Meeting of the Estates-General
France was having a financial crisis,
France was suffering from national debt after supporting America in its revolution, and the result was harsh taxes on the French people. The corrupt three estates of the realm allowed these taxes to slip through the first and second realms and fall completely onto the third. The result was a dangerously wide wealth gap. The first and third realms lived in splendor. They were well fed and dressed, and the royal family enjoyed life in the Palace of Versailles.…
The French Revolution began in 1789 due to the inequality of French society. The French society was divided into three estates. The first two consisted of clergy and nobility respectively. The third was made up of merchants, businessmen, lawyers, and peasants. They had the least rights and privileges compared with the other estates. The third estate had to pay all the taxes imposed by the king, King Louis XVI, whereas the other estates were excused from it. This made life harder for the peasants, but also sparked the French revolution when the Third Estate began to demand more rights.…
The heavy involvement of the government in commoners lives lead the third estate to want a less government controlled society. According to document 5, France's debt tripled when they supported the Americans in the American Revolution. With the country in a horrible crisis, they were in need money. Taxing their people was their solution. The Clergy and the Nobles, being the two richest classes, refused to pay even more taxes then they already did. King Louis the XVI lacked…
Through this system, people with lower social standings were expected to satisfy taxes, while wealthy upperclassmen were not. Additionally, by 1789, France grew deeply in debt after their involvement in the American Revolution. However, natural complications that took place includes hailstorms that affected harvest and consequently led to hunger. With that being said, the King Louis XVI failure to cope with these complexities resulted in people from the third estate beginning to consider a newly formed national assembly as they wanted independence. These people began to question authority, as they reconsidered teachings of the Catholic church, traditions, as well as logic and science.…
During the Modern Era, in the years of 1500-1800, both the 13 colonies of America and the French Empire engaged in revolution. There were multiple similarities and differences between the two revolutions. One similarity is that the citizens in both countries violently rebelled against their government. Hence the Revolutionary war in America and the beheadings of the aristocrats in France. On the other end of the spectrum, a contrast between the two is that America did not have social classes like France did.…
Enlightenment ideas. Without it, they would not have been proven to be true and many…
The American and French Revolutions have had major impacts in today's modern world. Inspired by ideas from “The Age of Reason” the American and French Revolutions began. The people of France and the Thirteen Colonies had enough and wanted change. Although the French and American Revolutions had similar causes and impacts, the two revolutions had very different outcomes.…
The French Revolution was based mostly on the Third Estate wanting to obtain liberty and equality. France's social system was set up so it would be a matter of time before a revolution took place. The economic classes of France were set in three estates. The first estate was the church, or clergy who included one percent of the people and 1% of the people owned 10% of the land, the second estate was the nobles, which two percent of the people owned 35% and the third estate consisted of peasants and the uneducated, 97% of the people owned 55%.(Document 2). France's economic system allowed for the highest taxation of the third estate while the clergy members were exempt from taxes, and the nobles paid little or no taxes at all. People who are starving and can barely afford to survive can only pay so much before they refuse to pay anymore. The poor people were really poor. The lack of bread also made it hard for people in the third estate to live because the price had raised above peoples abilities to pay. (Document 1) That is probably why the third estate took immediate action to Louis XVII's decision for higher taxes. The third estate played a huge part in the French Revolution and without the Tennis Court Oath there probably wouldn't have been a…
British military met the patriot’s minutemen in Lexington when a shot from an undetermined musket fired and launched a American revolution.…
There were many issues that led up to the French Revolution. For example, the unfair tax burden. According to Document two, the Third Estate paid all of the government taxes. There were three estates. The 1st estate was all of the clergy; they had wealth because they collected taxes from the 3rd estate and they also owned land. They had power, food, liberty, and freedom. The 2nd estate was the rich titled nobility. They derived their wealth from land ownership, and they collected some taxes. They also had power, food, and freedom. The 3rd estate was separated into three different classes. The Bourgeoisie was the highest of the third estate; they had cash wealth since they were made up of the merchants, bankers, and artisans. The Bourgeoisie paid very high taxes, and had very little power, they had a food supply, but they had no power. The peasant farmers, and the city workers had no wealth, power, or liberty, and they had to pay taxes. The 1st and 2nd estate only took up about 3% of the population. The Bourgeoisie thought that the taxes were unfair to the entire 3rd estate. Document three explained how a peasant had 7 children, and couldn’t support her family, but she still had to pay taxes. This shows how unfair the tax burden was.…
Civilians of the French colonies fought for social equality. The social classes in France were divided into three estates, the Clergy, Nobility, and Commoners. The Clergy and Nobility were excluded from taxes, while the Commoners had to pay taxes and were burdened with manual labor. This played a major role in the cause of the revolution. Another issue that took part in the revolution was overpopulation, as many people couldn’t find jobs to pay for taxes. ”…
The start of the French Revolution was directly in French society. Society was constantly dominated by nobles, or a social group that was primarily made up of: aristocrats, officeholders, professionals, merchants and businessmen. The French society was broken up into three social classes, or better known as “Estates.”. The First Estate was comprised of all the clergy; the Second Estate was comprised of the nobility, and the Third Estate was comprised of everyone else, including wealthy lawyers, businessmen, urban laborers and poor peasants. The Third Estate was by far the largest social class. All of these classes had one thing in common, and that was a want for an economy that would serve their interests. The nobility depended on a constant infusion of talent and economic power form the wealthy social groups represented in the Third Estate. Less prosperous lawyers were jealous of the privileged position very few had in their profession. Over the course of the century the price of offices rose, making it more difficult to buy one’s way into nobility, and creating tensions between middling members of the Third Estate and the very rich in trade and commerce who were the only group able to afford to climb the social ladder. Several fault lines ran through the elite and the middle classes which led to resentment of the government and a need for change.…
Before the Revolution, France was divided socially in a structure known as the Old Regime. It consisted of three estates. The First Estate was the clergy, who owned ten percent of the land but comprised of only one percent of the population. The Second Estate, with nobility, included two percent of the population but owned thirty-five percent of the land. The largest was the Third Estate, which was made up of the middle class, peasants, and city workers, owned only fifty-five percent of the land but made up ninety-seven percent of the population (Doc. 2). The Third Estate was taxed in extreme proportions so much so that bread, which was a necessity and the base of all meals, became very difficult to pay and obtain. It was becoming increasingly difficult to survive on so little (Doc 1). However, the first two Estates lived easily with no taxes. Even the bourgeoisie, the middle class, became as wealthy as the preceding Estate, but because of where they were born, they were still burdened by taxes. This led to restlessness in the Third Estate. Since they comprised most of France, they joined together and planned a revolt.…
The American Revolution was a pandemonium between political parties in which The Colonies rescinded Great Britain and their monarchy, deposing themselves from Britain, and proclaimed the founding of The United States of America.…
On the onset of the American Revolution, colonials who were zealous of the British crown and colonists who defied and openly rebelled against Great Britain shared similarities in upbringings but differed in beliefs of what a true American represented. On the brink of war with Britain, colonists began to diverge and separate themselves according to which side they believed they were most devoted to. Colonials had to define themselves as either Loyalists to a distant king or Patriots to the land they lived in and loved.…