Why during the period 1789 to 1793 did Louis XVI fail to satisfy the demands of the french revoulutionaries?

Answer 1

There were many reasons why he failed to satisfy the revolutionaries and it shows why one after the other it led to a disaster.

After the constitution was brought in, the changes were bound to come as people wanted certain rights like freedom of speech, and equality; the people didn't want the monarchy to end but just some changes in it. This new constitution limited and controlled the king's power, which is exactly why the king was not very pleased with, although he was a weak king he still wanted his power, but there was not much he could do about it anymore. So one of the reasons of Louis failing to satisfy revolutionaries can be his weakness and attitude.

It took 2 years for agreement to be reached on all of the details of the new constitution. In 1789 it has finally come to force but it was to last less than a year. The reason why it failed was that some of the decisions taken about the revolutionary consensus, the issue of the veto had begun to divide the members of the assembly, and the king was always a reluctant party to the notion of the constitutional monarchy. Yet by October 1789 things started to calm down, and progress and harmony had begun, reforms covered government, the law, finances, and the economy, and the church. The principals of the declaration were being applied. So we can from at least the fist part of the changes of the national assembly, the power of veto was in the king's hand and he in a way did abuse it just to get his own way and power.

Another issue was the active and passive citizens; in 1789 some people were allowed to vote, these allowed to vote were called the active citizens, there were 4 stages of voting, the first stage to vote would be the vote of local and national elections but for to be able to vote you had to pay a price, an average Frenchman would pay 3 days of labour in taxes, this excluded 40% of citizens, in the next stage u had to pay 10 day labour tax and so on, bourgeoisie came far in paying this money.

So as up u want to vote the more money you would have to pay, so you can see how slowly as the price go up the social groups also go up, from peasantry, to upper class. So what Louis could have done was maybe lower these taxes, if he would have done this he would at least have the support of the 40% excluded, and maybe some more too. But as he didn't do anything still the higher bourgeoisie and upper classes still controlled the government although they didn't have a direct role either. So if he would have supported some of these groups they would have trust in him, and this could have helped him.

Revolution had not resolved the financial problems of France, but had made it worse, like many people saw this as not paying taxes. They were still working on another tax system, meanwhile this was sorted out it was decided to continue with the existing one but this was not accepted by local people. In 1790 the gabelle was abolished, followed by a number of other indirect taxes; these moves made it harder for the financial issues. This is why the assembly had to find a way to find other sources of income; the target was the Catholic Church, as it was full with wealthy land. The assembly had voted to sell this church property. The state took over the property and also took the responsibility for paying the clergy. The state then sold these lands and issued paper bonds, which then later became the paper currency, the assignat, based on the security of the church property. When the issue of assignats were beyond the value of the lands, inflation had developed. So the solution of one financial problem became worse to further difficulties. Those who bought these lands were bourgeoisie and wealthier peasantry. The poor peasantry had no benefit. The new tax system had been introduced in 1791 based around direct tax or land, there was also a property tax and custom duties. So one place this financial problem had been because of Louis's carelessness and his expenditure al so Marie- Antoinette's expenditure, and that dept they had taken, so he had failed the revolutionaries but not being honest and the indirect taxes.

The future of the Catholic Church in France was to prove one f the most decisive issues of the constitutional monarchy. Although the members of the clergy had played a crucial role by joining the self proclaimed national assembly, the church had lost out in the august decrees and declaration of rights of man. The pope was threatened with loss of influence over the French catholic church when the state was in charge took the responsibility of paying the clergy. In 1790 the assembly passed the civil constitution of the clergy, it was seen as the chance to reform the worst abuses in between the church. Louis had accepted the constitution reluctantly in 1790 but the pope didn't. Many clergy cooperated with the new reforms, but there were others who refused. This helped provoke the crisis that led to the assembly's decision for the oath to be taken by the clergy's to be loyal to the nation, the king, and the law. This issue split the church and the nation. Nationally about half of the clergy refused to do this oath. It was a very low anti-clerical Paris but very high in the west in Brittany and vendee. Now those who opposed to the revolution had some popular support, one of these was the pope, and those good Catholics one of these was the king. The religious issues finally persuaded him to try and escape the clutches of the revolutionaries and seek to rally support away from the capital. This showed the betrayal of the king, and a major factor why he had failed the revolutionaries.

The flight to Varennes had been an important issue why he failed the revolutionaries.

Louis had begun to plan some escape from Paris, when he decided after the religious question that he couldn't work with the constitution. He used Marie-Antoinette's confidant to make arrangements for the escape possible. The plan was to leave Paris and head to the Austrian territory in an area where the army was controlled by a royalist. There Louis hoped to rally support and negotiate a moderate settlement with the revolutionaries in Paris. His first attempt failed, but that encouraged him much more for the second attempt. So they disguised as a Russian aristocratic family using a fake passport, they did successfully get out of Paris but they were identified and caught in Varennes, from where Louis was brought back through the condemning silence of the Parisian crowds. The failure of the escape had a major turning point as now everyone believed that the king could not be trusted and the revolution would not enjoy stability till he was on the throne. Republic ideas had started to become very popular now. So the reason why the king had failed the revolutionaries is because of the major cause of trust, and betrayal.

Later on the girondins and the montegnards came in power these two had different views of the overthrow of the monarchy. The montegnards were less radical and didn't want the execution of the king but a government also including the king. But the girondins were the most radical and with more power if the king didn't satisfy their demands the only way was the execution of the king. This did happen in the end.

So basically the king had failed the revolutionaries for trust, betrayal, power, selfishness. Also Louis was a weak king which also influenced all these causes.