The French Revolution

Chapter 11 Section 1

The French Revolution

French society changed little since medieval times FEUDALISM

Laws gave clergy and wealthy landowners special status

France’s Three Estates

Status groups = estates

France had Three Estates

1st Estate—clergy 130,000 out of 27 million 10% of land Wide divisions

Cardinals, bishops, heads of monasteries came from noble families

Parish priests came from commoners

France’s Three Estates (con’t)

2nd Estate—nobles 350,000/27 million 25-30% of land Controlled gov’t, military, courts, and influenced Church

3rd Estate—everyone else Included everyone from wealthy merchants to peasants

Despite controlling the wealth, the First and Second Estates didn’t have to pay the tallie (France’s main tax)

Third Estate

Contained the largest range of people Occupation, education, and wealth

75-80% were peasants and owned 35% of the land. Middle class owned the rest

½ of all peasants had little or no land to live on

Peasants had to pay a fee to nobles Based off old feudal ideas

Craftspeople, shopkeepers, workers—price of goods increased faster than wages

Bourgeoisie

Middle class

8% of pop/2.3 million

Merchants, bankers, industrialists, lawyers, public officials, doctors, writers

Some bourgeoisie managed to become nobles 6500 new nobles during 1700s

Nobles and bourgeoisie

Nobles and bourgeoisie both drawn to Enlightenment ideas and didn’t like monarchial system resting on privileges and old rigid social order

Monarch: Louis XVI

Financial Crisis

1787—bad harvests

1788—slow down in manufacturing Food shortages Rising food prices Unemployment

French king and ministers spent a lot of money on court luxuries

Marie Antoinette (Queen)—known for extravagance

Money spent to help Am Rev

Financial Crisis

Louis XVI was forced to call a meeting of the Estates-General to deal with the financial crisis Meeting of reps from the 3 Estates Called in order to discuss raising taxes