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The black death and its impact on Europe
The age of enlightenment era
The black death and its impact on Europe
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Humanism in History
When one looks at anthropological history, they may see the chaos, the bloodshed, and the greed. Humankind constantly struggles with compassion and humanity because not always were people all viewed equal. Humanism helped turn this cry for equality into a universal truth. Humanism has refueled the religious and brought moral purpose to the secular in a mission of human prosperity. Through the course of history, including the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, in nationalism, and in modern times, humanism has made its mark.
The Renaissance period occurred post middle ages of Europe, which had been plagued, in the Black Death and by means of lack intellectual growth. Seeing that Europe was not progressing forward, scholars began to refer back to philosophers of the past. This began Renaissance humanism: the study and restoration of the literary classics of ancient Greece and Rome. Petrarch the “father of Italian Renaissance humanism”, worked to bring back ancient Latin literature, and
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Before the revolution, France was made up of three estates: the clergy, the noble, and the commoners. Each estate had a one vote say in the Estates General government system, despite that commoners made up around 80% of the population. Also, the third estate lived in mainly poverty and were burdened with taille, or taxes, while the wealthy clergy and nobles paid little or no taxes. As humanism reflects the dignity and potential of all humans, people of the third estate were infuriated by the unjust governmental system that degraded their opinions and substantialness as a whole. When King Louis XVI takes away their vote entirely in the Estates General, the third estate rebels and begins the French Revolution. Without the humanistic principle that each person has potential, the commoners of France may never have recognized their value and revolted for
First, the French Revolution was a result of the failed estate system and the extreme economic and social inequality it led to. Under the rule of Louis XVI, the people of France were divided into three main social classes or estates as they are called. The First Estate featured wealthy members of the Church such as Bishops and Priests who held great political power due to their influence on government affairs. The Second Estate was a class comprised of the wealthy nobles and
Historian Albert Mathiez states that “The middle class… was sensitive to their inferior legal position. The revolution came from them- the middle class. The working classes were incapable of starting or controlling the Revolution. They were just beginning to learn to read.” The middle class were not able to have a class on their own; they were still considered peasants. In the illustration it showed how much people and land each estate held, the Clergy was one percent of the population which owned ten percent of the land. Nobles were two percent of the people that owned thirty-five percent of the land. The middle class, peasants, and city workers were ninety-seven of the people owned fifty-five percent of the land. This means that if the third estate were to riot, this would cause havoc. There was a lot during that time; the website Macrohistory and World Timeline shows that “The population of France had grown to between 24 and 26 million, up from 19 million in 1700 without a concomitant growth in food production. Farmers around Paris consumed over 80 percent of what they grew, so if a harvest fell by around 10 percent, which was common, people went hungry. There was insufficient government planning and storage of grain for emergency shortages”. If there were approximately 26 million people, there would be 25,220,000 people in the third estate, 520,000 people in the second estate, and 260,000
Some people like Emmanuel Sieyès, middle-class writer who was taken by the Enlightenment ideas, believed that all of French Society lay on the backs of the third estate. On the contrary, Robespierre, the monarch at the time, believed that the third estate did not have the power to do anything important to society. The third estate had to pay taxes like the Gabelle and Taille while the first and seconds estates did not have to pay any taxes to the king. Also, the third estates had less of a representation in voting. The first and second estate could outvote the third estate every time and this was a huge inequality. The condition of the third estate was horrible but a good portion of this third estate was the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie had some wealth and social class, so they influenced the rest of the third estate about their rights, while also inspiring some lower clergies and provincial nobles and thus led to a group of rebellious people to fight the monarchy. This fight for political representation and political rights was only one cause of the French Revolution. Another causes lies in the French Monarchs: Louis XlV, Louis XV, and Louis XVl. When Louis XlV was ruling, the monarchy had unlimited power and was known as a
The Third Estate despised the privileges of the Second Estate and hated the tax system, which involved only themselves, the majority, paying the heavy taxes. There was a huge need amongst the Third Estate, who represented the 'people' of France for tax reform. The Second Estate worsened this situation because they were determined not to give up their tax concessions.
As the monetary reserves of France deplete, the monarchy calls for the establishment of the Estates General, a representative body that is comprised of members from each estate. However, the nobles outnumber the Third Estate two votes to one, so the Third Estate advocates for additional representation. They are granted additional representation, but the vote count stays the same. Weeks of meetings pass and no progress is made, increasing the disgruntlement amongst the Third Estate. The Third Estate desires a voice while the nobles want to maintain their privileges. Finally, the Third Estate decides to take matters into its own hands. Sides are established, and the revolution
Nauert, Charles G., Jr. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print.
Also, liberty was one of the people's major concerns. They were ruled by men whose only desire was power and greed, which is what led them into revolt. The treatment of the "majority", which was the lower class, had a significant role in each of these revolutions. The French revolution was considered, "the great revolution of the eighteenth century" (McKay, 705) and is a perfect example of how the "majority" was treated. Out of twenty-five million people, 100,000 were the clergy, 400,000 were noblemen (McKay, 705) and the "majority" of the population was known as the third estate.
The first source shows the attempt to eliminate the three different estate levels and make everyone fall on the same social level in society. The second source shows when the third estate had more revolutionary power than the clergy and nobility. The third source shows when the state tried to take wealth from the churches to pay for their war expenses. The fourth source shows when the people executed a French monarch and figured out a way to establish a republic. The three estates still persisted after the revolution ended in a social class
The people from the Third Estate were taxed, while the First and Second Estates were untaxed. The rise in the price of bread caused the peasants to realize they had to fight and change the way they lived. The influence of Enlightenment ideas and the American Revolution caused the people in the Third Estate to take action rather than contain their opinions. Finally, the poor social treatment and the oppression of the Third Estate pushed them to fight for freedom. The French Revolution was a result of all the unfair treatments toward the Third Estate, and all the anger built up caused one of the bloodiest revolutions seen in history
Prior to the revolution, King Louis XVI was at the top of the ancien régime, the social, economic, and political structure in France, which means he had absolute power. When he received the throne in 1774, it came along with insoluble problems. The people were split into three estates which divided social class. The first estate consisted of 100,000 tax exempt nobles who owned 20% of the land. The second estate consisted of the 300,000 tax exempt clergy who owned 10% of the land. 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 first underlying cause of the French Revolution was the Old Regime. The people of France were divided into three estates. The first estate was composed of the highest church officials. They held about ten percent of all the land in France. They paid no direct taxes to the royal government. The second estate was made up of nobles. They were only two percent of France’s population, but owned twenty percent of the land. They paid no taxes (Krieger 483). The third estate accounted for ninety-eight percent of France’s population. The third estate was divided into three groups; the middle class, known as the bourgeoisie, the urban lower classes, and the peasant farmers. The third estate lost about half their income in taxes. They paid feudal dues, royal taxes, and also owed the corvee, a form of tax paid with work (Krieger 484).
The Third Estate consisted of everyone else, the pheasants, farmers, landless labourers, serfs and the emerging middle class called the bourgeois. 80% of the population was rural and were very highly taxed by the king, like the rest of the Third Estate.... ... middle of paper ... ... Overall, the weakness and indecisive actions of France's monarch, King Louis XVI, did not make those serving him respect or be loyal to him and his choices.
In eighteenth century France, King Louis XVI’s subjects were split into three very different classes, or estates—the First Estate, the Second Estate, and lastly, the Third Estate, who made up the greater part of the French population. The First Estate consisted of clergymen, who protected tradition and preserved the status quo, while the Second Estate consisted of nobles, who regulated guilds and contributed very little in terms of taxpaying. The last estate was the Third Estate, whose members were those that lacked any real unity as the kingdom’s commoners, and they made up the ninety-seven percent of the French population (Popkin 11). It was this Third Estate who had to shoulder the burden of paying the majority of the taxes in France, and it was because of this injustice that caused them to desire reforms in social equality and the tax system (Chang).
France consisted of three estates: the First Estate(the nobility), the Second Estate(the clergy), and finally the Third Estate(the commoners or everyone else). Before the French Revolution, the people of the First Estate suffered the most because of the burdens such as heavy taxes only put for the Third Estate. Many of them grew very tired of living in fear, hunger, and discrimination. These people thought and used the ideas of enlightenment such as the idea of equality, the right to rebel, and the natural rights by John Locke. John Locke and the people he influenced in the French Revolution believed that every man was the same and should be treated likewise. These people who were influenced by Locke despised this unfairness and used the idea of the right to rebel to overthrow the nobility and the government for taking away their “natural rights” (the rights to life, liberty, and property) which the government was actually supposed to protect for the people.
What makes us human? What is it that we are made up of? I know a human has a body made up of two legs, two arms, two eyes, a nose, a mouth, and two ears, but that is not what makes us human. Human beings are made up of feelings, the ability to think, communication, and many other elements. Feelings show the way we feel between each other and is the reason for our survival. The ability to think is so important because just because we can think doesn’t always mean we do think. Communication is essential to human society. These are some of the elements I consider to be the most important of being human. Feelings, is something that makes us humans. Feelings, is one important element that makes us humans because that is how we can relate how others feel and that is the