The French RevolutionTHE BEGINNING

The Three Estates

The Three Estates

1st Made up of clergy, less than 1% of the population paid only 2% taxes

2nd made up of rich nobles, about 2% of the population, paid no taxes

3rd made up of the bourgeoisie, urban lower class and peasant farmers, paid 50% taxes

Reasons for Revolution

Enlightenment ideas were spreading (equality, liberty, and democracy: They were very popular among the 3rd estate. The 2nd estate disagreed with them. The 1st estate scorned them.

Economic troubles: Heavy taxation made it nearly impossible to conduct trade, the cost of living was rising in France, bad weather caused widespread crop failures, and France’s government was in deep debt.

Weak leadership: Louis XVI was indecisive and allowed matters to drift. He paid little attention to his advisors and had little patience for the details of governing. His wife, Marie Antoinette, spent so much money on gowns, jewels, gambling, and gifts that she became known as “Madame Deficit”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuByY-DnGYo

Dawn of the Revolution

Louis XVI calls for an assembly known as the Estates-General to require the 2nd estate to pay taxes (each estate met in a different room to discuss the motion and each had one vote)

Call for reform in the Estates-General by the 3rd estate. They wanted each delegate to have a vote, which would have given them as many delegates as the other two estates combined. This did not happen.

The 3rd estate then formed the National Assembly to pass laws and reforms in the name of the French people. This was the first deliberate act of rebellion.

For this, they found themselves locked out of their meeting room to which they moved the meeting to a tennis court and developed a new constitution known as the Tennis Court Oath.

Storming the Bastille

In response to the 3rd estates act of rebellion the Louis XVI stationed his mercenary army of Swiss guards around Versailles.

The people of France thought the King wanted to use military force to dismiss the National Assembly.

In response, they began to gather weapons.

On July 14th, a mob searching for gun powder and arms stormed the Bastille, a Paris prison.

The attackers killed many guards and the prison commander. Then, they paraded around the streets with the dead men’s heads on pikes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6rctsSef7U

Great Fear Sweeps France

Soon the rebellion spread into the country side; there were rumors that the nobles hired outlaws to terrorize the peasants

A wave of senseless panic called the Great Fear rolled through France

The peasants armed themselves with pitchforks and other farm tools, and broke into the nobles’ manor houses. In some cases they just burned down their homes

The rising cost of bread turned women in France into killers and rioters. They killed some of the guards and demanded that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette return to Paris. They left because of this.