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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They had already paid for Napoleon’s wars.
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They resented funding the Estates General.
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They had never paid direct taxes in the past.
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Taxes contradicted their Enlightenment principles.
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Detailed explanation-1: -Why did the French aristocracy object to higher taxes? They had already paid for Napoleon’s wars. They resented funding the Estates General.
Detailed explanation-2: -According to conventional wisdom, the Ancien Régime’s taxation regime was excessive, inefficient and unfair. It was excessive because France had become one of the highest taxing states in Europe, chiefly because of its warmongering, growing bureaucracy and high spending.
Detailed explanation-3: -Solution: Maintenance of and extravagant Court: France under various kings had an extravagant court at the Palace of Versailles. Wars and Economic Crisis: Long drawn wars already put a lot of pressure on the royal coffers. Which was followed by helping the thirteen American colonies to gain independence.
Detailed explanation-4: -taille, the most important direct tax of the pre-Revolutionary monarchy in France. Its unequal distribution, with clergy and nobles exempt, made it one of the hated institutions of the ancien régime. The taille originated in the early Middle Ages as an arbitrary exaction from peasants.