HBL+-+Group+3

HBL Source-Based Questions

Source A - Victoria

Source A agrees with the view that the French Revolution was caused by deteriorating economic conditions as it shows King Louis XVI's desperation for money that he went to the extent of wanting to tax the nobility and the clergy and becoming a despot. The nobility and the clergy have never been taxed, as long as France has had the ancien regime. This has allowed the continuous support of the Crown from these two Estates. However, due to the financial situations and deficits that King Louis XVI was in, he had to resort to such a measure that, as the Parlement stated, would be both "disastrous and illegal". In addition, the source shows the the Parlement has been considering this issue for many years and found that the King's decision was not wise.

Cross referencing to Source C, which states the extent of which the Third Estate was taxed, further shows that the economic crisis was beyond the King's control as he taxed the Third Estate on salt, the usage of the Lord's mill to "grind grain and his oven to bake bread" and other activities that the Third Estate had no choice but to pay for, as these were their daily essentials. It shows the overwhelming sum of taxes the Third Estate had to fork up out of their meagre income, just because the King could not pay his own debts. This source is reliable as the cahier was objective and was presented to the Government during the French Revolution. And so, Source A agrees with the view that the French Revolution was caused by deteriorating economic conditions as it shows how desperate the King was for money.

Sorry guys, my analysis is terrible

Source B - Joanne

 In my opinion, Source B supports the view that the French Revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions. It was stated that it was necessary to “create another assembly that will have the right to register taxes” without any delay to “preserv(e) and consolidat(e) the King’s authority”. This shows that there was a need to implement more taxes on the French population so as to provide more revenue for the monarchy to maintain their power, which likely signifies that the monarchy is in a bad financial situation and requires money desperately. Source B was also written on 24 April 1788 and based on my contextual knowledge, before that point in time, France was involved in several wars that bankrupted their treasury, such as the Seventeen Years War and the American War of Independence and as such, was facing deteriorating economic conditions. Furthermore, Source B states that the King “displayed unswerving consistency and firmness of principle” in spite of “resolutions and protests” from the // palements //. This shows that with regards to country matters that affect the French population, the King insists on his decision and does not take into consideration the opinions, views and suggestions of the // parlements // that represents the people. This is also supported by Source A which states that the Parlement found the King’s suggestion to tax the nobility and clergy “excessive and unreasonable”, showing that the King did not take into consideration the French people when he made the suggestion since he still insists on his suggestion despite it being pointed out to him that that is not a good decision to make. Source B supports the view that the French Revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions as it shows that the King does not consider about his people’s point of view when making decisions about taxes on the French population, especially during a point of time when France was facing bad economic conditions, which could possibly have pushed the people to take part in the French Revolution.  This source can be considered as quite reliable as it is a letter written by Marie Antoinette who is directly involved in the situation during that time as part of the monarchy and thus is able to provide an accurate account of the situation then. Furthermore, since it was a letter from Marie Antoinette to her brother, there would be no reason for her to lie since she would want to deliver accurate information to her brother to inform him about her life. Thus, the account is likely to be based entirely from Marie Antoinette’s point of view and not altered at all. However, one would also have to take into account that it may be slightly biased as it is not written from a neutral point of view since Marie Antoinette is involved in the matter and may thus write in a point of view that places her and the monarchy in a good light. With that taken into consideration, Source B is useful as it is able to give an account of the happenings during that period of time but may not be entirely so since the account is also biased.

**Source C - Tracy**
Source D - Michelle

Source D supports the view that the French Revolution was caused by deteriorating economic conditions. The graph shows that the price of 100 kilograms of wheat in Paris fluctuated from 1770 to 1787, when it started to increase drastically. The price of wheat peaked in 1789 at 27 Francs after an increase of 10 Francs, or about 60%. The price of wheat only started to decrease in 1790. This leads us to infer that the rising costs of food and deteriorating economic conditions led to discontent among the people, with the 3rd Estate being the most affected.

From contextual knowledge, the French economy was largely based on agriculture and was generally prosperous until a series of poor harvests in the 1780s. The major disaster in July 1788, coupled with the severe winter of 1788 - 1789 caused a shortage of food. This corresponds with the dramatic increase in the price of wheat from 1787 to 1789. While in normal times 50% of a laborer's wage would be spent on food, this was increased to 88% in 1789. These poor economic conditions led to unhappiness because the rate of unemployment was rising at the same time as the cost of living, and people found it increasingly hard to support themselves. Thus, source D agrees with the view that the French Revolution was caused by deteriorating economic conditions as it shows how the increase in the price of wheat led to discontent among the people.

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