Grade 10 World History, setting up the French Revolution

1. The French Revolution
Part 1: Failure to Find Compromise

2. The Ancien Régime
1st
Second
Estate
Third Estate
People in Estate
High Clergy &
Priests
Rights
Paid NO
Taxes
People in Estate
Nobility
Rights
Paid NO
Taxes
People in Estate
Bourgeoisie (Middle
Class)
Doctors Merchants
Professionals
Peasants
Laborers
Rights
Paid ALL
Taxes
NO Privileges
2%
2%
95%

3. The First Estate (Clergy)
- 2% of population
- Owned 10% of the land
- Paid no taxes, only a “gift” of
about 2%
- Collected tithes
- Provided some social services

4. The First Estate (Clergy)
- Philosophes criticized for interfering with politics
- Clergy condemned the Enlightenment
- Higher clergy came from nobility
- Parish priests were from common birth, sympathized
with 3rd
Estate

5. The Second Estate (Nobles)
• 2% of population
• Owned 20% of the land
• Paid no taxes

6. The 2nd
Estate (Nobles)
• Nobles of the Race
(ancient lineages)
• Nobles of the Robe
(Bourgeois who purchased
titles)
• Top jobs in Government,
Army, Courts, Church

7. The Third Estate (All Others)
• 95% of population
• Bourgeoisie at the top—had wealth
but not prestige
• Hated concept of birth before talent
• Owned 30% of the land
• Mostly rural peasants
• Peasants owned 40% of the land
• Paid taxes, manorial dues, tithes,
rent
• Urban workers (sans cullotes ) were poorest
• Increasing population outstripped poor farming methods

8. Economic Troubles
• No central bank, ad hoc revenue collection
• Costs of prior wars—to include America
• Lavish lifestyle at court
• Clergy and Nobility pay no taxes
• 1787: ½ of all revenue pays interest on debt
• Increasing population but poor farming methods
• 1788: poor harvest (hail damage) caused food
prices to soar
• Urban labor wages up 22%, cost of living up 62%

9. Convening of the Estates General

10. King Louis Convenes the Estates
General
• King calls to session in order to deal with
financial crisis, but couldn’t agree on how to
vote
• Last convened 1614
• Members of each estate vote separately and
as a bloc (royal preference)

11. The Estates General
2 Estates must agree to any
reform measure
1st
Estate = 303 delegates
2nd
Estate = 282 delegates
3rd
Estate = 578 delegates
After 2 months of impasse the
3rd
Estate leaves and asks other 2
estates to join them in a National
Assembly—some nobles and most
priests do

12. The National Assembly
• The government locks
them out of their
meeting place
• They meet in an indoor
tennis court and vow not
to quit until they write a
new constitution
• King eventually decides
to vote by head—but it’s
too late

13. July 14, 1789
• Worrying the King
will crush the
revolution, workers
begin to organize
• They storm the
Bastille looking for
weapons and powder