To What Extent Was King Louis XVI Responsible For The French Revolution?

But what causes a rebellion and eventually revolution? The first and most obvious cause to the French Revolution was the royal family themselves. During the period before the revolution the royal family was known for their extravagance, for throwing parties when their people were starving and couldn’t afford bread. Another contributing to the rebellion and revolution were the Class System called the Privileged Estates. France was severely in debt at that time, banks couldn’t give people who needed money because they didn’t have any to give, even with the high taxes.

Prior to Napoleon's reign as emperor, France had been through the rein of terror and the French Revolution. King Louis the Sixteenth and his wife Marie Antoinette had put France in major debt and took no responsibility for it. He was killed by the guillotine. Robespierre took control after his death and caused more problems for France and killed anyone who was not passionate enough about his ruling. He too was killed by the guillotine.

Although it thrived, it fell around 476 C.E because of major issues. Poor military, mistrust in the government, and the overwhelming size lead to the fall of the Roman Empire. Poor military decisions contributed to the downfall of the Roman Empire. In C 450 CE, the Roman military leaders made a poor decision by letting the military decide on taking away armor (Document 3). This caused more soldiers to be killed in battle because they didn’t have the proper protection.

Among other things, Louis XIV bankrupted France which is never a good thing for a country. Louis XIV treated the people of France unfairly and he didn’t seem to care about their well-being. Louis XIV suppressed the Catholic church, and Nobles. He made the Nobles wait on him. Louis XIV weakened the power of the nobles and excluded them from his councils.

Jean Domat, a royally appointed juror by king Louis helped explain a better understanding of the new system of governance to the people of France in his writings. Domat wrote “On Social Order and Absolute Monarchy” to defend the king’s powers, and to give a better understanding of the hierarchy type system so ordinary people would accept it. Jean Domat’s life goal was explaining absolutism. Since he was not a king and seen as a regular person, people at his time can get a better understanding of the system when someone like him explains it. He explained that the king was given his power through God and is responsible to no one but God.

The leader of the French Revolution was Napoleon Bonaparte. He was a great leader and has a good strategy when it comes to war. The American Revolution and the French Revolution have similar and different causes to their revolution. A cause of the American revolution was taxation without representation. Taxation without representation was when the government taxed the colonies without

When he rose to power, French citizens believed that Napoleon was the person who was finally going to pull their country out of political turmoil. According to Jackson Spielvogel, “In a sense, Napoleon brought the Revolution to an end, but he was also its child… he never ceased to remind the French that they owed to him the preservation of all that was beneficial in the revolutionary program.” Napoleon constantly reminded his people that he felt that it was important to preserve the ideas of the French Revolution in order to display his dedication to his country. According to Míríam Greenblatt, most soldiers who fought for France also understood Napoleon’s close connection with the French Revolution: "Frenchmen in general were proud to serve in Napoleon's army. There was a glory in being led by one of the world's greatest generals. Many soldiers also felt that they were 'soldiers of liberty,' fighting for their country and for the ideals of the French Revolution."

A key cause of the vassal’s loyalty to nobility was because the nobility protected their subjects from outside assaults on the village while the king did not protect them. Hence, since the king sent a militia to protect the kingdom, vassals no longer needed to be loyal to the nobility. Therefore, nobility was no longer a threat to King Louis XIV power because they lacked the support of vassals after the collapse of feudal services. Furthermore, in The Duke of Saint- Simon on the Reign of Louis XIV, Wiesner describes Louis XIV’s move to the Palace of Versailles. The move was a tactical ploy on Louis’ part because the large palace allowed him to have his main followers live in the palace, where he could spy on and observe their movement, which in turn allowed him to assess potential threats to his reign.

In 1789 the French Revolution began with King Louis XVI being the king of France. Before the revolution began there were many problems within the country of France. There was a brutal winter which made the lands bad which caused a shortage of crops like wheat. Bread was a staple food in most homes and when the flour got expensive so did the bread. The cost of bread rose so high that it equalled a month’s earning.

In 1923, Germany does not want to pay for repairs. This leads to the occupation of the Ruhr (large German industrial region), by the French and thus the collapse of the German currency. It follows a crisis that led to the ruin of investors (bank accounts are worthless ...). To resolve this crisis, the Allied Powers (France, the United States, Russia and England.) Decreases the amount of repairs and US banks place large sums in Germany.