French Revolution - ancien regime essays

French Revolution - ancien regime essays The crisis of the ancien regime was political rather than economic or social. Discuss. In France in 1779, there was growing discontent. The Ancien Regime was proving to be corrupt and inefficient. This was due to the growing social and economic factors that became the preconditions for revolution. This later lead to the political factors, which started with the aristocratic revolt and ended in revolution. The Estate General had proved to be unrepresentative and caused the common people to resent those in power and placed greater pressure on the king. This led to the formation of the National Assembly, who were the controllers of the country and in many ways of the revolution. They implemented many ideas that had emerged from the enlightenment and by representing all of the people, brought an end to the ancien regime. So the political factors lead to the revolution, however the crisis of the ancien regime was the economic and social factors that caused the political factors. The ancien regimes social structure encouraged inequity and therefore resentment among the third estate. The third estate consisted of the bourgeoisie, the peasants, and the sans culottes, and made up approx. 98% of the population the second, consisting of nobility, and the first, consisting of clergy, only made up 1% of the population each. The peasants worked the land while living in poverty, the sans culottes were urban workers who were also very poor, the bourgeoisie were the educated workers such as merchants, doctors, lawyers etc and were becoming more economically powerful. The venal system allowed the bourgeoisies to buy noble positions, encouraged social mobility, however it was limited by the segur ordinance that prevented drobe nobility from obtaining certain positions that the deppe nobility wanted. The nobility and the clergy, enjoyed many privileges that the third estate didnt including; exemptions from taxation, conscripti...