The Unfair Political System During The French Revolution

In the 1700s, France had a social and political system that divided the people into three social classes: the first estate, the second estate, and the third estate. The first estate consisted of the Roman Catholic Church’s clergy and made up one percent of France’s population. The second estate was made up of rich nobles and represented two percent of France’s population. The remaining ninety-seven percent of France’s population fell under the third estate. The third estate was also divided into three categories: the bourgeoisie, the workers in France’s cities such as tradespeople, apprentices, or laborers, and the peasants. The peasants formed the largest category in the third estate and made up eighty percent of France’s entire

Egalitarianism. It is the belief that all people are and should be the treated similarly despite age, gender, race and social or political status. It is the trend of thought that all people are equal and states that everyone should be handled with the same opportunities in life despite their differences. It’s a popular idea in liberalism: The political philosophy founded on liberty and equality that supports civil freedom and egalitarianism’s basic idea is that everyone has the same fundamental worth. A King can’t be worth more than a peasant… In power and politics: yes – but in terms of vitality, they are both simply human. This one of the reasons that democracy exists; because our worth is important in choosing our leaders so that they never

Edmund Burke published the Reflections on the Revolution in France in 1790; after the Bastille had been stormed by the Paris mol. He reflects upon about how France was very chaotic. Burke opposed the values of his contemporary revolutionaries; and he predicted that the French revolution would cause problems of fear and chaos to the country. Burke also believed that the revolutionary leaders were more interested in themselves and that they wanted power, however; and really did not care about the well-being of the French people. He believed in the concepts of liberty, equality and the right for everyone; he argues that people should have the opportunity to own their private property. Furthermore, Burke viewed the revolution as a violent takeover of the government, emphasizing that citizens should not have the right to do this. He also argues about importance of tradition in that tradition is what holds society together.

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)

The French Revolution was a period of social and political turmoil in the late 1700s that caused thousands of deaths in France. Important political leaders, such as Philippe Égalité, Marie Antoinette, Madame Roland, and even King Louis XVI, and his son, Louis XVII, were killed during the Reign of Terror from 1793-1794 . The revolution looked like it was a failure after Napoleon took power in 1815, but later in French history a second republic was established, and the feudal system in France was over. Many factors, including financial crisis, the bourgeoisie, the Enlightenment, and France’s ineffective ruler contributed to the bloody revolution in France from 1789 to 1799.

The French Revolution was a frustrating time for many in France, whose government status was fluctuating by the day. In this interval of time, however, a successful end was finally brought to centuries upon centuries of governments ruled in the structure of an absolute monarchy. People were finally getting tired of Louis XVI, who ended up running France with his wife for nearly 18 years before his eventual execution. His discriminatory and biased actions, coupled with his unreasonable social system were the perfect ingredients to begin a conversation for a new way of being governed by new and improved laws, otherwise known as a revolution. With only 0.5% of the entire population being classified as the clergy and an additional microscopic 1.5%

While the government system that was in placed by Louis XIV start to have financial issues caused by the many military campaigns and many ambitious projects during the 18th century and started the French Revolution. After the French Revolution, which took place in during the late 1700’s, the government went through many changes. The different monarchical governments were restoration of Louis XVIII, Napoleon Empire, Louis Philippe reign. With the early changes of the country they didn’t fully become a strong structured government until after both world wars. During the year of 1958 the fifth republic was formed and General de Gaulle became their prime minister later that year. Not too far in the future, the people of France utilized a ballot

The French Revolution is the representative people’s revolution. It changed the premodern social system and established the modern bourgeois society. In 1787, the resistance against royal power started and from 1799 it became full-scale revolution which involved all society group. Because of this revolution, the politic system was changed from absolute monarchism to constitutional royal rule to republican system. In 18century, the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which propose the people liberation, Natural rights, Egalitarianism, Social contact theory, popular sovereignty spread in Europe.

Before the Revolution, the Estates General–France’s legislature–consisted of the First Estate and the Second Estate representing the upper class and the Third Estate representing the lower and middle classes. Consequently, the First and Second Estates always outvoted the Third Estate in which prevented any reform for the lower class’ poor quality of life; this imbalance of power

18th century France witnessed brisk socio-economic, political and cultural changes. All the people born in France were believed to be the subjects of the king of France. France, during the 17th and the 18th centuries was an assembly of different groups or communities of people, some of who were represented by institutions. Although France was a nation, there was no concept of citizenship but the residents enjoyed some privileges that were not given to outsiders / foreigners. The king, being a Christian monarch performed priest-like functions. Although they followed the traditional system of agriculture, new crops such as maize and corn provided sufficient food for the ever growing population. Increase in the number of peasants deteriorated

Inequality fosters resentment. The French Revolution has been variously called a great turning point, a watershed, and a point of departure at which the traditional social and political institutions of premodern Europe began to give way to powerful new forces and ideas (5). While several historians concentrate on the discrimination of the Third Estate, the social troubles among France were a lot more extensive than those felt by the commoners. The French Revolution comprises a series of events which contributes to both its rise and downfall including the establishment of the Estates General and National Assembly; nonetheless, the unstable country has reached its limit resulting in the Fall of the Bastille and the Great Fear. The country experiences

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.

Social oppression was also a major cause of the French Revolution as well as the Haitian Revolution. In both the French and the Haitian revolutions the class system was the major cause of the revolts. France consisted of three classes also known as estates. Only 3 percent of the population was made up by the 1st and 2nd estate, yet the 3rd estate made up most of France’s population and they were socially oppressed and weren’t given many rights. The Bourgeoisie who were very wealthy people of the third estate were seeking influence in politics and they were dissatisfied with the large amounts of taxes they had to pay. The French government’s debt increased leading up to the start of the revolution. Because of France’s debt the Bourgeoisie was

The French Revolution affected the social conditions of France because -1 it removed most nobles from their high positions in society- -2 people were angry by the upper class so they stopped interacting with them- -3 the french upper class separated themselves even more so from the common people and left France-.

While the French Revolution surely marked a time known for a great deal of bloodshed alongside an substantial shift in political and social attitudes, behavior, and policy, the origins of this pivotal event are highly contested even in modern historical contexts. This time period ranging from the years 1789 to 1799 had a number of social, political, and economic causes, but many historians of this era seek to answer whether the French revolution was primarily a social revolution with political consequences or that of a political revolution with social consequences. According to Harvard educated political scientist, Dr. Theda Skocpol, “Social revolutions are rapid, basic transformations of a society’s state and class structures, and they are accompanied and in part carried through by class-based revolts from below.” In consequence, the following thesis is one such answer to this long-held debate using this definition as a base reference. The social unrest created by remnants still remaining from the feudal system, compounded with economic pressures caused by a political system unable to properly respond to crisis, resulted in a fervent spirit of revolt that pervaded through the whole of the third state only to turn to more political issues upon the realizations of class diversity within the Third Estate itself.