French Revolution

[Calon]

I'm doing coursework on the french revolution and why the monarchy came to an end..and i was wondering if anyone knew any websites with good sources,as in historians view points,cartoons from that time ect.

thanks :)

[WaldoMcFroog]

I can recommend Mark Steel's "Viva La Revolution" as an excellent and insightful but very readable account of it.

[suffragette]

The French Revolution began as a result of the social and political inequalities in France at the time.

The French government was also bankrupt, which was a direct result of the profligate spending of Louis XIV, whose outrageous expenditure had never been carefully addressed by subsequent monarchs. This lack of money made it difficult for the monarchy to effectively crack down on the organised dissent as effectively as it would have liked.

The influence of Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau and the favourable outcome of the earlier American Revolution some twenty years earlier also acted as an inspiration for the Third Estate in the Estates General to question their lack of power and influence in society.

The attached sit may be of some interest.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/browse/images/#

[Octavius]

This is always a good place to start, but there are links at the bottom of the page and some reference poits for further reading which I would recommend (don't rely solely on Wikipedia).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution

For the second part of your Q, there is some stuff here:

http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/philosophy/ss/image s.htm
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/browse/images/#
http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&hl= en&lr=&q=french+revolution+cartoon