AP Euro Seminar

By: Elaine Escalona

Period 6

3 November 2011

The PromptUNIT 5

Identify the grievances of the groups that made up the Third Estate in France on the eve of the French Revolution, and analyze the extent to which ONE of these groups was able to address its grievances in the period 1789 to 1799.

The GroupsFew of the commoners were well educated and rich, and might even buy up manorial rights as profitable investments. (prosperous merchants or lawyers and officials) (the bourgeoisie)Many more commoners were urban artisans and unskilled day laborers.The vast majority of the third estate consisted of the peasants and agricultural workers in the countryside.

Thus the third estate was a combination of vastly different social groups united only by their shared legal status as distinct from the nobility and clergy.

Background Information The bourgeoisie was basically united by

economic position and class interest. With the general economic expansion, the

middle class grew rapidly in the 18th century, tripling to about 2.3 million (or about 8% of France’s population).

Increasing in size, wealth, culture, and self-confidence, the bourgeoisie became progressively exasperated by the feudal laws restraining the economy.

As a result, the French bourgeoisie rose up to lead the entire third estate in a great social revolution that destroyed feudal privileges and established a capitalist order based on individualism and a market economy.

S o c ia l R e vo lu tion

V e ry an g ry w ith , in th e ir v ie w , u n ju st la w s.

C la ss g ro w s ra p id ly.

Their Grievances Each Estate had drawn up a list of grievances called Cahiers de

Doléances. As part of the electoral process of 1789, the cahiers were intended to inform and instruct the deputies of local views and authorize reform.

There was general consensus among the three Estates:

1. That the royal power had to be limited.

2. That the Estates General had to meet regularly

3. That the individual liberties had to be guaranteed by law. However, the middle class, especially the lawyers who primarily

made up the Third Estate, placed a greater emphasis on protecting the citizens’ rights than the needs of the peasants.

Their Grievances (cont.) Included the demand for a tax

system that would be more equitable.

Also, some more practical notions, such as the need to limit the size of sheep herds, since their bad breath was destroying French pastures.

Before The Addressed Increasingly, writers began to declare that the

Third Estate, consisting of all non-clergy and non-aristocracy (the majority of Frenchmen), was the true embodiment of the political will of the nation. By the end of 1788, the King agreed to double the number of representatives to the Third Estate which meant little since voting would still be cast by each estate as a unit and not as individuals.

Abbé Sieyès

(1748-1836), an obscure lower clergyman, who wrote:

What is the Third Estate? Everything.

What has it been in the political order up to the present? Nothing.

What does it ask? To become something.

How Their Grievances Were Addressed May 5,1789 marked the first day of the meeting

of the Estates General. Immediately, Louis XVI angered the members of the Third Estate by

keeping them waiting for several hours as he formally received the credentials of members of the first two estates.

*The well educated and rich among the Third Estate would be the representatives. Mostly lawyers and government officials.

*There were no delegates elected from the great mass of laboring poor—the peasants and urban artisans.

Since it was clear that the King would not compromise on voting as individuals (voting was cast by each estate as a unit and not as individuals), the members of the Third Estate delayed formally submitting their credentials for several weeks.

How Their Grievances Were Addressed (cont.)

On June 17, in a momentous decision, the Third Estate declared that it would not meet as a medieval estate based on social status but instead would only assemble before the King as a national assembly representing the political will of the entire French nation, including representatives from all three estates.

To What Extent Were They Addressed?

Simple parish priests who saw themselves as having more in common with the members of the Third Estate voted to join the Third Estate and to meet as a national assembly.

In response, the King granted a number of concessions, such as promising to periodically call the Estates General and to drop some of the more onerous taxes on the Third Estate.

To What Extent Were They Addressed? (cont)

This means that the bourgeoisie group were, to an extent, able to limit the rights of the nobility because now, some priests were joined with them.

Finally, on June 27, a desperate Louis XVI formally agreed to the consolidation of all three estates into a new national assembly.