French Revolution Dbq Essay

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Bang! Bang! It’s the sound of French Revolution beginning. French Revolution was a war that lasted from 1789-1799. It all started with King Louis XVI was not a commendable king. He had poor leadership skills and that was what led to many of the causes of the French Revolution as well as the effects. Long story short, it all began with the three social class system. France was divided into the three social estates. The first estate was the clergy, then the nobility, and the lowest estate, the commoners, also known as the peasants and bourgeoisies. For instance, in document 4, it shows a picture of the clergy and nobility standing on a rock with a bourgeoisie under it. He’s not a peasant because he’s better dressed than the peasants. This picture symbolizes how the nobility and clergy are far more powerful than the commoner. The difference between a peasant and bourgeoisie is that the bourgeoisie is literate unlike the peasant. However, they were both treated immorally. The clergy and nobility all have a say in things and can all vote individually. On the other hand, the commoners all together had one vote and …show more content…

“The lack of bread is terrible. Stories arrive every moment from provinces of riots… The price of bread has risen above people’s ability to pay. This causes great misery.” (Document 3) Due to the high prices of bread, many problems occurred. People that couldn’t afford for bread would die of starvation over time and there were many riots over bread. In addition to high prices on bread, King Louis XVI also raised taxes on the commoners. This made the commoners extremely upset because they were paying far more taxes than the clergy and nobility. As mentioned in document 3,“Lands held by the nobility are taxed very little. Lands held by the commoners are taxed very heavily.” Overall, the commoners strongly distrusted the king and felt that his doings were

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