Download Pop Quiz Define terms! - Redlands East Valley High School

Discussion Questions
1. Describe the land owning system in
France in the time before the Revo.
2. Why did the 3rd Estate come to resent
the other two?
3. Describe what the Estates General is
and how it became important in starting
the revolution.
4. What was the Oath of the Tennis Court
and why was it significant?
5. What made the French Revolution unique
from any other Revolution?
6. Describe the Three Estates in detail.
Who comprises each one and what are
their privileges?
7. Describe the problems with taxation in
France before the Revolution.
8. What made the king unpopular with the
3rd class and cause them to turn on him?
9. How did the French Revolution change
the world?
Enlightenment and Estates
General
Estate
Membership
Conditions
First
1% of population
Roman Catholic
Clergy
1.
2.
3.
Second
2% of pop
Nobles
1.
2.
3.
4.
Third
97% of pop
Bourgeoisie
Manual workers
Peasants
1.
2.
3.
Exempted from taxes,
tried only in church courts
Owned 1/10 of all French
lands, received huge
revenue from rent and
fees
Corruption and
worldliness
Exempt from royal taxes
Collected dues from
peasants
Highest positions in army
and govt
Irresponsible and
extravagant
Many rich and well edu
Workers got poor pay
and lived in crowded
conditions
Paid heaviest taxes, and
had due to pay to other
estates
Feudal Reaction
• As 18th cent progress happened, more things
available to buy
• Standard of living increased for the wealthy
• Began collecting dues more rigorously
• Revived old dues
• Sharecropping & leasing became even less
favorable to the peasants
• Peasants began to resent “feudal dues”
– b/c “gentlemen” got this special income and status
and gave nothing in return
Causes So Far
• Class system
• Agrarian system
– Antiquated property
system
Political Unity
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nationwide public opinion
Nationwide agitation
Nationwide policies
Nationwide legislation
Revo did not have to unify France, already done
Revo enforced sense of membership
– Passion of citizenship (call each other citoyen or
citoyenne)
– Civic rights
– Voting powers
– Vive la nation
Political Culture and Public Opinion
“The social and economic resentments that existed
among ambitious people in French cities and
among peasants in the French countryside could
finally explode in a revolutionary upheaval because
18th century writers had created a culture that
encouraged political and social criticism. Educated
persons in the 3rd Estate could draw on
Enlightened conceptions of reason, natural rights,
and historical progress to complain about the
irrationality of ancient privileges or the injustice of
noble prerogatives.”
Enlightenment and Revolution
• Ideas helped cause the Revo
– Reason
– Progress
– Natural rights
• Used these ideas to complain about
– Irrationality of ancient privileges
– Injustice of noble prerogatives
• Provided theories people needed to voice
their discontent
“Its all the philosophes’ fault”
• Voltaire
• Rousseau
• Even revolutionaries @ the time used
philosophes ideas
• But
– In reality, enlightened thinkers wanted social
change not revolution
– Most of their readers were nobility
– So contributed – mostly in challenging
traditional authority of king and nobles
French Press
• Popularize new American Constitution
• Pamphlets to attack the officials and
courtiers at Versailles
• Critical spirit in salons, coffeehouses
• Political debates (mostly gossip of
corruption and affairs)
– Stripped away once sacred image of
monarchy
Financial Crisis
• Financial collapse of govt
• Govt overspent
– Versailles
– War costs
– Upkeep of armies and navies
– Public debt
– 4 billion livres
– War of American Independence
Louis XVI
Marie Antoinette
Problems of Taxation
• Revenues fell short of necessary
expenditures (taxes did not meet debt)
• Tax exemption
• Tax evasion
• Treasury always empty
• All about status
Taxing Privileged Class
•
•
•
•
•
•
John Law
Maupeou
Turgot
Jacques Necker
Calonne
Brienne
Nobles React
• Say only Estates General can make new
taxes
• Nobles force kings hand
– Parlements resist
– Army officers refuse to serve
– Govt brought to a stand still
• Unable to borrow money
• Unable to collect taxes
• July 5, 1788 Louis promises to call E.G. in
one year
Estates General
• Over 150 years since last one
• King asks for proposals for a modern
version
• Leads to campaign for public opinion
– Pamphlets asking for reform of E.G.
– 3 estates to vote together not separately
• But E.G. stays the same
– Each state only votes in their class
– 1st and 2nd estates can team up to out vote the
3rd estate.
Aims of Nobility
• Forced the summoning of E.G.
• SO NOBILITY STARTED REVOLUTION!!
• Revo started as another resistance against the
king
• Actually wanted constitutional govt
–
–
–
–
Personal liberty
Freedom of speech
Freedom from arbitrary arrest and confinement
Even willing to tax
Cont.
• In return nobles get to be the most
important element of the state
• Wanted France to be governed by the
Estates General!
3rd Estate’s Reaction
• Wants to avoid exactly what nobles are aiming
for!
• No desire to be governed by lords
• Wanted a new area based on enlightened ideas
• Stirred by American revolution
• @ 1st thought E.G was going to be awesome
• Then slapped in face by nobles when it is same
old same old
Reaction cont.
•
•
•
•
Unprovoked class assault
Whole third turns on nobles!
Nobility useless
Abbe Sieyes – “What id the Third Estate?”
– Pamphlet
– Puts Rousseau’s ideas into the revolution
• Nobles and commoners look at each other
with fear and suspicion
E.G. to Nat’l Assembly
• EG meets May 1789
• 3rd represented by lawyers
– Refused to except division
– stalemate
• June 17 3rd Estate breaks away and
declares themselves National Assembly
• Louis closes meeting hall
Oath of the Tennis Court
• Nat’l Assem. Moves across the street to an
indoor tennis court
• Swear and sign Oath June 20, 1789
• Promises to not disband until they have
written a constitution
King
• Revolutionary group has no legal power
and yet trying to form constitution
• King tried to restore order but too late
– Ends up summoning 18,000 troops to
Versailles
– b/c king backed the nobles not the
commoners!
– So commoners feared king and nobles!
– No going back . . .
Pop Quiz
Define terms!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Estates General
First Estate
Third Estate
Sharecropper
Bourgeoisie
Old Regime
7. Cahiers de
Doleances
8. Bastille
9. Marie Antoinette
10. Calonne
11. National Assembly
12. Second Estate