History📜

• Louis XVI of the Bourbon family ascended the throne of France


  1774
• Upon his accession, Louis XVI found an empty treasury due to long years of war and the cost of maintaining an extravagant court
• France helped the thirteen American colonies gain independence from Britain, adding more than a billion livres to France's debt
• Lenders began charging 10% interest on loans, forcing the French government to spend an increasing percentage of its budget on interest payments
• To meet expenses, the state was forced to increase taxes, but only members of the third estate paid taxes
• French society in the 18th century

  • Divided into three estates
  • Only members of the third estate paid taxes
• Composition of French society

  • Clergy (1st estate)
  • Nobility (2nd estate)
  • Peasants and artisans (3rd estate)
• Peasants made up about 90% of the population, but only a small number owned the land they cultivated
• 60% of the land was owned by nobles, the Church and other richer members of the third estate
• Privileges of the clergy and nobility

  • Exemption from paying taxes to the state
  • Feudal privileges including feudal dues extracted from peasants
• The burden of financing state activities through taxes was borne by the third estate alone
• Taxes paid by the third estate

  • Direct tax (taille)
  • Indirect taxes on articles of everyday consumption like salt or tobacco
• Anonymous etching: '"The nobleman is the spider, the peasant the fly."'
• The population of France rose from 23 million in 1715 to 28 million in 1789, leading to a rapid increase in demand for foodgrains
• Production of grains could not keep pace with demand, causing the price of bread to rise rapidly
• Wages did not keep pace with the rise in prices, widening the gap between the poor and the rich
• Subsistence crises occurred frequently in France during the Old Regime, leading to food riots, scarcity of grain, increased number of deaths, rising food prices, and weaker bodies
• In the past, peasants and workers had participated in revolts against increasing taxes and food scarcity, but lacked the means and programmes to bring about a change in the social and economic order
• The 18th century witnessed the emergence of a middle class who earned wealth through expanding overseas trade and manufacturing
• Ideas of the middle class

  • No group in society should be privileged by birth
  • A person's social position must depend on their merit
• These ideas were put forward by philosophers like John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau, and discussed intensively in salons and coffee-houses
• The news that Louis XVI planned to impose further taxes generated anger and protest against the system of privileges
• In the Old Regime, the monarch could not impose taxes alone but had to call a meeting of the Estates General to pass proposals for new taxes
• Louis XVI called together an assembly of the Estates General to pass proposals for new taxes

  5 May 1789
• The third estate was represented by its more prosperous and educated members, while peasants, artisans and women were denied entry
• In the past, voting in the Estates General had been conducted according to the principle of one estate, one vote
• The monarch alone could decide when to call a meeting of the Estates General
• Last time the Estates General was called

  1614
• Louis XVI called together an assembly of the Estates General


  5 May 1789
• Estates General


  • Political body to which the three estates sent their representatives
  • The first and second estates sent 300 representatives each
  • The 600 members of the third estate had to stand at the back
• Peasants, artisans and women were denied entry to the Estates General assembly
• The representatives of the third estate viewed themselves as spokesmen for the whole French nation
• Representatives of the Third Estate

  1. Assembled in the hall of an indoor tennis court

  2. Declared themselves a National Assembly

  3. Swore not to disperse till they had drafted a constitution for France that would limit the powers of the monarch
• Mirabeau


  Born in a noble family but was convinced of the need to do away with a society of feudal privilege
• Abbé Sieyès


  Originally a priest, wrote an influential pamphlet called 'What is the Third Estate'?
• A severe winter had meant a bad harvest; the price of bread rose, often bakers exploited the situation and hoarded supplies
• On 14 July, the agitated crowd stormed and destroyed the Bastille
• Peasants in several districts seized hoes and pitchforks and attacked chateaux, looted hoarded grain and burnt down documents containing records of manorial dues
• Louis XVI finally accorded recognition to the National Assembly and accepted the principle that his powers would from now on be checked by a constitution
• On the night of 4 August 1789, the Assembly passed a decree abolishing the feudal system of obligations and taxes