The French Revolution: Was It a War of the Classes?

Introduction

The French Revolution began in 1789 and lasted approximately a decade, until 1799. During that decade, France underwent a profound transformation involving the political and social restructuring of the country. It has been suggested that the Revolution was a war between the classes, while other implications lead some to believe it was rooted in religious differences. The French Revolution has been described as providing the "most influential model of popular insurrection until the Russian Revolution of 1917" (MSN Encarta Encyclopedia, 2005).

Classes Represented in the French Revolution

The French Revolution began in the summer of 1789 and is said to have "stirred the imagination of nearly all Europeans" (Hooker, 2005). The causes of the Revolution are considered complicated — so complicated that debate still rages among historians regarding its origins, causes, and results. Although this may well be true, a study of the French Revolution reveals that the rigid social structure of French society during what is termed "the ancient régime" was very much part of what fueled the revolt.

The classes represented in the Revolution were two main estates: the First Estate, which was the clergy, and the Second Estate, which represented the nobility. These two classes combined totaled around 500,000 people, while the Third Estate comprised a population of approximately 25 million. The Third Estate occupied the bottom of the hierarchical ladder and consisted of the poorer and lower classes of France. Custom and tradition formed the basis for class designation (Hooker, 2005).

The clergy occupied a privileged estate supported by the French Catholic Church, which is said to have "constituted a state within a state" for approximately 800 years. Within the clergy there were further distinctions between the lower and upper clergy. The lower clergy were underpaid, overworked, and generally held the wealthier upper clergy in contempt. The upper clergy was comprised of bishops and abbots. Their responsibilities included registering marriages, deaths, and births, as well as collecting the tithe. They also censored books and reading material, policed the moral conduct of the congregation and community, operated hospitals, and assisted the poor through the distribution of relief. Approximately 15% of all land in France was owned by the Church — held, incidentally, tax-free.

An additional 30% of the land was held by the Second Estate, the Nobility, which was also a privileged estate. The prime positions in government, the Church, and the army were held by members of the nobility. The nobility class was relatively free from taxation and performed the duty of collecting rent from the peasant class. The Third Estate was composed of the bourgeoisie, or middle class — including merchants, manufacturers, bankers, lawyers, and intellectuals — many of whom held considerable wealth. The Third Estate also included the peasant class and artisans.

First, Second, and Third Estates Grow Dissatisfied

At the time of the French Revolution, France was governed by an absolute monarchy under King Louis XIV (1643–1715). Louis XIV had encouraged both trade and manufacture and had centralized the country during his reign. By the eve of the Revolution, individuals represented by all three estates had grown dissatisfied with their circumstances for various reasons. The nobility's primary grievance was the desire to reclaim the power that the monarchy had stripped from them. The peasant class and the bourgeoisie were deeply unhappy with the system of taxation, and the bourgeoisie bitterly resented the privileges enjoyed by the nobility.

The peasant class endured constantly increasing rents as well as heavy duties — a form of taxation — levied on goods sold at fairs and markets. Agricultural methods remained antiquated, and the price of bread is noted to have risen more quickly than wages. The harvest of 1788–89 was particularly poor (Hooker, 2005). Compounding these hardships was the absence of a unified system of law in France, which left each region to determine its own legal rulings through its local Parlement (Hooker, 2005).

The bourgeoisie wanted positions in the Church, army, and government to be open to all men "of talent and merit" (Hooker, 2005). They also sought to limit the power of the king through a constitution, and called for fair trials, religious toleration, and broad administrative reforms. The nobility, by contrast, sought to ensure that no reforms were enacted — though a few concessions might have been sufficient to quell the revolution.

Conclusion

This paper has addressed the question of whether the French Revolution was a war of the classes. Indeed it was a war of the classes; however, the lines are not clearly drawn dividing them. There was considerable overlap between classes in terms of what each group experienced relative to its social position. For example, the bourgeoisie included wealthy landowners while simultaneously representing the interests of segments of the peasant class. Therefore, all perspectives must be considered when seeking a well-rounded understanding of the class dynamics at play in the French Revolution. What remains clear is that the French Revolution was fundamentally a war of — and a war within — the social classes of French society.