Causes of the French Revolution DBQ

Directions: Read through the historical background information, then answer the questions that follow
each document. When you have finished answering the document questions (# 1-12), write down the
Document Based Question (DBQ) and categorize the evidence (responses to # 1-12) into political,
economic, and social causes.

Historical Background / Context

The French Revolution of 1789 had many long-range causes. Political, social, and economic conditions in
France contributed to the discontent (unhappiness) felt by many French people-especially those of the
Third Estate. The ideas of the philosophers of the Enlightenment brought new ideas about the role of
government and powers guaranteed to citizens. Finally, the American Revolution showed the French that
a country could be successful without a king.

Document 1: Friedman & Foner, A Genetic Approach to Modern European History, College Entrance
Book Co., 1938

“. . . Powers of the king.—The King, Louis XVI, was absolute. He ruled by the divine right theory
which held that he had received his power to govern from God and was therefore responsible
to God alone. He appointed all civil (government) officials and military officers. He made and
enforced the laws. He could declare war and make peace. He levied (charged) taxes and spent
the people’s money as he saw fit. He controlled the expression of thought by a strict censorship
of speech and press. By means of lettres de cachet (sealed letters which were really blank
warrants for arrest) he could arbitrarily imprison anyone without trial for an indefinite period.
He lived in his magnificent palace at Versailles, completely oblivious to the rising tide of popular
discontent. . . .”

Q1: What kind of a ruler is Louis XVI?

Absolute monarch.
Q2: List the top 3 complaints the people of France might have with King Louis XVI?

1. He taxes people for no reason 2. He made and enforced the laws 3. He could
imprison anyone without reason.

Document 2: This diagram illustrates the three estates (social classes) in 1789 and the land each held
during the Old Regime.

Q3: For each Estate, what conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the
percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that
estate?

The bigger the population of the class the more total land was owned. But also you had more
land if you were in the first or second estate but not a lot of land if you were in the third estate.
Q4: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?

The lower the estate the more taxes you had to pay.

Document 3: Excerpt from: Miss Betham-Edwards, ed., Arthur Young’s Travels in France During the
Years 1787, 1788, and 1789

“September 5, 1788: The poor people seem very poor indeed. The children are terribly ragged
(worn down, neglected).

June 10, 1789: The lack of bread is terrible. Stories arrive every moment from the provinces of
riots and disturbances, and calling in the military, to preserve the peace of the markets....The
price of bread has risen above people’s ability to pay. This causes great misery.

July 12, 1789: Walking up a long hill, to ease my mare, I was joined by a poor woman, who
complained of the times, and that it was a sad country; demanding her reasons, she said her
husband had but a small plot of land, one cow, and a poor little horse, yet they had to pay a tax
of 42 pounds of wheat, and three chickens, to one noble and 168 pounds of oats, one chicken
and 1 sou [small unit of money] to another...the taxes and laws are crushing us.

This woman, at no great distance, might have been taken for sixty or seventy, her figure was so
bent, and her face so wrinkled and hardened by labor, — but she said she was only twenty-
eight.”

Q5: List three observations this traveler made about the life of the peasant in France between
1787 and 1789.
 Peasants could barely afford clothes. There was inflation that made it so that the
peasants couldn’t buy bread. Peasants had been labored and their bodies were deeply affected.

Document 4: French And American soldiers during the American Revolution. France sent an
estimated 12,000 soldiers and 32,000 sailors to the American war effort.

Q6: How might France’s participation in the American Revolution help spread the ideas of the
Enlightenment?

France had a lot of enlightened thinkers so the French soldiers would bring those Ideas
to the American Colonies.

Document 5: From Lectures on the French Revolution by Sir John Dalberg-Acton,an English historian,
politician, and writer.

“The condition of France alone did not bring about the overthrow of the monarchy... for the
suffering of the people was not greater than they had been before. The ideas of the
[Enlightenment philosophers] were not directly responsible for the outbreak...[but] the spark
that changed thought into action was supplied by the Declaration of American independence...
The American example caused the Revolution to break out...”

Q7: What did Lord Acton believe caused the French revolution?

The declaration of American Independence

Document 6: Comte D’Antraigues as quoted in an excerpt from Citizens: A Chronicle of the French
Revolution.
“The Third Estate is the People and the People is the foundation of the State; it is in fact the
State itself; Nobles and clergy are merely political categories while according to the
unchangeable laws of nature the People is everything. Everything should be subordinated
(inferior) to it... It is in the People that all national power resides and for the People that all
states exist.”

Q8: What Enlightenment idea is the Comte D’Antraigues expressing in this quote (include the
philosopher)?

The government has to protect the people’s natural rights. – John Locke

Document 7: The following are excerpts from a list of complaints about the king, taxing, and voting in
the Estates General that were presented to the assembled Estates General in 1789. Background: the
Estates General was like a Parliament or Congress, representatives from each of the three Estates
could attend. Each Estate was given 1 vote for a total of 3 votes on any issue the Estates General
looked at. All of these reforms were rejected.

“That the king be forced to reform the abuses and tyranny [of his rule].... That every tax.... Be
granted only for a limited time [and periodically re-evaluated]....That the taille [a tax on land]
be borne equally by all classes.... The meetings of the Estates General.... Shall be scheduled for
definite times.... In order to assure the third estate the influence it deserves because of its
numbers... its votes in the assembly should be taken by head...”

Q9: What three changes did the Third Estate demand be made in the French government?

1. Taxes should be equal across all estates and only exist for a limited time. 2. The king
has too much power and it needs to be limited. 3. The meetings of the estates
general should always be scheduled and not indefinitely.

Q10: What is significant about the fact that the king rejected these demands?

It shows that the king was absolute in power and had too much rule which caused
oppression.

Document 8: Excerpt from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789).

1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights; social distinctions (distinctions) can be
established only for the common benefit.
2. The aim of every political association (government) is the conservation (protection) of the
imprescriptible (can’t be taken away) rights of man; these rights are liberty, property, security,
and resistance to oppression....

4. Liberty consists of being able to do anything that does not harm another person...
10. No one may be disturbed (bothered, arrested) because of his opinions, even religious,
provided that their public demonstration does not disturb the public order established by law.
11. The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious rights of man:
every citizen can therefore freely speak, write, print...
16. Any society in which guarantees of rights are not assured nor the separation of powers
determined has no constitution.

Q11: According to this document, what are the natural rights of man?

Liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

The last natural right, resistance to oppression, would affect the third estate the most
and cause them to revolt because they were heavily oppressed.

DBQ Prompt: What caused the French Revolution?

1. Old regime and feudalism. The king had absolute power. The third estate would lose
money because of mercantilism, they didn’t have any political power, and they
couldn’t appoint their sons to the military or government.
2. Economic problems. International trade was low because of the American Revolution
and the French & Indian wars. The French population increased too fast. They had
droughts, floods, and blizzards that ruined the crops and caused starvation. Inflation
on food and rent increased. The government also mismanaged their resources.
3. Over-taxation of the third estate. The third estate paid most of the taxes. Louis XIV,
XV, & XVI, spent so much that France was bankrupt and needed money. They
borrowed money they couldn’t pay them back. They tried to make up the deficit
through taxes.
4. Unfair government. They had an absolute monarchy. There was a legislative body but
it only met when the king wanted them to (Estates general). The 1st and 2nd estates
would gang up against the third politically. It never changed the taxation problems.
5. Enlightenment philosophy. Locke’s and Voltaire’s ideas of liberty 7 equality, and
Rousseau’s ideas of popular sovereignty & general will inspired revolution. The
declaration of rights of man contained many enlightened ideas.