French Revolution: fun fact: during the french revolution, george washington became the first president of the united states
More beginnings
- started in 1789 and lasted until 1799
- in the 1700s, france and england were considered the most advanced countryies in europe and the world
- it had a large population and a great foreign trade (good and bad)
- however, much of the world did not know the extreme debt that france had occured
old regime
- the social and political system of france was called the Old Regime
- under this regime, there were 3 large social classes called estates
first estate
- made up of clergy of the roman catholic church (priests, bishops, deacons, cardinals)
- had to pay 2% of their earnings to taxes
- owned 10% of the lands in france
- their jobs were to provide religion, education, and relief services to the poor
- less than 1 percent of the population were in this estate
2nd estate
- this group was made up of rich nobles
- they held the highest offices in the government in france
- this estate paid 0% of income to taxes
- owned 20% of the lands in france
- this estate had only 2% of the population of france
3rd estate
- included everyone that wasn't in the first two estates
- had no power to influence their government in france
- had to pay 50% of income/food to taxes
- resented the first two classes
- owned 70% of the lands in france and consisted of 97% of the population
enlightenment
- complex with many influences, for this chapter we will focus on the influence in the USA
- the 3rd estate was becoming very tired of the old regime
- they prompted the ideals of equality, liberty, and a democracy
weak leader
- Louis XVI (married marie antoinette) was a very weak leader
- he was very indecisive and paid very little attention to his advisors
- marie didn't help much either with constantly expressing her opinion and the fact that she was from austria
- he finally wanted to tax the nobles, but they weren't happy there either so the Estates-General was called
Estates-General
- an assembly of representatives from all three estates
- their goal was to approve the new tax
- the meeting was held on may 5th, 1789 in versailles
- it was the first time the assembly had met in 175 years
- in the past, the three estates would meet separately and there would only be 1 vote per estate
- this allowed for the 1st and 2nd estate to always beat the 3rd
- the king sided with the nobles again and they were outvoted
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