The French Revolution Aristocracy to Democracy
Accrediting ?the encounter of competing classes? as conflicting entails that the French Revolution War exemplifies a complex revolution, indicated by the peasant opposition to wealth and power, various civil responses, and a transition of French authority.
Seeing that ?ninety percent of the peasants lived at or below subsistence level?, it follows that at the time of the French revolution, destitution and poverty persisted; however, the hardships coupled with a peasant hierarchy, the nobleman and the clergy, and the extensive population of France construct the opposing forces, either yearning for absolutism or an ?abolition of feudalism?.
Essentially, the peasants strived for equality among the detrimental social ?caste? of the nation as the prosperous French citizens worked towards the conservation of the French monarchy. With the intention to establish somewhat of a democracy within the country, the peasants inched into rebellion, preceding reasoning to struggle and ?press for social change through drastic actions?.
For instance, by trashing the homes of the noblemen or benefitting from government petitions in which the peasants ?expressed opposition to the privileges of nobles?.
Ultimately, French authority ?cemented peasants to the revolutionary cause?. Furthermore, under the circumstances that disordered France, Betts illustrates that the ?people [citizens of France] destroyed old ideas? that exponentially distorted the tempo by the French government until the sudden execution of King Louis XVI and essentially the entire aristocracy of the nation.
