French Revolution

At the end of Frances revolution in 1799, the French citizens got what they wanted. Starting with the storming of the Bastille, the French revolution lasted three years. With the revolution finally coming to an end, the French people got a new leader that they long awaited, a new government and constitution, and all together a whole different country. While at the time, people were arguing whether or not the revolution was a necessary event. A little bit more than two hundred years later, we now know that it was a necessary event.
The French revolution was a necessary event, because there was widespread hunger that needed to be changed, they got rid of a king and queen that was disloyal to their country, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was written. During and before the French Revolution, hunger was everywhere. In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens shows how bad the situation in France was by saying “… was the sigh, Hunger. IT was prevalent everywhere.
Hunger was pushed out of the tall houses, in the wretched clothing that hung upon poles and lines; Hunger was patched into them with straw and rag and wood and paper; Hunger was repeated in every fragment of the small modicum of firewood that the man sawed off; Hunger stared to eat. Hunger was the inscription on the baker’s shelves, written in every small loaf of his scanty stock of bad bread; at the sausage-shop, in every dead-dog preparation that was offered for sale.

Hunger rattled its dry bones among the roasting chestnuts in the turned cylinder; Hunger was shred into atomics in every farthing porringer of husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil (Dickens 34, source D). ” Also, with the prices of bread rising, most people relied on what they can grow; they sometimes even ate grass, to keep them alive. With a King and Queen that only cared about themselves, there is no doubt that hunger is the first reason why the French Revolution was a necessary event.
Along with the hunger that made the French Revolution necessary, The Declaration of The Rights of Man and of The Citizen also made it a necessary event. It was a necessary event, because it was saying that they wanted a new government and wanted to get rid of the current government. It also gave citizens many new rights, including: “1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good. 2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man.
These rights are liberty, security, and resistance to oppression. (source A). ” Those are only two of the total seventeen rights. This is a good thing that came out of the revolution, and the second reason why it was a necessary event. With all of the hunger and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen making the French revolution a necessary event, the overthrow of the King and Queen also made it necessary. With the young King and Queen barely 20 years old, it was almost guaranteed that they didn’t know how to run a country.
This excerpt from a handout about Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, called “The Ancien Regime,” shows how little the King was prepared to run the country. “Louis XVI, a member of the Bourbon family, was neither intelligent, hardworking, nor firm of purpose (Lacey, source G). It was only an amount of time when they finally executed King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The killing of the King and Queen is the last reason why the French Revolution was a necessary event.
Starting with the storming of the Bastille, the French Revolution lasted about ten years. During this period, France got a new leader, government, and a whole new country. While many people would argue that was not a necessary event, we now know that is was, because there was a widespread hunger that needed to be put to an end, the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen was written, and they got rid a King and Queen that cared only about themselves.
The pros of the French revolution outweigh the cons, making the French Revolution a necessary event. Works Cited “Declaration of the Rights of Man-1789. ” The Avalon Project. 2008 Lillian Goldman Law Library. 22 July 2009. Web. Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities New York: Signet Classic, 2007. Print. Lacey, Robert, ed. “The Ancien Regime” The French Revolution Jackdaw Portfolio No. 147 Amawalk, NY: Jackdaw Publication, 1976. Print.