Was The French Revolution Inevitable Persuasive Essay Sample

France in the 1700s was a different time, it was a very advanced country with its culture and advancement were the ideal way for the other countries to look up to. However, France was slowly going down in success and achievement. With the Enlightenment ideas floating around people's minds, the influence led the way for a change. In many ways, the French Revolution was bound to happen, there were too many factors that caused the Revolution for it to not have occurred. The French Revolution was largely inevitable because of the increasing debt of the country, the unfairness in the estates, and the weak leadership skills of King Louis XVI. 

First, the economics in France was one reason the Revolution was caused. Debt played a contributing factor to the decline of France's economy, France was going into a huge amount of debt and although Louis XVI inherited a large debt from the former king, instead of budgeting or saving money Queen Marie Antoinette was spending excessively. King Louis' solution was to tax the nobles, which they were not happy about and forced him to call a meeting of the Estates- General. By the 1780s, France's economy was in heavy decline, especially with the heavy burden of taxes. Louis XVI borrowed lots of money to help keep the American Revolutionaries in their war against Great Britain in the American Revolution, this ended up nearly doubling their government’s debt. In 1786 with France this was deep into debt, and without the bank's support in lending money, France was in trouble.  

Secondly, France's social aspects and differences helped cause the Revolution. The differences in the first, second, and third estates were too big. The first estate was made up of clergy and paid no taxes on the land it owned and became very rich. The second estate was made up of nobles and wealthy landowners and paid almost no taxes. While the third estate had the majority of people and made up 97% of the population, however, they had to pay taxes to brace the upper classes. There were groups within the third estate that differed greatly: peasants, workers, and the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie was often well educated and sometimes as rich as the nobles, however, they still had to pay taxes. They felt that with wealth comes power and privilege but since they were in the Third Estate they had neither. Due to the unfairness of high taxes, the third estate became angry and they demanded a change, which led to the Revolution. 

Lastly, the political aspects under King Louis XVI were not succeeding and called for a change. Louis XVI was a bad decision-maker; decisions that he thought would help his country often failed. He put off his problems as long as he could, such as the debt of the country. If Louis XVI had better leadership skills and management, many of his problems would have been resolved without the need for a revolution. When he tried to take action and help the lives of the common people, most of the time he went about it the wrong way, making it worse. The economical and social causes of the Revolution could have been resolved if Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had strong leadership skills. The ideas of a new government and weak leadership helped the third estate to flow through a change. 

In conclusion, the French Revolution was mostly inevitable with factors such as the rising debt, the estates being treated unfairly, and the indecisiveness of Louis XVI. If things were different and Louis XVI had better leadership skills, fixed the unfairness of the estates, and kept his country out of debt, then there might not have been a need for a revolution. The Third Estate was ready for a change, and with inspiration from the American Revolution, the French Revolution was born. This is important because the common class knew how they wanted to be treated and took action, they were desperate for a change in government, the Revolution was a step in the right direction in getting treated equally and fairly.