History - The French Revolution Begins

The Old Order

In the 1700s —> The social and political systems of France The Old Regime remained in places

• The people of France were decided into three large social classes

The Privileged Estates

• Two of the estates had privileges, including access to higher office and exemptions from paying taxes

• The Roman Catholic Church owned 10% of the land in France (The first estate)

• It provides education and relief services for the poor and contributes about 2% of it’s income to the government

Second Estate

• The second estate was made of rich nobles —> accounted for just 2% of the population

• Owned 20% of the land and payed almost no taxes

Third Estate

• About 97% of the people belonged to this estate

  • The first group the bourgeoisie, or middle class were bankers, factory owners, merchants, professionals, and skilled artisans.

• Some of the bourgeoisie were as rich as nobles —> payed higher taxes and lacked privileges

• The workers of France’s cities formed the second and poorest, group within the third estate

  • This urban workers included tradespeople, apprentices, laborers, and frequently out of work (often went hungry)

• Peasants formed te largest group within the third esate, more than 80% of France’s 26 milliom people

  • Peasants paid about half of their income in dues to nobles, titles to the church and taxes to the Kings agents

The Forces of Change

New ideas about government, serious economic problems, and weak indecisive leadership all helped contributed to the revolutionary mood in france

Enlightenment Ideas

• New views about power and authority in government were spreading

  • The members of the third estate were aspired by the success of the American Revolution

  • They started questioning long-standing motions about the structure of society

Economic Troubles

• By the 1780s → Frances economy was in decline

  • This caused alarm, particulary among the merchants, factor owners, and bonkers at the third estate

  • On the surface the economy appeared to be sound → production and trade were growing rapidly

  • Taxes caused many to starve from the high prices

• Frenchs government started to go into debt

  • Partly from the spendings of Louis XVI and his queen

A Weak Leader

• Louis XIV paid little attention to his government advisors, and had little patience for the details or governing

  • The queen often interfered in the government, and frequently offered Louis poor advice

  • She spent so much money on gowns, jewlery, gambling, and gifts that she became known as “Madame Deficit”

• Louis put off dealing with the emergency until he practically had no money left (his solution was to impose taxes on the nobility)

• The second estates him to call a meeting of the estates general

• The Palace of Versailles