The French Revolution A War of the Social Classes Essay

The French Revolution was basically a war of the social classes. The middle class believed that in order to gain equality they had to get rid of the privileges that were stopping the progress of their rise in society. To do this they had to gain power within the government and make changes, such as, improving the tax system, creating a fair system of production where profits went to the producer, improving the whole economic system of the government, and plus many more. The revolution was a fight for equality; it was not a rebellion against poverty. Many of the French people had learned to with poverty for they had been living in poverty for centuries. Before the Revolution, only fair reforms, or changes, were wanted by the people.†¦show more content†¦The Third Estate consisted of the common people. It included the middle class, peasants and city workers. The middle class was made up of the merchants and manufacturers, lawyers, doctors and others. Peasants were the largest group within the Third Estate. They were forced to pay large taxes, tithes to the church, and rents to their landlords for the land that they lived on. The city workers were servants, apprentices, and household maids. The major cause of the French Revolution was the differences that these three groups had. France suffered from severe economic problems. The French government borrowed significant amounts of money to pay for the wars of Louis XIV. These costs greatly increased the national debt. When King Louis XVI came into power, he did not know what to do about the debt, until he found a man by the name of Robert Turgot. He tried to introduce a major reform that would tax the nobles. He had difficulties doing so because the king could not tax the nobles unless the Parliament approved of the new tax laws. The people in the Parliament that voted on these laws were the nobles and so of course rejected Turgots reform. After Turgot was rejected, the king fired him. In August 1788, Louis XVI had decided to summon the Estates-General, convocation of the three estates, which had not met since 1614, in order to solve governments financial problems (Course Pack 178). LouisShow MoreRelatedSimilarities Between The French Revolution And American Revolution1067 Words   |  5 PagesThe American Revolution and the French Revolution The late 1700’s was a time for cutting-edge inventions, literary and philosophical achievements, upcoming and rising leaders, and lastly, revolutions. The American revolution took place from 1770 to 1783. 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