French Revolution

Estates System

• First Estate- Clergy, less than 1% of pop, 2% of income paid in taxes

• Second Estate- Rich nobles, held highest offices of government, 1% of pop, 0% in taxes

• Third Estate- bourgeoisie, urban lower class, peasant farmers, no power or influence in government, 98% of pop., 50% of income to taxes

Would you join the mob?• You are returning home from a bakery

that is out of bread –again. You have no food to take to your starving children. You are desperate. Suddenly you turn a corner and come upon the king’s palace. King Louis and his wife are living there in luxury while your children and most of your fellow citizens are starving. You see a mob surrounding the palace, demanding food and relief from heavy taxes. They have turned violent. Would you join the mob?

People Questioned The Existing Order

What is the Enlightenment?

1700s philosophy: looked at society through a rational – not religious – lens

Enlightenment Ideas

Believed … Rejected…

in the rule of law the divine rule of King and God

in equality and Liberty Social privilege and arbitrary state power

that man has natural rights

that man is born with sin

Enlightenment Institutions

Believed … Rejected…

in a parliament the King’s Court

Democratic elections

Papal privilege

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Thomas Jefferson

Causes of Revolution

• “Old Regime” - traditional system of aristocratic (wealthy) privilege. The estates system.

• Enlightenment ideas- equality, liberty, and democracy. People reading and becoming more interested in politics. People begin to question the role of the government and King in society.

• Economic Woes- Debt from war and frivolous spending by King and nobles, taxes makes business difficult

• Weak leader- Louis XVI was indecisive and paid little attention to government and politics

Revolution Continues…

• Storming of the Bastille

• Declaration of the Rights of Man

• Bread Riots

• King and family forced to return to Paris

• Rise of radical revolutionary groups

• Louis attempts to escape

• Trial and execution of the King!

Estates-General

• Assembly of representatives from all 3 estates

• To get approval for reform each estate had one vote

• The two privileged estates could always outvote the Third estate

National Assembly

• Third Estate delegates meet to pass laws and reforms in the name of the French people.

• Beginning of representative government

• First deliberate act of REVOLUTION!

What would you do in this situation?

• King stationed Swiss guard around your city (Paris)

• Rumors of foreign troops coming to massacre the French citizens

• People gathering weapons• Need gunpowder from the Bastille, Paris prison• Citizens overwhelm the King’s soldiers and take

the Bastille- July 14, 1789• Citizens march around city with guard’s heads

on stakes.