Social Enlightment Ideas: The French Revolution

The most significant political, economic, and social oppressions that has made the French revolution necessary are bad leadership because King Louis XVI made the government sink into debt, unequal taxes because the peasants were taxed with nobility, church, and government taxes, and lastly enlightenment ideas because the bourgeoisie wanted more freedom. In France around the 1700’s the three estates (Clergy, Nobles, Bourgeoisie/Peasants) faced 3 different kinds of oppression, political, economic, and social oppression. The first estate known as the Clergy or the Catholic Church did not like the enlightenment ideas. The second estate were the nobles. They had 2% of the population but owned 20% of land and paid no taxes. This estate also did not …show more content…
Here is an example of a peasant’s taxation. Every peasant has an initial earnings of $100 but because of the nobility taxes ($14), the church taxes ($14), and the government taxes ($53) the peasant is left with $18. But since their average of cost of basic necessities like bread ($8), salt ($5), and rent ($10) costed more than what they had, the peasants couldn’t buy certain things. This oppression made the revolution necessary because since the peasants only had a certain amount of money at the end of the day, if they revolt then their taxations will go down and they would be able to buy their necessities for the day. One last example of a social oppression is the enlightenment ideas. In this time period as well an enlightenment thinker Rousseau convinced the bourgeoisie that and absolute monarchy is wrong. So the bourgeoisie demanded for more freedoms and a representative democracy. This oppression made the revolution necessary because it helped the third estate know that what the government has been doing was wrong all along. In conclusion bad leaderships, unequal taxes, and enlightenment ideas are the most significant political, economic, and social