was the rise of the bourgeoisie to power. The social division by estates was broken. The privileges of the nobility and clergy were abolished, and the peasants were freed from serfdom. However, the social group that benefited the most was the bourgeoisie. Economically, the Old Regime ended. With the bourgeoisie’s rise to power, economic liberalism became fundamental (individual initiative, non-state intervention in economics, and the law of supply and demand regulating the market).
1. Ideological Causes: The Influence of the Enlightenment
The ideas of the 18th-century Enlightenment supported and justified the French revolutionaries intellectually. This is evident in their petitions, notes, demands, and complaints. Without these ideas, the revolutionary movement would have lacked an ideological basis. The Enlightenment ideas represent the final blow to the Old Regime’s worldview and the birth certificate of the Liberal Bourgeois Regime.
The French Enlightenment attacked the traditional system and the Old Regime, intending to modernize and prioritize human happiness. The 18th-century kings adopted many of these enlightened ideas (Despotism), but not all. Many ideas limited their power, and these became very important for the revolutionaries.
Voltaire: For Voltaire, the Church was an anachronistic institution that limited individual freedom. He wasn’t an atheist but proposed a more natural religion that recognized a Supreme Being without enslaving man. This, according to him, would lead to a fairer society. The revolutionaries, generally anticlerical, copied these ideas, even proposing a religion similar to Voltaire’s and developing a calendar unrelated to the traditional (religious) one. They were anticlerical largely because the Church was anti-revolutionary and wouldn’t relinquish its privileges.
Montesquieu: Montesquieu opposed absolute monarchy and advocated for a parliamentary form of government, like in England. He also proposed the division of powers (executive, legislative, and judicial) to control each other and prevent them from being concentrated in the same hands (as in absolute monarchy). In short, he suggested a constitutional monarchy with a Parliament making laws and a king with reduced powers. This became one of the revolutionaries’ main ideas. At a later stage, the revolution went so far as to abolish the monarchy.
Hobbes: In line with the above, Hobbes, an Englishman, established the Social Contract idea. According to him, the ruler establishes a contract with the ruled, with obligations on both sides. This demonstrates a departure from the monarchy by divine right.
Rousseau: For Rousseau, man is corrupted by living in society. He demanded a more natural society and openly opposed the division by estates, demanding fundamental equality for all men. The social content of his ideas deeply permeated the revolutionaries’ thinking. Some authors believe Rousseau’s ideas foreshadowed the idea of people as a collective protagonist of history. In line with this equality and influenced by the Declaration of the Rights of Man (from the United States War of Independence), French revolutionaries also created a Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.
The Enlightenment ideas significantly influenced the economy and, even more so, the understanding of economics. These ideas gave rise to economic liberalism, which exalts individual freedom and non-intervention of the State in the economy, giving the bourgeoisie the role of the ruling class.
2. Social Causes
The division into sectors of the Ancien Régime was an anachronism, especially during the economic crisis on the eve of the Revolution. Based on Rousseau’s ideas, the bourgeoisie opposed such an unequal society where a minority was exempt from paying taxes while the vast majority had to. This, combined with a terrible economic crisis (aggravating social tensions), created the conditions for the Third Estate to aspire to live on equal footing with the nobility and clergy. The economic crisis, the idea of equality, and the fight against privileges united the bourgeoisie, the common people in cities, and a large part of the peasantry. The bourgeoisie exploited the resulting social unrest.
3. Economic Causes
Economic causes are fundamental; some authors consider them key to explaining the revolution’s start. In the years immediately preceding 1789, there was a tremendous economic crisis due to drought and other natural disasters. For example, Ernest Labrousse noted that in 1788, wheat reached its highest price of the century. In a pre-industrial society like France, this meant that many people faced malnutrition and hunger, a situation ripe for revolutionary movements. Price increases also occurred in cities and affected all products.
In the countryside, the lords (nobles and clergy) intensified tax collection from the peasantry, reinstating forgotten taxes to overcome the crisis. This burden on peasants already living on the edge of subsistence made them receptive to the revolutionaries’ enlightened ideas.
Perhaps even more serious was the financial crisis of the French State. The expenses of the Court and aid to the United States in its War of Independence against Great Britain increased the deficit, bringing public accounts near bankruptcy. This was compounded by many farmers’ inability to pay taxes due to the economic crisis (loss of state income). Several finance ministers, including Turgot, Necker, Calonne, and Brienne, recommended that the king make the Church and nobility pay taxes to fix the situation. The two privileged classes openly rebelled in what is known as the revolt of the privileged (considered by some as the first phase of the revolution), opposing the monarchy and the Third Estate. Unable to solve the problem, the king convened the Estates-General, not called since 1614. This failure led to the popular outbreak.
4. Political Causes
In the late 18th century, France was politically rooted in the Old Regime. The king ruled alone, holding all political power and justifying it through religious arguments. The system was clearly anachronistic. The nobility and Church (unproductive estates) distanced themselves from the monarchy because it challenged their tax exemption privilege. The peasantry was shaken by the crisis, and the bourgeoisie aimed to exploit the situation to impose a new model of society, economy, and government based on Enlightenment principles. The king was alone, and the Old Regime’s days were numbered. The situation was worsened by the indecisive and weak character of King Louis XVI.