Louis XVI-France Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Louis XVI-France - Essay Example His mother too died of the same illness, and Louis and his siblings were left as orphans. At this time Louis XVI was only 13 years old, and he was oldest among his siblings. The children were taken by their grandmother following the death of their parents, but the grandmother died one year later. As a child, Louis Augustus wasn’t prepared to become the king of France and, although, he was a good student especially in sciences, he was, however, shy, disorganised and irresponsible, and his main interests were hunting and making locks (Louis XVI Biography). At the age of 15 in 1770, Louis Augustus married Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Empress Maria Therese of Austria. This was a strategic political move. On June 11, 1775, following the death of his grandfather, King Louis XVI, Louis Augustus ascended to power and he became King Louis XVI. Louis XVI became the king of France when the country was in economic and military crisis. The military was inefficient and the economy was in turmoil. And immediately upon becoming the king of France, King Louis XVI began a radical programme of reforms in both economy and military. And, although, King Louis XVI had many failings and was eventually ousted from power and executed, he, however, had many accomplishments in his reign. The following are the achievements of King Louis XVI of France. ... The French troops did excellently in the war and this led to the independence of USA when the British troops gave up on the war. In the war, the French expedition also managed to capture the Island of Tobago. Still on foreign policies, King Louis sought to curtail French influence in India. And to do achieve this goal, he joined the Maratha Empire and took the side of Mysore in the Anglo-Mysore war. This move strengthened the Mysore side and led to the defeat of Britain. This led to the weakening of the British influence in India and the subsequent strengthening of the French influence in the region. On the human rights, King Louis was a great champion of human rights. On assuming power as the king of France, one of his quick reforms was to flee to freedom the prisoners of state who had been imprisoned for political and other illegitimate reasons. He also reformed the penal code and abolished the use of torture in punishing the offenders (Grimshaw, 249). Death penalty, also, was abol ished in the penal code reforms. King Louis also achieved immensely in improving the economy of France, and this move made him so popular to the people. To improve the economy of France, the King, through his able minister in charge of economy, Turgot, introduced the right economic policies, and this led to improvement of the economy. The improvement of the economy led to reduction in prices of basic food stuffs such as the price of flour and bread (Louis XVI Biography, online). One of the economic policies that helped to improve the economy o France under King Louis XVI was the equal taxation of all the subjects of France. Prior to this