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  • Essay / Causes of the French Revolution - 2783

    «Liberty, equality, fraternity or death; - the last, and by far the easiest to grant, oh Guillotine! » - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two CitiesThink about your life. Has there ever been a time when you felt mistreated or unequally represented? Maybe it's because your boss listens to your other colleagues and not you. Or that you have the impression that the government listens to the corporate powers and not the people. Inequality fuels resentment. How would you feel if your voice was not heard? The concept of inequality is not exclusive to the French Revolution. In fact, these variations are visible in our modern relationships, social and political structures, some of which are described above. Regarding the French Revolution, the deformation felt within the Third Estate at the end of the 18th century was a factor in the outbreak of the Revolution. However, this sense of injustice alone was not the most determining factor in the outbreak of the Revolution, but rather it was the imbalances within the social population that had the greatest effect. While many historians focus on the discrimination of the third estate – often referred to as the commoners or peasants of France – social unrest in France was more widespread than that felt by the commoners. Although the Third Estate represented more than 2/3 of the French population in the 1780s and focusing on the Third Estate shows how most of the French population reacted in the pre-Revolution era, this perspective does not allow a holistic perspective of social relations. Instead, looking at the outbreak of the Revolution from a broader perspective, I believe we can see that the French Revolution was a result of the underrepresented population of the Third Estate...... middle of paper. .....w York: H. Fertig, 1970. Print.Boutier, Jean. “Jacqueries in crunchy country, 1789-90”, Annales ESC, 34 (1979), pp. 774-5. Hodson, Christopher. ““In praise of the third estate”: religious and social imagery at the start of the French Revolution. » Eighteenth-Century Studies 34.3 (2001): 337. Academic research completed. Internet. February 14, 2015. Jones, Peter. “Rural France in the 18th century”. The peasantry during the French Revolution. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge UP, 1988. 1-29. Print.Lefebvre, Georges. The advent of the French Revolution. Trans. RR Palmer. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1947. “States General” print. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th edition (2011): 1. Academic research completed. Internet. February 19, 2015. “France: The causes of the French Revolution. » Encyclopedia Britannica online. Encyclopedia Britannica, nd Web. February 26. 2015.