1st Estate (Clergy)
French society was broken down into 3 social classes (called estates)
First estate made up the church
The clergy: was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that subordinated the Roman Catholic Church in France to the French government.
Clergy: owned 10% of all land in France, and they are only 1% of the population from France!!
They did not pay taxes!!! But they collect the tax from everyone else
2nd Estate (Nobility)
The wealthy people were called the nobles
Only 2%!!
The nobles owned 25-30% of French land!!
Land=wealth
3rd Estate (The Commoners: Broken up into 3 categories Bourgeoisie, Workers, Peasants)
The Commoners were 98% of France
3 groups of commoners Bourgeoisie (factory owners, lawyers, and
Historian Henri Lefebvre argued that the Aristocratic Revolution of 1717 to 1788 was the most important cause of the French Revolution. He states that “the French Revolution was started and led to victory by the aristocracy”. The situation was so confusing that it could not be fully reported according to the fiscal administration. The budget of the Old regime roughly consisted of a 126 million livres deficit and the government could have solved this crisis by cutting down spending or raising taxes, though many thought taxes were already too high despite the richest of society; bourgeoisie, nobility and clergy paid the least tax. The nobility controlled the majority of France’s estates and held high-ranking positions in the army and government “The nobility constituted a vast social and political network, a source of power and influence that pervaded every level of French society”.
Taxes, which is still a commonly disagreed topic, were a major reason the people of France revolted. The members of the first estate were paying only a fraction of what the members of the third and event the second were. Arthur Young, a man who travelled through France from 1787 to 1789, made the observation that land owned by nobility and people of the upper class was taxed very little compared to the land owned by common citizens (Doc. 1). This injustice took a great toll on members of the third estate and
The second estate was made up of rich nobles. The nobles owned 20 percent of the land in France and paid almost no taxes. The third estate was about 90 percent of the people in France. The third estate laked privileges they had to pay high taxes. They felt that their wealth entitled them to a great degree of social states.
Louis only taxed the third estate. He didnt realize how bad most of the third estate had it and when he saw them for the first time he didnt do anything about it. Louis had all the power over France. He was an absolute monarch, he didn’t wanna share power. He ruled by the Devine Right theory which says that he received his power to govern from God.
Also, they owned a lot of land. The third estate included the middle class which was made up of wealthy and educated people. The rest of the third estate was mainly made up of peasants. According to Document 3, the third estate demanded, “That the taille be borne equally by all classes”. The third estate paid heavy taxes and rent.
Before the revolution, the third estate got taxed the most and barely had any rights, while the first and second estate barely got taxed, and had majority of the rights. “Pre Revolutionary Causes Source C: The Third Estate of Carcassonne, list of grievances from the Third Estate, Cahiers de Doléances (excerpts), 1789” However, after the the National Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. That all changed.
During the old days of France the french people were divided into 3 estates which were social
Rights were given to all peaceful french citizens. In Document B.” All hereditary titles and privileges of nobility are abolished. “ For hundreds of years before the reign of terror, there were three estates. The nobles and the clergy were the first two estates. They had many privileges such as not paying taxes and having the top jobs.
The three estates system was used to rule France in the eighteenth century. Each estate was composed of the clergy, nobles, and commoners respectively. However, this system of governance allowed the first and second estates, which comprised only 10% of the population, to outvote the third estate, which was made up of 90% of the people. By questioning the fairness of the system, the third estate was able to revolutionize and abolish the unfair system. Without the questioning of the decisions and ideas of the second and first estate, the third estate would’ve continued to be taken advantage of.
In a diagram from 1789, it shows that the First and Second Estates made up only a small percentage of the population, yet they owned ten times that amount in land, and paid no taxes. Meanwhile, the majority of the population, made up by the Third Estate, were taxed profusely and owned little land in comparison (Doc 2). The inequality between the estates and the extent to which the Third Estate was abused because of their social status was clear . This is portrayed in an illustration where the Third Estate was trampled by the taxes forced upon them by their social superiors (Doc 7). They were in no state to pay taxes or tithes to the church, and this mandatory tariff left little money for their own needs.
In Travels in France, Arthur Young stated that the nobles were taxed very little while the poor were taxed heavily (Document 1). This signified that these fees hurt the third estate the most because they were forced to pay the most amount of money, yet they made the least amount. The peasants had it worse than anybody else because they still owed debts dating back to feudal times. In addition, cartoons during the French Revolution satirically showed the public how the 1st and 2nd estate were not deeply impacted by the political system while the 3rd estate was crushed by the taxes they had to pay (Document 7). The third estate earned terrible wages and faced starvation everyday and on top of that, they suffered the most because they had the highest taxes.
The French Revolution, from 1789 to 1799, was a turning point in history and created enormous change. France, for centuries, had been divided into three classes; churchmen, nobility and Peasants. The nobles and churchmen had huge wealth while ordinary people were very poor. The Monarchy did not do enough to help ordinary people and this class of people became increasingly angry with their circumstances. This eventually led to an uprising by ordinary people against
During the Eighteenth Century, France had an absolute monarchy with Louis XVI as king and Marie Antoinette as queen. In that time period, French society was based upon a system of Estates where the clergy made up the First Estate; the nobility comprised the Second Estate, and everyone else including professionals, peasants, and the bourgeoisie made up the Third Estate. The Third Estate was immensely unhappy with the old regime, the Estates General, and Louis XVI’s leadership. France was also in the midst of a fiscal crisis due to the American Revolution, Louis XVI’s lavish lifestyle, the Seven Years War, and the tax exemption of the First and Second Estate. Following the surge of new ideas and impactful philosophers from the Enlightenment,
As the French had about Twenty-five million people, 100,000 were clergy, 400,000 were the nobleman, and the rest was known as the third estate. The third estate was left to starve, while Louis XVi and Marie Antoinette lived a luxury lifestyle. The only food they could afford for a limited time was bread, but then the prices got so high, that the rich can only afford it.
However, Americans were able to succeed because of their quick increase in population and economy. One of France’s financial problems came from the money they loaned America during the war. Arthur Young traveled throughout France and saw that “lands held by the nobility are taxed very little [and] lands held by commoners are taxed heavily” (Doc B). This comes back to the idea of inequality and how the government supported a class system in France that negativly affects the third estate. Because commoners’ land was taxed so much, they were unable to feed themselves.