Download The French Revolution Begins Economic and social inequalities in

The French Revolution
Begins
Economic and social inequalities in the
Old Regime help cause the French
Revolution.
Ch. 7.1
The Old Order
The Old Regime
• Old Regime—social and political
system in France during the 1770s
• Estates—three social classes of
France’s Old Regime
• A VERY unequal society (people were
not treated equally)
The Privileged Estates
First Estate — Catholic clergy—1% of the
population but own 10 percent land,
pay few taxes
Second Estate — rich nobles—2 percent
population, own 20 percent land
The Third Estate
• 97 percent of people
• middle class (bourgeoisie) lacked the
status of nobles
• Peasants (urban workers & farm
workers) very poorly paid 80% of the
French people
• Have few rights, pay heavy taxes, want
change while the rich paid hardly any
taxes
The Forces of Change
Three factors led to Rev. in France.
1) Enlightenment Ideas
• Enlightenment ideas inspire some in Third
Estate (esp. the powerful members)
2) Economic Troubles
• High taxes kept profits low
• rising costs (esp. food prices) damage
economy by 1780s. Crop failures resulted
in severe grain shortages
• The government owed money
3) Weak leadership of the monarchy
• King Louis XVI and his wife Marie
Antoinette known for extravagance
• Marie Antoinette was unpopular – from
Austria, France’s long time rival
• Louis doubles nation’s debt; banks refuse
to lend more money
• Louis XVI is forced to call a meeting of the
Dawn of the Revolution
A Weak Leader
• Louis’s poor decisions and lack of patience
add to France’s problems
• He calls Estates-General (May 1789)—
meeting of representatives from all three
estates
• Each Estate got one vote
• 3rd Estate wanted each delegate to have a
vote
• King and other 2 Estates said NO - why?
The National Assembly (June 1789)
• The Third Estate broke w/ the others and
met separately
• Delegates of the Third Estate sets up
National Assembly—new legislature to
make reforms (the beginning of
representative govn’t in France)
• got locked out of their meeting because
they spoke out
• Broke into a tennis court - Sieyès
persuades them to make major changes in
French government
• Tennis Court Oath — delegates decide to
write new constitution for France
Storming the Bastille
• Louis tried to make peace
• Encouraged the Nobles
and Clergy to join the
National Assembly
• Rumors fly in Paris that
Louis wants to suppress
National Assembly and
attack French citizens
• Mob attacks and seizes
Bastille (a Paris prison),
killing guards on July 14,
1789
• The mob wanted gun
powder to defend Paris &
themselves
A Great Fear Sweeps France
Rebellion
• Rumors and panic spread
throughout France
• Great Fear— attacks by
peasants taking place
across France
• Peasants destroy legal
papers binding them to
feudal system (had to pay
fees to the nobles)
• In October 1789, Parisian
women revolt over rising
price of bread “The
March to Versailles”
• They demand action,
forcing Louis to return
from Versailles to Paris
• King and Queen never
return to Versailles