More handpicked essays just for you.
Problems of the french revolution
Social classes during the french revolution
Problems of the french revolution
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Problems of the french revolution
The French Revolution was a major transformation of the society and political system of France, lasting from 1789 to 1799. The social structure caused major segregation between each echelon, or Estate. There were many grievances among the Third Estate on the coming of the French Revolution. The Third Estate was made up by the merchants, peasants, laborers, and the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie was the prominent class that were able to address the Third Estate grievances. The Third Estate’s grievances were unequal taxation, financial problems, and food scarcity. One of the main grievances of the Third Estate were the high taxes. It became very difficult for the commoners to be able to pay for taxes because taxation became excessive. For instance, recurring taxes imposed on peasants were taille, a land tax to the state; tithe, a tenth of income or produce given to the church; capitation, tax on the number of people in the family; vingtième, a property tax; and others. Responsibility to the poor tax system and the mounting debts is by numerous large wars, and more importantly, the king c...
The Third Estate was comprised of the people whom carried out the kinds of work that sustains society, those whom worked the countryside, those whom sold raw materials, finished goods and labor of many varieties. They were the merchants and wholesale traders; they represented the private occupations that served usefully and accordingly to the people (Hunt, p. 108). Contrary to the Third Estate was the noble order. The noble order consisted of the public offices, the army, the courts, the church and the administration (Hunt, p. 109). It was only the lucrative and highly honored privileged order that could take up positions in public office (Hunt, p. 109).
During the eighteenth century, a major uprising occurred in France, the French Revolution. During the time, France was divided into 3 major groups: the First, Second, and the Third estate. While the first and second estate owned the majority of the resources, and paying little taxes, the third Estate paid heavy taxes, owning little resources. Sparked by the social inequality faced by the third Estate, the revolution brought about significant changes to France. Initially, the French Revolution advances the Enlightenment ideals by promoting life and equality, corresponding to John Locke’s belief. However, the revolution ultimately betrayed the enlightenment ideals.
Before and during the reign of King Louis XVI, the taxes on France skyrocketed mainly towards a group of individuals. The group was known
The 3rd Estate on the other hand were the ones that did all the back braking labour to supply the community with food and they were the ones that paid ALL of the taxes to supply the French government with money. These commoners were the labourers of the time and even though they did so much for France they were still paid unfair amounts and asked to give up so much of their money. Not only did they need to pay the taxes, but they needed food, water and clothes. A loaf of bread would have cost them a week’s wages. The 3rd Estate was treated unfairly and neglected by the Nobility.
When the financial situation in France took a turn for the worse, King Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates-General to decide on how best to tax the people. The Estates-General was made up of the three estates of the political system of France, which was called the Old Regime. The first estate consisted of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. They owned ten percent of the land and paid two percent of the taxes. The second estate was formed of the rich nobles, who owned twenty percent of the land and paid nearly no taxes. Lastly there was the third estate which was made up of three different groups. The bourgeoisie included bankers, factory owners, merchants, skilled artisans and professionals. The bourgeoisie were often educated, and some were as rich as nobles but they had to pay the same high taxes as the rest of the third estate. Also in this estate were urban workers and peasants. The third estate was tired of their high taxes and low standing and wanted a change in the political system. However, when the Estates-General voted, they gave each estate one vote. The first and second estates, being both rich classes, had the same priorities and were always able to outvote the third estate. But the members of the third estate understood what was happening and proposed a better system for voting. Because the third estate made up 97 percent of France’s population, they thought it would be fairer to have each delegate given a vote. In spite of this, Louis XVI declined their request.
During the 18th century one of the most important events in all of history occurred. This great event was the French Revolution, a battle between the citizens and the government. This revolution lead to a new democratic government and freed the French society of the terrible ruling of King Louis XVI. This amazing revolution lead to many long-term and short-term effects.
The third estate consisted of the remaining 23.5 million French people who were 90% peasants. The third estate was the only estate that paid taxes. Their taxes ensured the financial well-being of the clergy, state, and nobles (French Revolution Overview 6). The Enlightenment was a major influence of the French Revolution. The Enlightenment caused the revolution in three ways.
The Third Estate was very unsatisfied because although it contained over 80 percent of the population, it still had the same one vote as the other two Estates with fewer people. Thus it re-named itself the National Assembly in June of 1789 and claimed itself the representative body of the people. The Assembly did not aid the King in his financial troubles, yet it demanded many changes to France's absolute monarchy and legislative system. Many of the laws that were passed in France had also become extremely burdensome to the common people because they excluded the clergy and nobility from paying taxes. Louis XVI tried to help the economy, by raising taxes in 1786.
The French Revolution differed from previous revolutions in that it was started by those considered to be in the lower social class: the peasants and the sans-culottes who made up the 3rd Estate of the Estates General. These ordinary citizens were frustrated with high taxes, shortage of food and high cost of bread thus creating an inability for them to feed themselves and their families, as well as the social divisions of the privileged versus the underprivileged that existed in their country. They were extremely frustrated by the unjust ways in which the government treated them. So, they did something unheard of… the common people took matters into their own hands. This became a fight between the lower class and the French government.
Before analysing the nature of the revolution, one must understand the social structure of pre-revolutionary France which is referred to as the Ancien Regime. Society was divided into estates and the king ruled over all of them. The king was an absolute monarch. “The adjective means that he…was not subject to the laws, since he was their originator.” The first estate consisted of the clergy, the second estate housed the aristocracy or the nobles who owned land, and the third estate was everyone else. The third estate was a very broad and diverse category as it consisted of ninety six percent of the population. Within this diverse third estate were the bourgeoisie. Georges Lefebvre divides the bourgeoisie into five groups “the bourgeois proper ‘living nobly and on his property, members of the royal administration, officiers, proprietors of venal offices, some of them ennobled, lawyers- notaries, procureurs, avocats, members of the liberal professions-doctors, scientists, writers, artists, the word of finance and commerce, shipbuilders, wholesale traders, entrepreneurs and the upper gr...
The French Revolution was a significant event in French history that lasted for years, and it started as a result of the spread of ideas from the Enlightenment and news of the success of the American Revolution influencing the already discontent people of France. The Third Estate of France was one of the three estates that existed before the revolution. And, while it consisted of an overwhelming majority of the population, they lacked the wealth to even consistently acquire food for themselves and were heavily taxed. This was far from equal to the other estates, as they, despite making up an extremely small percentage of the people of France, were wealthy, did not have to pay these taxes, and had a disproportionately increased amount of land compared to the larger estate. During meetings of the Estates-General, notwithstanding the vastly evident
Upon the lead up to this meeting, the issue of voting swept through France, as aristocrats and commoners alike, debated how votes should be decided at the Estates General, one per social class, or via a population. From this debate arose Abbe Sieyes’ What is the Third Estate, a fiery document aimed the both members of Frances Third Estate and its nobility alike. Focused on the Third Estates contribution to France, the documents readable nature turns it into a bold rallying cry for the Third Estate, as it demands the total abolishment of the privileged classes, going as far as to say the nation of France exists only within the population which contributes to society, that population being the Third
The tax system was corrupt. The part of reason was some tax-collectors didn't hand all the taxes they collected to the government, but the main reason was the poor peasants because they were the people who had to pay amount of taxes to the government. Peasants has tp pay around 80kg of food, 4 chickens and 5 pence along with amount taxes. Meanwhile, durig the years 1787 to 1789, were the three hardest years because the extremely
Discontentment amongst the people of the Third Estate in France from 1788-1795 reached an apex, thus leading to a revolution. Ideology and actions converged within the Third Estate to form the basis of the insurgency that later took life and further entrenched the people. The French Revolution was a significant event of the Age of Revolutions that began with the American Revolution and heavily influenced by Enlightenment philosophy. Reasons for the discontent within the Third Estate include monetary issues like arduous taxation from nobility and the Church along with an inflation of prices due to immense state debt, visible divisions within the social hierarchy that limited rights of the Third Estate while giving power to the First and Second,
The French Revolution was a major turning point in the world’s history, and political aspects such as the 3rd Estate, and King Louis were huge contributions. During the French Revolution, the 3rd estate was a huge part of the political problems that were created in France. In 1789 France the French population was split up in three estates; the first