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Causes for French Revolutoin

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Submitted By sophychen2877
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Causes for French Revolution France was the most powerful and influential European country in the 17th and 18th century. However,the outbreak of French Revolution in 1789 shattered the long existing absolute monarchy, destroyed the classic Old Regime and put an end to the age of aristocratic privilege owned solely by the royal family and the nobility. Europe’s longest ruling monarchy was not dethroned overnight, but many different factors from multiple sources, piled-up grievances and contradictions that were long precipitated, contributed to the finality of a traditional system and led to the establish of a modern constitutional government, together with democracy and nationalism. Under the reign of Louis XIV and XV, France had been put under an enormous financial and economic burden by 18th century. Louis XIV’s aggressive international policies had led to lasting and destructive Seven Years War outside the European lands and French government had experienced some period that the spending greatly exceeded the revenue income,especially with expensive military expenditures . And to make it worse, the outcome of these long drawn-out battles against the Great Britain oversea on the North America territory only threw French into bigger financial crisis. Normally the exceeding funds were borrowed, but by the time Louis XV passed away, funding sources may have been cut off and France was left in mounting debts. France had been seeking ways to repay its debts and interest, and to continue supporting the lavish royal courts in Versailles. To address the economic hardship, the Louis XVI government did propose a series of reforms regarding taxation system and expenditure reduction. One of the enlightened thinkers and economists, Robert-Jacques Turgot, had tried to implement many effective policies and his most significant contribution was the proposition of “Free Trade Law”,

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