Question

Mention any three ways in which Louis XVI helped to contribute to the outbreak of the French Revolution.

Answer 1

Ways in which Louis XVI helped to contribute to the outbreak of the French Revolution are (i) Louis XVI, the ruler of France, was a pleasure-loving, extravagant ruler who believed in the divine rights of the king. (ii) He was ignorant and indifferent to the conditions of the poor. (iii) He was obsessed with his wife Marie Antoinette, who constantly interfered in the administration. (iv) Both the king and the queen used to spend huge wealth not only to lead a lavish lifestyle but also to please their so called admirers. This gradually brought France to the verge of bankruptcy. (v) The king helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their independence from Britain. The huge expenditure of the war forced the state to increase taxes and the taxes were only paid by the third estate of the French society at that time. vi)On 5 May 1789, Louis XVI called together an assembly of the Estates General to pass proposals for new taxes. Voting in the Estates General in the past had been conducted according to the principle that each estate had one vote. This time too Louis XVI was determined to continue the same practice. But members of the third estate demanded that voting now be conducted by the assembly as a whole, where each member would have one vote. When the king rejected this proposal, members of the third estate became furious and walked out of the assembly.