Russian Revolution

DBQ French Revolution

A.C. World Cultures 11
1/12/14
The French Revolution was a chaotic period that began in 1789, under King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s unstable ruling. There were three main sparking concepts that shape a basic understanding to how the French Revolution was initiated. These three concepts were inadequate taxation, injustice of the 3rd Estate, and Enlightenment Thinkers.
Imbalanced and inadequate Taxation was one main concept to how the French Revolution started. In Document 1, Arthur Young states in his journal his opinion on the unjust, high taxation upon commoners and compares it to the little taxation upon the nobility. Young also expresses how people in the 3rd Estate are paying high taxes and cannot afford the price of bread. In Document 2, Statistics of the three Estates are illustrated to show the imbalanced amount of taxation of the 3rd Estate and compares it to the other two estates. This graph is probably accurate in its statistics due to the fact that the 3rd Estate was the largest portion of the population mass. This can be supported by previous census reports during the time of the Old Regime. In Document 3,

In addition to inadequate taxation, The 3rd Estate played a large role in initiating the start of the French Revolution. In Document 3, a list of grievances is quoted about the king’s abuse of power and negligence towards the 3rd estate’s imbalanced representation in the Estates general and that, due to the 3rd Estate being majority of the population, they should have its votes to be taken by head and not single representation. Also, in Document 8,  
Another concept of the start of the French Revolution is Enlightenment. In Document 4, Historian, Albert Mathiez, states that he believes the concept of a revolution was harbored in the minds of the middle class long before the revolution was ever deliberated. He believes that Enlightenment ideas were the main reason for the middle class starting the revolution, as...