MAKING OF A NEW NATION 1776 1800
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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money spent on the American Revolution
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The extreme spending of the royal family
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the 1st and 2nd estates did not pay taxes
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all of the above
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Detailed explanation-1: -French involvement in the Seven Years’ War and the American War of Independence added substantially to the state’s debts. Jacques Necker, finance minister from 1777 and 1781, had largely funded France’s war effort through loans. As a result the state debt ballooned to between 8 and 12 billion livres by 1789.
Detailed explanation-2: -France’s Debt Problems France’s prolonged involvement in the Seven Years’ War of 1756–1763 drained the treasury, as did the country’s participation in the American Revolution of 1775–1783.
Detailed explanation-3: -The causes of the French Revolution can be narrowed to five main factors: the Estate System, absolutism, Enlightenment ideas, food shortages, and the American Revolution. The Estate System placed people into groups based on birth and was known as the Ancien Regime.
Detailed explanation-4: -half of the country’s annual budget. The American Revolution [1775-1783] cost France 1.3 billion livres. By 1789 France’s total debt was 4 billion livres or $40 billion. France was on the verge of bankruptcy with no means to pay.
Detailed explanation-5: -The spark that ignited the French Revolution (1789-1799), one of the most important events in modern global history, was actually government debt, accumulated during the course of two wars, and the desire of King Louis XVI to increase taxes to pay off that debt.