As one of the most debatable events in world history, the French Revolution and its disputed origins have been assessed by historians for centuries. The revolution officially began in 1789, however the war between conflicting social classes and ideologies within France had been escalating for many preceding decades. At this time, Europe was in an era ruled by monarchies in a government system known as the Old Regime or Ancien Regime. The Old Regime was the social and political system in place before the French Revolution that divided French society into 3 orders: The Clergy, nobility, and Third Estate. The likes of the Clergy, and the nobility commanded nations while the majority of the population, the Third Estate, was impoverished. This …show more content…
France at the time was separated into 3 Estates: The First, Second, and Third Estate. The First Estate consisted of the Clergy, which was essentially all those involved with the Catholic Church. It was an established and exclusive role in French society that only consisted of 1 percent of France’s population. The Second Estate consisted of the nobility and only about 2 percent of France’s population. These included those involved with the highest positions in court and government. The First and Second Estate shared numerous privileges that separated them from the Third Estate. The Clergy and nobility were exempt from paying the main, old, feudal taxes that were at the time irrelevant but were only collected to so that nobles could live extravagantly while the peasants of the Third Estate remained impoverished. The Third Estate consisted of the bourgeoisie, which was the working class made up of doctors, lawyers, merchants, and then the peasants. Although the Third Estate was 97 percent of the population, they had none of the special privileges that the other estates had. Social mobility was restrained within French society before the Revolution. Privileges were primarily passed down through inheritance, thus straining the social mobility of the nation. The battle for better privileges was ongoing between the 3 estates. The French …show more content…
France’s attempt to mend their financial mistakes was futile because of the way their social system was structured. Two ministers of the French government, Turgot and Necker, proposed an alteration to the taxation system. They urged that the nobility be responsible to pay taxes as well; however this was highly resisted by the nobles and was never approved. The only form of revenue that the French government was receiving to support the needs of the nation came by taxation. Yet taxation only applied to the Third Estate, therefore the French government remained in financial debt. This escalated the forthcoming of the French Revolution because the First and Second Estate refused to be taxed, thus leaving the Third Estate responsible for the revenue of the nation and escalating the tension between the classes. Although the peasants of the Third Estate greatly suffered from the injustices imposed by the French government such as the improper treatment by the aristocracy of the nation, the turmoil they experienced did not play as key of a role towards the start of the Revolution as the
Politically, the first two states had much more power than they should have had based on their numbers. In the Estates General, each estate is represented equally. This was true even though the Third Estate had about 98% of the population. The first estate had 300 votes, the second estate had 300 votes and the third estate had 300 votes until Louis XVI doubled their votes to 600.
Some people like Emmanuel Sieyès, middle-class writer who was taken by the Enlightenment ideas, believed that all of French Society lay on the backs of the third estate. On the contrary, Robespierre, the monarch at the time, believed that the third estate did not have the power to do anything important to society. The third estate had to pay taxes like the Gabelle and Taille while the first and seconds estates did not have to pay any taxes to the king. Also, the third estates had less of a representation in voting. The first and second estate could outvote the third estate every time and this was a huge inequality. The condition of the third estate was horrible but a good portion of this third estate was the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie had some wealth and social class, so they influenced the rest of the third estate about their rights, while also inspiring some lower clergies and provincial nobles and thus led to a group of rebellious people to fight the monarchy. This fight for political representation and political rights was only one cause of the French Revolution. Another causes lies in the French Monarchs: Louis XlV, Louis XV, and Louis XVl. When Louis XlV was ruling, the monarchy had unlimited power and was known as a
French Pre-Revolutionary Government The ancien regime was an expression used to describe the system of government, laws and institutions which preceded the French Revolution of 1789. The system relied heavily on the 'seigneurial system', based largely on the medieval feudal system by which the monarch had absolute power, most of the clergy (first estate) and the nobility (second estate) were very wealthy, and the peasants (third estate) were oppressed by heavy taxation and made to work as virtual slaves for their landlords. It was this system which was an important contributing factor to the resentment which developed between the poor, who made up three quarters of France's population at the time, and the nobles, and eventually led to the uprising of the lower classes and revolution in 1789. The ancient regime was an outdated system which ignored the demands of social and economic progress in favour of keeping the third estate in check and attempting to ensure that France was a dominant power in Europe. In most European countries the system of feudalism had died out in the Middle Ages.
The French Revolution started in 1787 because the country was going through financial difficulties and there was unrest between the classes of citizens in the country. The differences between the lower class citizens and higher classes, being nobles and the monarchy were great. The citizens had heard of the revolution that went on in the colonies and they also wanted freedom and independence. The real start of the French Revolution was on July 14, 1789, with the storming of the Bastille. Between 1789 1793, a constitution was written, feudalism was abolished, war had broken out, and King Louis XVI was put to death. In late 1793 and early 1794, Maximilien Robespierre became the head of the Committee of Public Safety in France. This was the new governing body in France; it could be compared to the executive branch of a government. Robespierre was a great leader, he ins...
...iven the third estate reasons to rebel and take actions for change. In France the economic failures are one of the main causes of the French revolution, unfair taxing and bankruptcy has gotten the people of France irritated by the government. Gradually the privileges of the nobility were eliminated by the revolution. Many groups of people had help make the revolution successful such as the National Convention, they have passes many statements and documents to mark their every steps of successful during the French revolution. Over time many things happened and changed prior to during and after the French Revolution. The French Revolution was a large change and reform of the Ancein Regime. It has dramatically change France politically, economically, and socially. Without the French Revolution, France wouldn't have evolved in such way to become a equal and just nation.
Under the rule of Louis XVI, the people of France were divided into three main social classes or estates as they are called. The First Estate featured wealthy members of the Church such as Bishops and Priests who held great political power due to their influence on government affairs. The Second Estate was a class comprised of the wealthy nobles and political officials who held all power in government affairs.
Historian Albert Mathiez states that “The middle class… was sensitive to their inferior legal position. The revolution came from them- the middle class. The working classes were incapable of starting or controlling the Revolution. They were just beginning to learn to read.” The middle class were not able to have a class on their own; they were still considered peasants. In the illustration it showed how much people and land each estate held, the Clergy was one percent of the population which owned ten percent of the land. Nobles were two percent of the people that owned thirty-five percent of the land. The middle class, peasants, and city workers were ninety-seven of the people owned fifty-five percent of the land. This means that if the third estate were to riot, this would cause havoc. There was a lot during that time; the website Macrohistory and World Timeline shows that “The population of France had grown to between 24 and 26 million, up from 19 million in 1700 without a concomitant growth in food production. Farmers around Paris consumed over 80 percent of what they grew, so if a harvest fell by around 10 percent, which was common, people went hungry. There was insufficient government planning and storage of grain for emergency shortages”. If there were approximately 26 million people, there would be 25,220,000 people in the third estate, 520,000 people in the second estate, and 260,000
The third estate consisted of the remaining 23.5 million French people who were 90% peasants. The third estate was the only estate that paid taxes. Their taxes ensured the financial well-being of the clergy, state, and nobles (French Revolution Overview 6). The Enlightenment was a major influence of the French Revolution. The Enlightenment caused the revolution in three ways.
Both of these combined created a further debt for France. King Louis wanted to increase the taxes of the Third Estate to pay off the debts, which made the peasants even angrier, which will be talked about in the next paragraph. King Louis came into power at the age of 20, and he put most of the financial duties to Turgot, one of the best statesmen. When he finally realized the French Revolution was a big problem, all his attempts to stop it were all in vain because he didn’t know what to do since he had entrusted most of his responsibilities to the people below him.... ...
The people of France were divided into three estates. The first estate was composed of the highest church officials. They held about ten percent of all the land in France. They paid no direct taxes to the royal government. The second estate was made up of nobles.
The Third Estate consisted of everyone else, the pheasants, farmers, landless labourers, serfs and the emerging middle class called the bourgeois. 80% of the population was rural and were very highly taxed by the king, like the rest of the Third Estate.... ... middle of paper ... ... Overall, the weakness and indecisive actions of France's monarch, King Louis XVI, did not make those serving him respect or be loyal to him and his choices.
The social differences in France were very unreasonable. People openly argued that “social differences should not be defined by law, as they were in the old regimes order” (2). In France, much of the inequality came from the social class system. It led to angry peasants and tons of revolting. This could have been avoided if France maintained equality for all estates, as it would have been rational. In addition, the clergy and nobles were given many rights which “included top jobs in government, the army, the courts, and the Church” (109). This was very biased as they were able to get the highest jobs, not because they earned it, but because of their social stature. Meanwhile, commoners or bourgeoisie, were not granted those jobs even if they had the ability to do them. This caused much of the third estate to become mad which led to uncivilized manner in France. If the government had just given equal rights and granted jobs by merit opposed to social class rankings, there would have been less drama between the estates and everything would have been
This was considered “the nobility” having leading positions in government, military, law courts, and in the Roman Catholic Church (Spielvogel). The Third Estate divided even further based on education, occupation, and wealth. Peasants were a major part of the estate (75-80%) having little to no land on which to live. There was a middle class within the Third Estate known as the bourgeoisie, withheld by bankers, lawyers, holders of public offices, doctors, and professional people.
Each social group had a varied type of people within their structure, which presented the different views of the people. The First Estate was the Church. During the ancien regime, the church was equal in terms of its social, economic, and spiritual power. The First Estate owned nearly 10 per cent of all land in France.
The Privileges of the First and Second Estates in France in the 1780's Under the Ancien Régime, the French people were divided, according to their status, into ‘estates’ or social groups. These groups were very unequal in size and power. It is difficult to give exact figures for this period, but it is estimated that the First Estate, the clergy, had around 170,000 members, the Second Estate, the nobility, had 300,000-400,000 members, while the remaining Third Estate made up the rest of the population. Louis XVI was an absolute monarch and under his regime, the people of France had to pay taxes, which went towards the army, the public officials and the luxurious life that the royal family led at the Palace of Versailles. Even though the Third Estate was the poorest overall, the unfair Ancien Régime meant that the huge burden of taxes fell mainly upon them.