Who benefited the most because of the French Revolution?

Answer 1

Yes, peasants, and largely the middle class gained equal status to the first and second estate, (clergy and nobles) they were given the right to hold public office, freedom from heavy taxes and were no longer required to pay dues to nobles (serf type stuff) but it wasn't until Napolean that they got a democratic government, total equal rights, and other things that didn't completely come about after the death of Louis the XVI.

Answer 2

No, it was not. One might understand that when a country is very poor and the people do not have anything to eat, meanwhile seeing their monarchs bathing themselves in wealth, that they find that unfair. But instead of a "civil" revolution like the American revolution, the people decided to kill thousands of people all for the revolutionary cause. Once the revolution was over, thousands of people (including their monarchs, women and children!) were murdered and nobody knew how or by who the country should be goverend. France was one huge chaos and none of the other European countries wanted to have anything to do with violent France. The revolutionaries never thought of what would happen once the revolution was fought. Eventually also the revolutionaries were killed as well. After all this, it was Napoleon that ended the revolution completely and came to absolute power in France. After him, the so hated monarchy was restored when the count of Provence (the brother of the beheaded Louis XVI) proclaimed himself King, though, only in name. France was back to being a monarchy, therefore, the revolution had been useless to begin with.

Answer 3

Did the French Revolution make France a fairer place?

There were many reforms that took place due to the French Revolution. The causes of these were: inequalities in society, the deficiency of the French Monarchy (Louis and Marie Antoinette), economic hardships and new ideas and inventions. The reforms were social, economic, religious and political. I think the most important of these are political and social reforms. I chose social because it is the attitude of the people that dictates how their country behaves and how successful it is. For example, in the French Revolution, the Storming of the Bastille was used as a way of getting the monarchy's attention -- it was the voice of the people. They were upset; and so they acted. I chose political because equality made a huge change in France. Because of the three estates; people found it hard to adapt to anything different. They must have yearned for equality for years, therefore when they finally got it, they were overjoyed. But some people weren't so happy. Those who had rights taken away were clearly not too overjoyed.

The social reforms of the French Revolution had a vast effect on the welfare of the whole country. While they helped some people, they also made life more difficult for others. The country and the monarchy had not grasped the real situation and was unable to make a full social reform that was right for absolutely everyone; they were inexperienced. Although this is so, we must admire their effort. Some of the social reforms are: everyone person is allowed to remain free and equal in rights. This comes as a hardship to those who were on the top of the estates system (first and second); who had vast privileges and were content with their lives. The first and second estate were replaced by a much more equilibrium class: Bourgeoisie. This may have been hard to adapt to due to their preceding power; but they agreed with the reforms as not agreeing would portray them as avaricious and illiberal. Another was that everyone had a right to liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression; and the right to take part in the making of the law. Also, everyone had the right to talk, write and publish freely unless the liberty to do so was taken away by law. Social reform was a very prominent type of improvement because it made the most impact on the people of France; and that is the main focus when running a country. It was the best process of improving their welfare. Therefore, because it made an impact on the people, my opinion is that it contributed mostly to the effort to improve France after the Revolution.

The economic reforms of the French Revolution cleared all of the countries debt and misfortunes regarding money. Unfortunately, the country had many of these. This was thought to be mainly the fault of the monarchy; especially Marie Antoinette. Although we have no proof, Marie Antoinette was said to have an interest in spending large amounts of money on surplus extravagances such as jewellery and the like. But, contradicting this, when looking at the expenditure of the whole country, only thirty five million livres out of six hundred and thirty million was sent on the royal court. The debt interest carried the greatest number: at a vast three hundred and eighteen million livres out of six hundred and thirty million. The rest was spent on civil service (one hundred and twelve million), and the army and navy (one hundred and sixty five million). The total debt, overall, was four thousand million livres. The other problem was taxation; and the inability to pay taxes (leading to poverty and revolt). Sixty seven percent of the government income in 1774 was dominated by indirect tax; then twenty eight percent dictated by direct tax; leaving only five percent for other things. This is a huge amount to pay and, unfortunately, most of the taxes were thrown away to the third estate to worry about. They were incapable of doing this. There is a picture to describe the relationship, economically, between the three estates used for history. In this picture, the people of the first and second estate are standing on top of a rock, which is on top of a citizen in the third estate. The rock symbolizes tax and the hardships that the third estate had to go through just to survive. This was managed by the economic reforms in the sense that nobles were prohibited of their privileges and the taxes were much more fairly distributed. This created a much higher standard of living for the third estate; which, therefore, contributed highly to the reform of the whole country. Although nobles may have been displeased that their privileges were taken from them, the majority of the population was third estate and the monarchy needed to concentrate on created an overall equality. Tax collectors were elected this time; and the taxes distributed were based solely on the ability to pay. To improve the working system, the quality of jobs rose because the economic reform made choices on employment considering their strength in that particular job (rather than, for example, just leaving the management of hospitals and schools to the first estate; choosing people suitable). On the situation of the countries debt, the government sold church land to reduce the vast amount of debt owed.

Religion was important to the people of France during the revolution. The first estate was made up of the clergy; and, as the most important estate, this was a vast privilege. The clergy was excessively rich during the Revolution. The richest archbishop obtained five hundred thousand livres every year, while a village priest made seven hundred and fifty livres every year. This was a vast amount compared to those in the third estate who had little of no wealth. The clergy did not have to pay any tax, other than the gabelle which was a salt tax in which everybody had to pay (but the rich could afford it while the third estate barely scraped by). Along with not having to pay normal taxes, the clergy had their own courts. They were said to be the centre of community life and their lives were emphatically important. They had the job of running schools and hospitals but did this job badly and the economic reform dealt with this by only allocating jobs by considering the quality of the worker. Regarding religious reform, the clergy was reorganised under the Civil constitution of the Clergy. The National Assembly felt the need to reorganize the clergy due to the fact that the country was facing bankruptcy and the churches owned over fifteen percent of all French land. The priest had to take an oath of loyalty to the state and they were elected and paid by the state. This enforced the quality of the clergy and made sure that everything was in proper order. To steady economic hardships, church land was sold and the church tax, tithe, abolished. In my opinion, this did contribute to the welfare of the country and it made the taxes much more equal; but it was not the greatest change brought about during the reform. This is due to the fact that the religion was still strict and citizens did not have the liberty to follow their own path in religion.

The political reforms changed lives drastically. This is because these reforms dealt with those who were in supreme power and had the liberty to change how their country lived. These reforms contributed to the augmentation of law, rights, parliament and power overall. They had many different rights and declarations proclaimed; such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen which had been made three times. This, overall, says that everyone deserves their own rights and, unless by law, they are not to be prohibited. Although, the right of Property was also declared, this right was prohibited for the clergy and émigrés. The changes made by the political reforms opened the countries eyes to liberty and the freedom of speech. The following phrases were made common: everyone was equal; freedom of speech; keen on liberty. The method of execution was fluctuated in the sense that torture and hanging was abolished; and trial and jury was put into place. This made it fairer for the people; if they were innocent they would have chance to say so. Also, I think it makes the relationship between the people and the law better and happier due to the fact that the deal with criminal associations more humanely. Another political reform was to make Louis the King of French, rather than the King of France. This decreased his power over the people, and set everyone at ease because he was not an absolute monarch anymore; instead he just dealt indirectly with the problems of the country. It also brought his arrogance down and bequeathed towards the countries equality. The political reforms also made women and men more equal. But it didn't make them equal entirely. Liberty was not for all; the women felt that they were left out of The Declaration of the Rights of Man due to the fact that it said "Man" not women. This, consequently, resulted in a women's militia: "The Declaration of the Rights of Woman". This was a movement aiming to create the same rights for women as men. But this came to no avail, because when the leader of the militia, Theroine de Americourt said, "We can handle weapons other than the needle and the spindle", the National Assembly then banned women's militias. Therefore, overall, the political reforms were eminently beneficial for some people, yet, unfortunately, quite disastrous for others.

All of these reforms were triggered by the American War of Independence. This was a war against Britain, in which America was fighting for its independence and liberty; in which everyone was equal. France helped America in this war, and Louis sent a vast amount of French troops over to America to fight with them. France was much credited for their help and a book was written based on their fight about French heroes. Although this was so, Louis was displeased that his troops were coming back from America with new ideas. They had been fighting for something that they realised they needed; equality and liberty. The war of independence had opened their eyes to a new way of thinking and living. Due to this, they started thinking about improving their country as the Americans had improved theirs. The Americans had inspired them. So, all in all, I believe that the French Revolution did make France a fairer place than it had been before. It had tackled most inequalities within society and had dealt with their absolute monarch. Although this is so, they had not made France a perfect place; as they had set out to do. They had made many improvements; but with every amelioration comes a repercussion and it is extensively hard, maybe impossible, to create a perfect society.

Answer 4

it was more beneficial because people became to be known as citizens and they achieved their rights such as the right to vote and the right of eductation

Answer 5

It was an improvement over the days of the Monarchy.

Answer 6

The poor and the lower class.