Question

Answer the following question

Why did the French Revolution take place?

Answer 1

The French Society at that time was divided into three distinct classes or estates. The First Estate was made of the Clergy. The Second Estate was made up of the Nobility. The nobles were absolute landlords. The Third Estate consisted of the common people. They were the middle-class members (merchants, lawyers, teachers, doctors, etc.) and the peasants and artisans. The first two Estates enjoyed all the luxury and privileges, owned all the land between them, and paid no taxes. The Third Estate was heavily taxed and lived a life of hardship and misery. King Louis XVI was indifferent to the plight of the common people and lived a life of luxury himself. The common people of France were inspired by the revolutionary writings of famous french philosophers like Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Voltaire. They attacked the church and the nobility in their writings. Rousseau wrote that subjects have the right to overthrow a king who does not rule according to the general will. The Philosophers propagated the ideas of liberty, fraternity, and equality. The French people were also inspired by the American War of Independence. It made them ready to fight for their rights and justice.