Throughout our history there are many changes that take place. The French Revolution is an example where many changes were taken place. The French Revolution took place in the late 1700s. There were several causes for the French Revolution including political, social, and economic causes. Politically, France was under an absolute monarchy. France had been under an absolute monarchy for hundreds of years. This monarchy meant the reigning king had the absolute power over everyone. The revolutionists in France wanted more equality; therefore this absolute monarchy caused uproar. Socially, France was divided into an estate system. The first estate was made up of the clergy. The clergy is made up of the church, which is a small percentage of the population. The second estate was made up of nobles and kings. The third estate was everybody else. They were the workers and the farmers. The third estate was heavily taxed making the poor poorer. The first estate and the second estates were not taxed at all. These three estates caused very limited social mobility in France. Economically, France was facing a severe financial crisis due to over spending. The third estate was hurting because of these problems. The third estate began to take over control of the government. During this time, the third estate declares itself the Sovereign National Assembly starting the beginning of the French Revolution. These three causes of the French Revolution were the beginning of something much greater. The French Revolution was ten years of great turmoil in French history. After the ten years of turmoil, the new modern France was formed. References
Kagan, D., Ozment, S., Turner, F. (2010). The Western Heritiage. Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution, “Wikipedia – The French Revolution”