2. Political Condition
Hobsbawn in the book The Age of Revolution mentioned that France was the most powerful and in many ways the most typical of the old aristocratic
absolute monarchies of Europe 1973: 75. The government of eighteenth century France was no enlightened despotism, however. It was despotic in form, though
hardly oppressive in practice it was better described as despotism tempered by corruption, with the stress on “tempered” and on “corruption” 1973: 193,194.
As stated by Williams in his book The Ancient Regime in Europe that “France was ruled by the method of Louis XIV for the rest of the eighteenth
century. When Louis XIV took command, ideological struggles were endemic and bitter. They mainly concerned religion 1972: 170, 205.
3. Economic
Williams in his book entitled The Ancient Regime in Europe mentioned that everywhere one sees people sink to the ground, literally dead from famine.
Everywhere one hears nothing but complaints and groans, from the greatest to the feebles 1972: 196. The burden of taxation thrust the lower classes permanently
down to the borders of starvation and in years of bad harvest desperation drove them to insurrection 1972: 197. The peasant still held his land from his lord and
still had to pay quit-rent to the lord. The peasant paid dues to the State, Church and to the King 1972: 213. To the peasants these seemed more burdensome and
less just than the taxes they paid to the king and when the last straw came in the form of the harvest failure of 1788 1972: 225. The bare plain of Picardy-eighty
17 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
per cent of it given over to grain in most places, with hardly any wastes, or meadows, or woods, or common-land, over populated and under-productive
1972: 215. The laboureur, one of subgroups of peasant possessed at least two horses and a plough and he probably would not posses more than eight cattle, five
pigs and thirty sheep 1972: 213. As the eighteenth century advanced, clergy became the sword and buckler of conservatism and though in their clashes with
the crown they talked the advanced language of liberalism, their only concern was to protect property and privilege from attack 1972: 207.
D. Theoretical Framework
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