A War General Is What I Am

One of the 1st proofs for their problems with the politics in France was, “In order to assure the 3rd estate the influence it deserves because of its numbers… its votes in the assembly should be taken by head…(Doc. 3 “Cahiers”) This excerpt from document 3 explains that the 3rd estates wants more power in government and politics due to the amount of number of people. The purpose for this, is so that they have a say in government and will not get outvoted by the 1st and 2nd estate who have majority of the power during the ancient regime. Another example of the politics in France is in the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), “ Liberty consists in being to do anything that does not arm another person.” (Doc 8, Rule 4 of Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen).

The French Revolution was a time of great social, political and economic tumult in the closing years of the Eighteenth Century. The motivators pushing French citizenry toward revolution are varied in scope and origin. They range from immediate economic woes to an antiquarian class structure. Modern historians still debate the value of the changes that the revolution brought to modern society. The middle class made gains that would never be rescinded, but do revolutions always end in tyranny? In the years before the revolution citizens were rigidly constrained by the estates of the realm. These social strata had been in place since the medieval ages. The people were divided into three groups; clergy, nobility and everyone else. The clergy

There are very few members in the first and second estates, yet they owned the most land, while the third estate made up most of the population, yet owned very little land. “First: Clergy - 1% of the people owned 10% of the land. Second Estate: Nobles - 2% of the people owned 35% of the land. Third Estate - Middle class, peasants, city workers 97% of the people owned 55% of the land.” (Document 2) There were high prices, high taxes, and people were listening to enlightenment ideas. Louis XVI decided to tax the Second Estate. They called a meeting of the Estates-General - an assembly of representatives from all three estates. (ROI) In addition, as a political cause, the third estate had no privileges or say in the government,while both the clergy and nobles did. As mentioned before, the inequality of taxes proved another gap in the social classes. “The Revolution had been accomplished in the minds of men long before it was translated into fact.... The middle class...was sensitive to their inferior legal position. The Revolution came from them-the middle class. The working classes were incapable of starting or controlling the Revolution. They were just beginning to learn to read.” (Document 4) Estates- General was the first such meeting in 175 years. Met on May 5th,1789 in Versailles. In the Estate- General each estate had one vote. (ROI)

Beginning in 1789, the French Revolution was a time of rebellion, passion, betrayal, death, violence, and perseverance. Before 1789, King Louis XVI was taxing his poorest people heavily, whilst the rich were hardly taxed at all. The socioeconomic system in place at the time, known as the ancien regime, ruthlessly upheld the status quo. When the tension in France rose to a boiling point, fiery, young rebels to rose up against the Monarchy, the Ancien Regime, and the Clergy. These revolutionaries desperately wanted change, and they had three main principles around which their movement centered: Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité. Liberty is the freedom to do as one pleases so long as one’s actions do not unjustifiably harm others. Equality is being considered the same. Fraternity is a sense of brotherhood and companionship. The goals of the French Revolution were initially achieved with alacrity, however they were abandoned with relative quickness as malcontented leaders quested for, and abused, power and authority.

There was a lot of inequality during the Pre-Revolution another example is on page 3 there I a peasant who is skin and bones representing the 3rd estate while the 1st and 2nd are on his back getting a free ride from the 3rd (Document 4a). The revolution ended up being successful after all because it ended the unfair tax burden on the third estate and made it so the 1st and 2nd had to pay taxes, when Napoleon made the Napoleonic Code. This made it so that the made it so that there is more equality between the Three

One might ask if the 1789 document, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen addressed the needs of all the people of the third estate like its writers claimed was its purpose. The National Assembly of France, which consisted of mostly wealthy bourgeoisies men, wrote the declaration. The remaining members of the third estate, which included the urban poor sans-culottes, therefore did not have much say in what was being addressed to the public. Enlightenment ideas such as popular sovereignty and civic equality, advocated by both the bourgeoisies and sans-culottes, is apparent in the statement. Furthermore, the National Assembly of France addressed the sans-culottes’ need of equality, employment based on talent, and desire for a political reorganization.

As early as 1755 in Madame Geoffrin’s salon, Enlightenment thinkers including Rousseau and Voltaire assemble with elegantly dressed men, presumably the Bourgeois (Doc 5). Hearty reds reflect the exchange of conceptions to the literate Third Estate, listening to their ideas about how an uncensored democracy would function without an absolute monarch. Without effective representation in the French political system, this interaction results in thousands of frustrated commoners craving a system free from excessive labor. On August 26, 1789, King Louis XVI declares in a letter that “the King of France must conserve those privileges for [the clergy and nobility]” (Doc 4), with those luxuries being well-deserved. He refers to the rioting cries of the prevalent people protesting for lower taxes as plundering as if his people would never comprehend the struggles the first two estates experience. With the majority of French land and influence, the rabble still reimburses their habits and fills their banquets. With the slightest amount of Enlightenment ideas from the Bourgeois, peasants can understand what a people-oriented government is akin to, pushing the rift between the king and the genuine French

Question 2: If there is one art the French people perfected, it is the art of ennui. While this is diluted with every new generation, the French people still seem to be perpetually uninspired by their political system. Today, this ennui results in little more than complaining, but historically, it has led to unrest. The paramount result of this is the French Revolution. Before the Revolution, French society had been highly divided by class lines and the Third Estate struggled while the First and Second Estates enjoyed prosperity. After the French Revolution, however, the French did everything they could to distance themselves from this system.

Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité were the main principles of the French revolution. However, it was a time where these three ideals would be twisted into nothing more than moral and physical violence. The revolution was ultimately a failure which spun out of control and began to murder itself. The French wanted Freedom from its absolutist ruler, but in turn saw themselves being governed by the devil. These citizens wanted a sense of brotherhood amongst their country, but saw their nation being torn apart by violence. Furthermore, the third estate sought to benefit from a new government that promised equality; however, the result was a further imbalance in an already corrupt society. Ironically, the gruesome reign of terror which was

Before the French Revolution, there were three estates, or classes: the nobility, the clergy and the commoners. The nobility and the clergy had many more privileges than the third estate and that is what caused the French Revolution. The Third estate was composed of the peasants, the workers and the bourgeoisie; unlike the other segments of the Third Estate, the bourgeoisie was able to communicate its grievances to the public during the period after the French Revolution: 1789-1799.

The French Revolution was a period of time from 1789 to 1799 in France where there was political instability. It officially began on the 14th of July, 1789, when the Bastille, which was a symbol of the King’s harsh policies, was stormed. The King, Louis XVI, the Queen, Marie-Antoinette and about 40,000 people were all brutally murdered. But there was also a positive side, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was formally adopted on August 1789 and feudalism was abolished. This essay will address the issues of the three estates system, food shortages and the fiscal crisis. It will also be argued that the most significant cause of the French Revolution was the social inequality that stemmed from the three estates system.

Beyond the Declaration is a plethora of speakers and writers who advocated for the rights of all people as citizens. One such man is Abbé Sieyès, who advocated that the Third Estate is “everything”. In January of 1789, Sieyès published a pamphlet titles What is the Third Estate? In the beginning he asks directly to the reader, What is the Third state? To which he answers, everything. He attacked the old system and argued that because the Third Estate carried out all the labor required to maintain France, that the Third Estate made up a complete nation. He knew that the First and Second Estates did not pay taxes to support the nation of France as a whole, however, ended up the main beneficiaries from the King. He argued that the First and Second Estates was a form of cancer as they do not add anything to the civil order like the Third Estate. “It is impossible to say what place the two privileged order ought to occupy in the social order…what place one wishes to assign a malignant tumor.” The Divine Chain of Being, which previously gave natural order to the world, was now called into question or rejected entirely because of 1789 and the Revolution.

And he relies, everything. He argued that because the third estate carries out all the labor required to maintain France and that the third estate makes up a complete nation. He calls the first and second estates a form a cancer as they do not add anything to the civil order like the third estate does, he later states “The noble order is no less foreign amongst up by reason of its civil and public prerogatives.” He knows that the first and second estate do not pay taxes of any kind, yet they are the main beneficiaries from the king. He calls the first and second estates a cancer that must be removed from a society so that the society may remain healthy, “It is impossible to say what place the two privileged orders ought to occupy in the social order…what place one wishes to assign to a malignant tumor.” The Divine Chain of Being which gave a natural order to the world was now called into question and rejected entirely because of the French Revolution.

Prior to the French Revolution enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire had been writing about equality and individual freedoms. These ideas began to catch hold with the populous of France, who were almost all living in very poor conditions. Perhaps the most important of these authors, in regards to the French Revolution, was John Locke who talked about the idea of a decentralized government, a system where the people represented the people; a democracy.1 The people of France began to make a push for such equality, and in August of

Equality in government is something that is extremely important and relevant in today’s society, which is why I chose to focus on equal rights in the French Revolution for my research paper. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines equality as “the quality or state of being equal”, I am going to apply this term to government and explain why being equal in government is the best way to avoid conflict, maintain peace, and keep order. I want to focus on equality because it is a topic that is dear to my heart for many reasons and I firmly believe that the lack of equal rights is what fueled the French Revolution and led to the violence and chaos that occured. Due to the Monarchy that the French had at the time, citizens were under a feudal class system that kept their people from being equal in government. This division between classes is just one of the things that aided the violence that occurred during the French Revolution simply because people were not equal. When people are not heard, or feel their opinion is irrelevant, they begin to cause an uproar; for example, King Louis XVI made decisions that affected everyone, but only thought of himself, and didn’t want to hear what his citizens had to say. All the power lied in his hands and that was the problem. No one was represented in government and no power was distributed amongst the people; therefore, people felt they were walked on and that their life was not as important. This is just one example of how inequality led to