There were three estates of the Ancien Regime that made up the French society. The three estates that made up the French society was the Clergy, the Nobles, and the commoners or everyone else. Each estate had an important role in the French society, but one estate was treated very unfairly. The estate that was treated the most unfair was the third estate of the commoners. They weren’t given privileges like the other estates and this caused many problems for the French society. The first estate was the Clergy, they made up about 0.6% of the total population in France. The clergy owned about 10% of the land in France. If you owned your own land in the French society you were considered wealthy. The more land you own the wealthier you would be. Only the members of the church were considered part of the clergy, that includes priests, bishops and etc. Some of the privileges that this estate received was that they were tax exempt. Which means that they didn’t have to pay any taxes. Another privilege that the Clergy received was that the church would receive about 10% from everyone’s wealth from the Tithe. The whole Clergy estate had to share a total of one vote. The second estate was the Nobles, this estate made up of about 0.4% of the total population in France. The nobles owned about 25% of the land in France. Some of the …show more content…
The third estate made up of about 99% of the total population in France. The third estate had people such as artisans, bourgeoisie, land owning peasants, share cropping peasants, day laborers, and serfs. Some of the people made good livings such as the artisans and the bourgeoisie. Other than the artisans and the bourgeoisie most of the people in the third estate were pretty poor and they didn’t receive any privileges like the ones the first and second estates received. This made the third estate pay all of the taxes for France. Also the whole third estate had to share one
The French Revolution was a drastic time for the people of France. In 1789, the majority of people were living in poverty and dealing with terrible conditions. People were split into three estates: the first, second, and third, the first being the wealthiest. Political, economic, and social situations were what contributed to people’s desire for change. The three main, or biggest causes of the French Revolution, were taxes, inequality, and lack of reform.
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.
Although there were probably many factors that contributed to the start of the French Revolution, the three most important causes were taxes, the American revolution, and the spreading of the philosophes’ ideas. A very prominent cause of the French Revolution was the unfair amount of taxes for the Third Estate. According to Arthur Young, who traveled across France while it was still under the Old Regime, wrote about this in his book, Travels in France. An excerpt from his journal reads “Lands held by the nobility are taxed very little.
They were forced to pay a considerable amount of taxes to the lords. Due to this large sum of money, those part of the third estate struggled to provide themselves. In most cases, buying food was nearly impossible (Doc 1). On top of that, the third estate was forced to live on little land. Unlike with the first and second estates, the population of the third estate was not proportionate to the amount of living space (Doc 2).
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.
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.
During the French Revolution, people fought and killed for the things they believed in, specifically rights. It was started for many things, including resentment of royal absolutism, rise of enlightenment ideals, unmanageable national debt, and the unfair treatment of the Third Estate. The French Revolution produced written works such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which served as a model of man’s inalienable right to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. Everyone during the Revolution agreed on and wanted one thing: rights. However, not everyone wanted people to have this privilege, and cared more for themselves.
How revolutionary was the French Revolution? Did the Revolution simply replace the old ruling elite with a new bourgeois one? What were the major effects on different groups of people, including nobles, priests, peasants, urban workers, slaves, and women? This essay will address the French Revolution and the degree to which it can be aptly described as “revolutionary.” How revolutionary was the French Revolution? Was the storming of the Bastille, the destruction of feudalism, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of a fundamental and radical and revolutionary nature, or, alternatively, simply a series of historical events that results in the supplanting of one authoritarian regime for another and at great cost in
In order to repair this problem, Sieyes demands that the third estate have true representatives in the Estates-General selected by the people and an equal amount of representatives to the other two orders together. Both of these demands seem very reasonable, especially considering that the third estate made up about 95 % of the population of France. Additionally, as Sieyes also mentions in his pamphlet, why is it fair that the nobles and the clergy are simply born into a higher class and have more rights and advantages than the people who are born into the third estate? Everybody is born and created equally and should have an equal amount of rights. Descent is not a fair determining factor of class and representation.
French society was defined by the the “Ancien Regime” the system of three estates (Clergy, Nobility, and Peasantry). The clergy and nobility were respected and had a higher position in society and the peasants were left to carry the country, by working farms, generating the wealth, and paying a large majority of taxes. This largely contributed to the tensions arising in 1780’s France. Meanwhile, France was engaged in the Age of Enlightenment people were demanding that church and state be separate, the King resigns and a new logic based system of government is to be established.
In this paper I discuss the four phases of the French revolution and how they influenced one and other, these phases consist of The National assembly/ The Constitutional Monarchy, The Reign of Terror, The Directory, and the Age of Napoleon. The First phase of the French revolution is the National assembly or Constitutional Monarchy. " Constitutional monarchy, system of government in which a monarch shares power with a constitutionally organized government.
The end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th saw the degradation of the Old regime--the end of aristocratic rule, inherited legal privileges, intimate relations between church and state, and high feudal dues and taxes. A major indication of the coming death of the Old regime was portrayed by the victory in the American revolution. The American victory proved that oppressive governments had limitations. The American revolution, influenced by Enlightenment philosophy, shed light on the idea of nationalism, a strong sense of loyalty and devotion to a nation and a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests. Although historians argue over
By far the most popular solution to the crisis of authority in the era of religious wars was absolute monarchy. What is absolute Monarchy you may ask? Absolute Monarchy is a form of government where it’s ruled by a king and he has an absolute power over everyone and that there is no one higher or equal to him. Even though they are similar, Absolute monarchy is not the same as dictatorship. In a dictatorship it’s ruled by one person and they usual get their power through force the people are forced to follow their orders or they will be killed or hurt.