Wednesday, April 3rd

[6Jacob]

French Revolution

-started in 1789 until 1799
-in 1700s, France and England were the most advanced countries in Europe/the world
-they had a large population and a great foreign trade
-however, much of the world didn’t know about France’s extreme debt

Old Regime
-in the 1770s, the social and political system of France was called the Old Regime
-under this, there were 3 social classes called estates

First Estate
-made up of clergy of the Roman Catholic Church (priests, bishops, deacons, cardinals)
-had to pay 2% of earnings to taxes
-owned 10% of the land in France
-their jobs were to provide religion, education, and relief services to the poor
-made up about 1% of the population

Second Estate
-this group was made up of rich nobles
-they held the highest offices in the gov’t
-paid 0% of their income to taxes
-owned 20% of land in France
-made up 2% of the population

Third Estate
-included everyone else in the first two estates
-had no power to influence their gov’t
-had to pay 50% of income/food to taxes
-resented the upper classes
-owned 70% of the lands in France and consisted of 97% of the population

Enlightenment Ideals
-Enlightenment is a complex with many influences
-3^rd estate was becoming tired of the Old Regime
-they prompted the ideals of equality, liberty, and a democracy

Weak Leader
-Louis XVI (married to Marie Antoinette) was a very weak leader
-he was indecisive and didn’t take advice well
-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 5, 1789 in Versailles
-it was the first time the assembly had met in 175 years
-in the past, the 3 estates would meet separately and there would be only 1 vote per estate
-this allowed the 1^st and 2^nd to always beat the 3^rd
-the king sided with the nobles again and they were outvoted