Essay - William Doyle and 'Origins of the French Revolution' the French...

William Doyle and 'Origins of the French Revolution'

The French Revolution, which included the major transformation of ***** political system and the society of France, began in 1789. However, there were many hints of the reform to come in the years (even decades) prior to 1789. William Doyle outlines his thoughts regarding ***** ********** in his book titled "Origins of the French Revolution." Throughout his book, he refers to some ***** the factors leading to the revolution, including ***** struggle between a monarchy and the people, the financial problems facing France, the eventual breakdown of the Old Regime, and ***** American Revolution.

As Doyle discusses, the most common cause of the ***** has always been interpreted as the rising ***** ***** middle class in France, the bourgeoisie. It has been said that ***** bourgeoisie overthrew the Old ***** ***** order to gain rights and freedoms they felt were being kept from them, while power ***** privilege ***** freely given to the other classes of the clergy and nobility. It would seem that their motivations were social and economical. The price of commonplace items in the marketplace such as bread had caused unrest among the poorer cl*****ses. In ***** 1770's, ***** was also a severe recession taking place in France as a result of the costly wars France ***** participated *****, such as ***** American Revolution and the Austrian Succession. France ***** did not have a national bank or any kind of central treasury. In addition, the wealthier classes paid a signific*****ntly lower tax than the po*****er classes. The revenue that was brought in by these taxes usually had to go to their outst*****ing debts. ***** *****vernment tended to spend more ***** ***** ***** in, always leading to ***** loans as a country. All of these factors easily pointed to ***** unrest and economic downfall for the entire *****.

Despite the obvious truths associated with the above theory, ***** scholars feel that the Revolution most likely occurred because of political *****. The monarchy of the French was coming into question, despite how successful ***** monarchy had been in defending ***** militarily ***** keeping things peaceful domestically as well. As ***** discusses, the French citizens were angered ***** the unequal ***** and the overall rise in taxes. Other problems existed ***** the Monarchy as well, ***** ***** persecution of those who ***** in the minority ***** religious beliefs. This discontentment was coupled with the outdated ways of the court system. ***** fact, many who worked for ***** Old Regime were publicly unhappy with much of the legislation ***** decrees handed down by the King. The most public of these was the parlements, the thirteen regional royal courts led by the Parlement of Paris. The ***** were in charge of registering ***** royal decrees and often disagreed with those they thought would infringe upon the rights ***** civil liberties of the people. *****y distributed publications that denounced ***** entire monarchy for ***** imposition of new taxes and for forcing their religious views into