Ancien Régime Essay

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 The middle class made gains that would never be rescinded, but do revolutions always end in tyranny?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

The French Revolution was a time of period where social and political was a disruption in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799. This time of period affected Social Structure of France prior to the French Revolution. The factors that caused this revolution was due to having a bad government system, weak superiority, and inequality of the classes of people in France during the war. In this research, I will define and explain how Social Structure contributed to the French Revolution Resentment of royal authoritarianism. The three estates that social structure consists of are first estate which are the clergies, second estate known as the Nobleman, and third estate which are the Bourgeoisie, peasants, and workers. The Revolution did not omit sharp distinctions among the social groups, neither did it alter the distribution of wealth. This caused them to divide into these three groups called as estates.

All though Louis XVI was well-meaning, he was weak and vacillating. When Louis Xvi first started his reign, in an attempt to gain popular support, he restored all the parlements and confirmed their old powers. On June 20th, Louis XVI locked the National Assembly out of their traditional meeting

This caused a strong dislike of Louis to grow in France. In addition to political problems, France was facing social problems. In document two a graph of the Three Estates is displayed. In France the First Estate which was the clergy, made up only one percent of society, while the Second Estate which contained the nobility made up two percent and the Third Estate, which held all of the commoners made up ninety seven percent of society. The first and second estate contained the least amount of people and enjoyed the most privileges in France.

The assembly proceeded to grapple with its primary task, the drafting of a constitution. In the constitutional preamble, known in history as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the delegates formulated the revolutionary ideals later summarized as Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. While the Constituent Assembly deliberated, the hungry population of Paris, a hotbed of discontent and of rumors of Royalist conspiracy clamored for food and agitated for action. On October 5-6 a large body of Parisians, mostly women, marched on Versailles and laid siege to the royal palace. Lafayette, on demand of the crowd, escorted Louis and his family to Paris. After this episode some conservative members of the Constituent Assembly, which followed the king to Paris, handed in their resignations. In Paris, both the court and the assembly became increasingly subject to pressures from its citizens. Radical sentiment became predominant in the

During the 1700s, France’s government was run by a three system estate system. The First Estate was made up by the powerful clergy members, while the Second Estate was made with nobles. Peasants and working men made the Third Estate, also the largest estate. In this large estate there was a little class named the Bourgeoisie was a part of the Third Estate. Though the Bourgeoisie was highly educated and always had stable professions, they were not set aside from the peasants. The Third Estate was treated very poorly during the 1700s. Life was not suitable for the working class. The mistreatment and inequality led to the French Revolution. Inequality during this time period meant that things were not the same throughout each class. Unequal power between the estates, abuse of the Third Estate, and the taxes and price raises were the three reasons that outweighed the many political, social, and economic factors that led to the French Revolution.

The establishment of the National Assembly that integrated different classes of people into one government signifies the growing public voice in political arena as citizens urged an end to hunger and unfair taxation system. Ever since King XVI summoned the Estates General to tackle the problems of food shortage and economic crisis, the Third Estate, who represented every French except the clergies and the nobles, has been constantly demanding for more voting rights to make people’s hardship known to the king and the other two estates. They thus assembled lists of grievances from citizens throughout France which called for a limit to

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was the product of an oppressed people who were tired of living under a government in which they had no voice. During the Ancién Regime in France, there social classes, called estates, greatly divided the people on the basis of power and wealth. The first estate being the clergy, the second nobility, and the third estate being everyone else in the country of France (“The French Revolution” 23:20). The first two estates made up 3% of the population, while the third estate made up 97%, yet the first two estates held all the power. The French government at the time was an absolute monarchy, meaning the king derived his power from god and could exercise it without other constituted bodies having a right to challenge him (Introduction: Louis XIV and French Absolutism p.205). However, France was in such a state of crises in the late 18th century that Louis XVI called together the estates general, an assembly where all three estates were represented, for the first time in one hundred years (“The French Revolution” 23:00). Robes Pierre, a representative of the third estate, insisted that the nobles and clergy begin to pay taxes, but since the first and second estate held two thirds of the vote, he was quickly dismissed. After six weeks of meeting without achieving anything for the state, the third estate representatives become silenced by the first two estates. Enraged, they move next door to a tennis court and make “The Tennis Court

The decision to halt the king was significant because it showed the people were loyal to the oath taken to honor the National Assembly and the Constitution. The Estates General became known as the National Assembly because the social orders within France were now represented under one body of government. When the king took the oath to honor the Constitution and the National Assembly

In France, before the French Revolution, the governing body was called the Old Regime. Under Louis XIV and his queen Marie Antoinette, the French society was divided up into three groups. These groups were called the three estates. In this system, the first two estates lived very well while the third estate was very impoverished. This paired with the lack of a strong leader (Louis XIV) caused rising tensions in the third estate. This eventually led to revolution. The main cause of this was the layout of the Old Regime. The Old Regime was made up of three estates that were very different in their governmental abilities and their amount of money.

One major cause of the old regime were the taxes and laws between the three estates. As seen in Document 2, “the 3rd estate paid 50% of income in taxes while the 1st and 2nd paid less than 5%” (Doc 2). This clearly shows that the most populated estate, the third estate, paid half of their income as their taxes. Larger amounts of taxes the third estate paid versus the lower amount of taxes for the first and second estates. Another significant cause was the unequal three estates and the third estate was overpowered. The third estate had more power in laws and taxes and their relationship with the lower estates were not good. As demonstrated in Document 7, the cartoon of the “The political and social system in France” (Doc 7). This cartoon proves the relationship between the third estate and the two lower estates. The lower estates didn’t have anything to do with taxes and laws and the third estates were all in laws and taxes. The final

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.

The monarchy tried to make an attempt to give the third estate power. The monarchy established the Estate's General. This too, was corrupted. Unlike most legislative bodies, the Estate's General did not vote by each person having a single vote. Rather, they let each estate have one vote each. Since the first two estates were always in agreement, the third estate was always out voted.

The period 1815-1914 in Europe was important, as it was the time of the growth of constitutional government, however events from the French Revolution had a significant impact on the 19th century Europe. French revolutions has began when in 1774 Louise XVI had to deal with a financial crisis cause by 'seven year 's war '. Louise XVI had agreed to summon 'Estate-General ', which represented the clergy, nobles and the Third Estate(the commoners). Inspired by the issues with the voting system of the estate-general, the third assembly has called themselves National Assembly, and threatened to proceed without the clergy and nobles if necessary. On 9 of July 1789 under king 's agreement clergy and nobles has joined the assembly, which was officially called National Constituent Assembly. On the 4 of august 1789 the assembly issued a 'Declaration of the Rights of Man ', which stated that the nation, not the monarchy, was the superior authority, and that the elected representatives of the state would proclaim liberty and equality for the citizens, the right to property and to resit oppression. In respond to peasant riots and attacks on chateaux, the assembly abolished feudalism. By the 1792 both radicals, full of hope to spread the ideas of the Revolution, and the king, optimistic that war would either improve his authority or support from foreign armies. As both agreed in April 20, 1792 France proclaimed a war against Austria. Louise XVI hoped that the war would strengthen his

In essence, the Estate General members converted themselves into a National Assembly and issued the ‘Declaration of Right of Man’, which stated ‘men are born free and equal in rights’. As a result, this facet gave the French Revolution its solang of ‘Liberty, ‘Equality’ and ‘Fertunity’. This meant, that France will no longer be ruled on an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and churches. Furthermore, the Estate General now known as the National Assembly seized all the wealthy churches properties and took the king and queen captive. Thus, the city was left in their hands.