Before the revolution experienced around 1789, France was one of the absolute monarchies. At that time, the government was in theory such that the absolute power was mainly centralized in one person who was the king. Louis XIV was thus a formidable French sovereign who successfully reined the country for about 70 years and declared, “I am the state 1 .” By the year 1776, absolute power was challenged by Louis XIV’s heir, King Louis XV who said that the sovereign power resides in him as a person alone. The public order, therefore, emanated from him and further, he declared that the nation’s interest and rights are joined with his and rest in his hand. The great French absolute monarchical power’s tradition rested on the notion of the divine right which was the idea that the power of the king was derived from God. Louis XV, on the other hand, pressed this also by affirming that “God alone has granted us our crown 2 .” By the year 1789, King Louis XVI ruled France and was different from his predecessors where he was considered as an introverted and indecisive individual 3 . He did not have any form of a majestic aura that the office seemed to have demanded. After ascending the throne at the age of 20, King Louis XVI possessed good intentions. He was later beheaded, and the French people overthrew the Old Regime. There were ranges of complex factors that led to this final crisis of the French monarchy. Therefore, the paper will critically evaluate the following factors, financial crisis, the birth of the Enlightenment and the public opinion crisis against the monarchy and finally, the paper will give the idea to the most important factor that resulted in the fall of the monarchy.
Financial Crisis
In the year 1789, the French Monarchy was reported to be financially bankrupt which led to its fall. All the existing royal treasuries were all depleted through financing various wars. By the 18th century, France under Louis XV engaged in a war of the Austrian Succession around the years 1740-1748) and the war that was experienced between the years 1756-1763 which led to massive debts 4 . Such disasters that were in the form of foreign affair exacerbated the economic and fiscal problems of French. Despite the fact that Louis XVI was different from his predecessors in various ways, he was like them in that he could not resists from carrying on the tradition of expansion in overseas and in Europe 5 . By the time he took power as the King in 1770s, the kingdom had helped the American colonists during the war for independence against the British around the years 1776-1783 6 . King Louis XIV further had inherited a massive financial debt from his predecessor and Calonne, who was the comptroller-general of the royal finances in 1786, reported that the States was on the verge of the economic collapse.
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In 1786, the revenues were approximately 475 million lives while the expenditure stood at 587 million, which meant that they experienced a deficit of about 112 million. Therefore, it was difficult for Louis XVI together with his ministers to look into any strategic money-saving plans during this time since most of the finance was spent on the armed forces and they were not willing to allow Frances international position to be jeopardised. The monarchy introduced more taxes top the people despite the fact that French was one of the countries that were heavily taxing its citizens throughout Europe hence the addition of taxes caused more unrest among the public. As a result of this, King Louis was declared bankrupt which destroyed the country’s credit making borrowing difficult. In 1988 King Louis XIV was forced to approve a new constitution that meant he would have to be stripped of individual power 7 . The economic and financial crisis was very high in French and the process they led into the beginning of the revolution in 1789.
Public Opinion Crisis against the Monarchy
Public opinion contributed towards the fall of the French monarchy. Throughout the 18th century, particularly in the 1780s, the percentage of people who were able to read and write was about 37 percent. Studies have shown that this was an increased from the past century where about 21 percent were able to read and write. It gave a huge cause for concern to the monarchy that the public opinion was rapidly rising 8 . Public opinion was further influenced by increased numbers if the journals, books and newspapers in the 18th century. The libraries further contributed to the growth of literacy. The people were much interested in finding the truth about anything including arts and politics. In the 17th century, the monarchy controlled the public opinion, and it was further agreed that this was important to keep things running smoothly 9 . The damage was done in the year 1770 where the government lost its control of the public opinion. The government used to give an excellent public reputation of themselves with the aim to keep the public on the side but this changed and the government lacked the freedom of speech since people were aware of what they were saying. Therefore, such an event had a greater adverse effect on the existing monarchy in the 1980s when they were experiencing an extended period of both social and political decline. The public began to voice their opinion on whether the country was being run correctly the resulted to the French Revolution and final fall of the monarchy.
The Birth of the Enlightenment
With increased public opinion especially in the second part of the 18th century, there was further improvement in reading and writing that gave way to the beginning of the Enlightenment in France. It was considered the most critical aspect which provoked the start of the revolution. The people in France were used to to be known in one way in which the government was run which was the king and monarchy. One of the dominant theorists during this period was Montesquieu. Montesquieu thus proposed that England had implemented the liberal constitutional monarchy where the country’s sovereignty was shared among the crown, Parliament and law courts 10 .
Montesquieu was also part of the aristocratic class to lose their privileges together with the magnificent estates to share sovereignty, but it was much difficult for the privileged Estates to give up their rights. On the other hand, the third estates argued that shared sovereignty was the most efficient way forward 11 . The grouped entailed lower class commoners who were regularly maltreated by the monarchy hence voiced their views on shared sovereignty 12 . Montesquieu thus contributed to monarchy’s fall where he introduced to the people the concept of how the government must run. As a result of this, the third estate realised that there was a chance for them to be equal in the French society that led to the revolution and fall of the monarchy. There emerged a debate whether the top leaders should give their privileges to share the sovereignty with the Third Estate which resulted in a conflict between the unprivileged and privileged classes. King Louis XIV together with his government had failed to organize the constitution around 1789 hence contributed to the fall of the Monarchy by making foolish decisions which angered the Third Estate population. Therefore, the monarchy fell around 10th of August 1972 after the invasion of the royal family residence 13 .
The most important factor
The financial crisis that France experienced resulting to the fall of the monarchy was the most important factor. The financial crisis was the primary reason behind the emergence of other factors that contributed to the fall of the monarchy. Lack of finance would imply that the monarchy could not fund their operations and sustain their existence thus they were prone to external attacks and internal conflicts 14 . The wars are costly to fund and the Kings engaged in numerous expensive wars for many centuries which contributed to the country’s bankruptcy. In addition to this, the king further failed to manage the economy where the taxation systems available to generate revenues were chaotic and inefficient hence they could not collect enough money to finance the economy and the wars. The majority of the raised incomes were used to pay the debts that had massively accumulated. In addition to the bad harvest prices for commodities went up resulting in increased tension among the Third Estates who rose up against the privileged Estates.
From this analysis, it is clear that the fall of the monarchy was a result of various factors including the financial crisis, enlightenment and public opinion crisis against the monarchy. The Enlightenment philosophers founded their views on the rational thought instead of the traditional superstition hence favoured freedom and equality among all people. Such a view influenced the ordinary individuals who rose up to fight for their right resulting to the outbreak of the revolution. The financial crisis further led to tension among the third estates that turned against the rulers. Public opinion was also influenced by reading and writing that enabled the people to understand what the government should do to the people and how the country should be run. All these factors contributed to the fall of the French Monarchy.
Bibliography
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1 Cheney, Paul Burton. Revolutionary Commerce: Globalization and the French Monarchy . Vol. 168. Harvard University Press, 2010.
2 Cranston, Maurice. "The French Revolution: Ideas and Ideologies." History Today 39, no. 5 (1989).
3 Soboul, Albert, Alan I. Forrest, and Colin Jones. The French Revolution, 1787-1799: from the storming of the Bastille to Napoleon . Allen & Unwin Australia, 1989.
4 Goodwin, Albert. The French Revolution . Vol. 2. Routledge, 2016.
5 Cheney, Paul Burton. Revolutionary Commerce: Globalization and the French Monarchy . Vol. 168. Harvard University Press, 2010.
6 Cranston, Maurice. "The French Revolution: Ideas and Ideologies." History Today 39, no. 5 (1989).
7 Doyle, William. Origins of the French revolution . Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
8 Soboul, Albert, Alan I. Forrest, and Colin Jones. The French Revolution, 1787-1799: from the storming of the Bastille to Napoleon . Allen & Unwin Australia, 1989.
9 Price, Munro. The Road from Versailles: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Fall of the French Monarchy . Macmillan, 2002.
10 Cheney, Paul Burton. Revolutionary Commerce: Globalization and the French Monarchy . Vol. 168. Harvard University Press, 2010.
11 Lossky, Andrew. Louis XIV and the French monarchy . Rutgers University Press, 1994.
12 Vovelle, Michel. The fall of the French monarchy 1787-1792 . Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press, 1984.
13 Félix, Joël. "The financial origins of the French revolution." (2005).
14 Morris, Marilyn. The British Monarchy and the French Revolution . Yale University Press, 1998.
