French Revolution

• The Third Estate demanded voting rights, but were refused.
• Louis XVI ruled France in the late eighteenth century as an absolute monarch
• What is an absolute monarch?

  An absolute monarch meant that he had total control over the country and claimed that he had a divine right to rule
• Was Louis XVI weak and incompetent?

  Yes he was
• Who is Louis XVI's wife?

  Marie Antoinette
• Where did Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette live?

  They lived at their huge palace in Versailles
• What was the Enlightenment

  The Enlightenment was a movement of thinkers who valued reason and science above faith or authority as a basis for society
• Who were the third estate

  the third estate were the common people, everyone from well-off doctors, lawyers, teachers and merchants to poor peasants and workers
• Who were the second estate?

  The second estate were the nobility. Wealthy landowners who controlled the government and the army
• Who were the first estate


  The first estate were the clergy, the priests and bishops
• Did the first and second estates pay taxes?

  The first and second estate did not pay taxes
• Did the third estate pay taxes

  Yes the third estate paid taxes
• How much land did the first estate own

  They owned 10% of the land
• How much land did the second estate own?


  The second state owned 60% of the land
• How much land did the second estate own?

  The second estate owned 60% of the land
• What taxes did the third estate have to pay?

  • The taille: a land tax
  • The gabelle: a salt tax
  • The corvee: members of the third estate had to work for free repairing roads
  • The tithe: one-tenth of earnings or produce went to the Catholic church
• What taxes did the third estate have to pay?

  • The taille: a land tax
• Many French people were inspired by the American achievements of overthrowing the British rule in the name of Freedom and equality
• France had incurred great debt by supporting the Americans during the war. By the end of the 1780s, the government's finances were in crisis and urgently needed to raise taxes
• On July 14th 1789, Parisians stormed the Bastille prison which was seen as a symbol of royal tyranny. This event is known as the Storming of the Bastille.
• On June 23rd 1789, the Third Estate declared itself as the National Assembly. The other two estates refused to join them but they continued to meet anyway.
• In May 1789, Louis XVI called an Estates General meeting to discuss how to deal with France’s financial problems.
• The Estates General consisted of three estates - clergy (first), nobility (second) and commoners (third). Each estate had one vote so the first two estates held most power.