The Three Estates of France

• During the Ancien Régime in France (c. 1500-1789), society was structured unequally.

The Three Estates

• First Estate: The Clergy (people working in the Church). They made up 1% of the population but owned 10% of the land. The Church paid approximately 2% of their income as tax on land holdings.
• Second Estate: The Nobility (including the king and queen, nobles of the sword, dukes, marquises, counts, etc.). It was 2% of the population. They owned 20% of the land with minimal to no tax burden.
• Third Estate: Everyone else (lawyers, doctors, businessmen, merchants, soldiers, craftsmen, shopkeepers, peasants) constituted 97% of the population. They paid 50% income tax.

Subclasses Within the Third Estate

• Bourgeoisie: the middle class, generally educated and skilled, included bankers, business owners, traders, and craftsmen. Some were wealthy but were still part of the Third Estate, paying high taxes (50%). They believed strongly in Enlightenment ideas of liberty and equality and disliked the Ancien Régime.
• Working Class: city workers who were very poor, unskilled laborers, shopkeepers, apprentices, and domestic servants. Due to poverty, they were vulnerable to price fluctuations of essentials like bread. They also resented privileges of 2nd estate
• Peasants: 80% of the 27 million people in the Third Estate, around 21,500,000. They paid 50% of their income in dues/rent to landowners, tithes to the Church, and taxes to the king's collectors. They wanted the same privileges as the clergy and nobles.

Forces of Change

• France, arguably Europe's most prestigious nation, experienced an economic decline due to misallocation of funds:

Misallocation of Funds

• Money was spent on military and foreign wars. France lost to Britain in the French and Indian War over territories in North America. France wanted to improve its reputation and beat Britain and helped American colonists in the Revolutionary War.
• Money was spent on luxury items like clothing, palaces, art, and parties.

Taxation Issues

• Inability to tax the 1st and 2nd Estates meant the state revenue came from the poorest Estate.

Environmental Factors

• The cold, icy, and rainy winters in the 1780s caused crop failures. Because farmers were unable to harvest enough wheat to feed the population, so the price of wheat and bread skyrocketed.

Weak Leadership

• Louis XVI was a feckless, irresponsible leader who ignored advisors, indulged his wife's whims, and ran from France's crisis.
• France was in so much debt that banks refused to lend it more money.
• Louis XVI's wife spent extravagantly on jewelry, gowns, and parties, earning her the nickname "Madame Deficit."
• Instead of reducing spending, Louis XVI tried to tax the Second Estate but the nobles were outraged and insisted that he call the Estates-General (Parliament) together to vote on this new tax. It was the first time in 175 years that the body had met.

Enlightenment Ideas

• Voltaire (1694-1778) was a prolific writer in French and English. He wrote approximately 50 plays, dozens of treatises on politics, science, and philosophy, and 20,000 letters to contemporaries. He believed in a constitutional monarchy with restricted powers guided by a constitution, freedom of speech, and freedom of/from religion. He spent 1 year in the Bastille for criticizing the government.
• Jean Jacques Rousseau was a composer, musical theorist, novelist, and a pioneer of the modern autobiography. In 1762, he wrote 'The Social Contract' regarding the agreement between rulers and ruled, outlining their duties and rights. He asserted that if rulers didn't live up to the contract, the ruled could revolt and believed in consent of the governed, preferring direct democracy.

Dawn of The Revolution

• Under General Assembly rules, each estate's delegates met separately to discuss and vote, and each estate had 1 vote leading to the First and Second Estates outvoting the Third Estate.
• The Third Estate proposed all estates meet together and each delegate gets 1 vote. The Third Estate was twice the size of the other estates, it would give them an advantage, but the King sided with age-old rules and denied the proposal.
• The Third Estate voted to establish a separate deliberative body, the National Assembly and, due to this action, the King locked them out of meeting room. The members broke down a door to an indoor tennis court and pledged to stay until they had drafted a new constitution, known as the Tennis Court Oath. Many nobles and clergy joined this.
• In response to the establishment of a National Assembly, Louis felt threatened by the National Assembly. Rumors spread of the the king disbanding (abolishing) the National Assembly and mercenaries (hired soldiers) coming to Paris to murder French commoners
• Ordinary French people began to gather guns and ammunition to protect themselves and on July 14, 1789, a mob stormed the Bastille, a French prison and armory. The prison warden and some guards were murdered.
• The storming of Bastille symbolized challenging oppressive rule/monarchs.

Great Fear Sweeps France

• In response to rumors that nobles were hiring criminals and outcasts to attack and terrorize peasants, peasants armed themselves with non-traditional weapons, broke into nobles' houses, and burned legal papers binding them to pay feudal dues.
• Feudal dues were compulsory payments that lower estates made to the higher estate (money or in-kind).
• In October 1789, thousands of Parisian women rioted over the high cost of bread/flour. Rumors spread that the King and Queen had a stockpile of grain, so the women armed themselves with knives and axes and marched 12 miles to Versailles where they broke in and killed many guards and demanded royal family come to Paris to address the famine.

Timeline leading up French Revolution

• January 24, 1789: Louis XVI calls together Estates-General. The body had not met in 175 years.
• May 5, 1789: Estates-General convenes. The King hoped to convince the assembly to support new and increased taxes on the Second Estate
• June 17, 1789: The National Assembly forms and the revolutionary assembly from members of the Third Estate and their allies
• June 20, 1789: Tennis Court Oath
• July-August 1789: The National Assembly adopts a new constitution, abolishes feudalism, noble titles, and the Old Regime, symbolically.
• July 11, 1789: Louis XVI fires Jacques Necker.
• July 14, 1789: Storming of the Bastille
• July-August 1789: The Great Fear
• August 3, 1789:Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen is influenced by the Declaration of Independence, which states basic rights of human beings and ending exemptions from taxation.
• October 5, 1789: Women's March to Versailles

French Revolution: Policies

• July 12, 1790: Civil Constitution of the French Clergy. Land passed the government, making clergy employees of the state, reducing number of bishops and archbishops, and allowing citizens the right to elect clergy with State confiscating all Church lands.
• June 20-21, 1791: Louis and Marie try to escape. The family gets arrested in Varennes, 30 miles from their destination.

Political Bodies of the French Revolution

• National Assembly (1789-1791): Composed of reps unhappy with Third Estate voting system. They pledged the Tennis Court Oath to draft a new constitution and joined by the clergy and nobility. They issued "Declaration of the Rights of Man". After passing the Constitution of 1791, the National Assembly voluntarily dissolved.
• Legislative Assembly (1791-1792): Doomed from the outset due to structural problems with a franchise. It only allows active citizens to nominate members. It has 3 branches and the King retained the power to appoint ministers and power to veto the Legislative Assembly’s laws. The Assembly was hampered by the King’s veto of its legislation. National Convention (1792-1795): for the first time, the French state was organized as a republic and abandoning the monarchy.
• The Directory (1795-1799): The nation was tired of the violence and the Reign of Terror and needed
• August 1794: Robespierre dies and Directory is formed.

Sans-Culottes

• "Sans-Culottes" was a term originally used by aristocrats for their political opponents representing the poor. Instead of wearing upper class clothing, working-class men wore long pants made of coarse material. This represented equality.
• Both the Jacobins and Sans-Culottes radicals supported a republican government, with the Sans-Culottes coming from the working class.

War and Execution

• As revolution continued into 1792, absolutist monarchies/nobles grew alarmed. Austria and Prussia urged the Legislative Assembly to restore Louis, but France declares war due to pressure.
• The Brunswick Manifesto was issued by Charles William Ferdinand (Duke of Brunswick) and threatened that civilians would be harmed if royal family was harmed.
• 20k people storm Tuileries Palace, massacre guards, and imprison royal family due to manifesto response The September Massacres
• After French troops guarding Paris are sent to warfront, there was a rumor that King's supporters planned to break out of prison and reinstall royal family.
• Radicals killed over 1,000 prisoners including clergy, nobles, & loyalists.
• Legislative Assembly set aside Constitution of 1791, deposes (removes) King, dissolved legislative assembly, calls for new legislature. In September 21, the National Convention takes office + does following
• Abolishes monarchy
• Establishes a Relußric
• The Jacobins are installed to power.
• January, 21 1793, the National Convention finds Louis XVI guilty of treason and sentences him to death Jacobin leaders order a draft of the military due to pressure and grows to 800,000

Maximilien Robespierre

• Leader of Committee of Public Safety 1793-1794. Gave a speech on Feb 5, 1794 called "Relußuc of Virtue".He justified the Reign of Terror expression of Republican virtues vs. its enemies.
• 200,000 arrested and 40,000 killed.
• Most were poor or from the working class Committee lost power after his death

Napoleon

• Seized power from the directory
• Coup d'etat seized directory
• Represents the end of french revolution

Napoleon Brings Order After the Revolution

• Equal taxation and lower inflation
• Sets fair tax codes
• Set up national bank: stabilised the coin currency
• Gives loans to Businesses Government and Society
• Less corruption
• equal opportunity in government
• Appointed official
• Fired corrupt officials Religion
• Less powerful Catholic Church
• Religious tolerence
• Recognized Cahtholicsm as faith of french men
• Singned concordat w pop retain seized lands

Concordat of 1801

• Between Napoleon and Pious VII signed In 1801
• Sought recoliclation between rev and catholics Roman catholcis city

Napoleon

• 1800 people of France approvee the new Consit 1804 CROWN Emperor of france; Pope showed domain Over pope
• The french loss saint and lucerative colony
• Desperate of money 1803 -Jefferson 877,0000 sq $15million

Napoleons Costly Mistake

Great british in 1803, destroyed france fleet Continental system

• Froenge pop Against
• Npot successful

Napoleans costly Mistakes 2

Russia ignoring Nap Decree an consintieing to send to Britain And nap and 420K Troops march to russia

• Russ pulled back and practice the earth policy 10k returned

• Britain Russia Prussia all against nap 1818 Nap gave throne louis

• Batteeloo army defeated St helena death posssible stomach.

• Age 52 DieD

France's society was divided into three Estates: the clergy, nobility, and everyone else. The First and Second Estates enjoyed privileges like land ownership and minimal taxation. The Third Estate, comprising the majority of the population, bore the burden of heavy taxation.