The French Revolution
Begins
Economic and social inequalities in the
Old Regime help cause the French
Revolution.
Ch. 7.1
The Old Order
The Old Regime
• Old Regime—social and political
system in France during the 1770s
• Estates—three social classes of
France’s Old Regime
• A VERY unequal society (people were
not treated equally)
The Privileged Estates
First Estate — Catholic clergy—1% of the
population but own 10 percent land,
pay few taxes
Second Estate — rich nobles—2 percent
population, own 20 percent land
The Third Estate
• 97 percent of people
• middle class (bourgeoisie) lacked the
status of nobles
• Peasants (urban workers & farm
workers) very poorly paid 80% of the
French people
• Have few rights, pay heavy taxes, want
change while the rich paid hardly any
taxes
The Forces of Change
Three factors led to Rev. in France.
1) Enlightenment Ideas
• Enlightenment ideas inspire some in Third
Estate (esp. the powerful members)
2) Economic Troubles
• High taxes kept profits low
• rising costs (esp. food prices) damage
economy by 1780s. Crop failures resulted
in severe grain shortages
• The government owed money
3) Weak leadership of the monarchy
• King Louis XVI and his wife Marie
Antoinette known for extravagance
• Marie Antoinette was unpopular – from
Austria, France’s long time rival
• Louis doubles nation’s debt; banks refuse
to lend more money
• Louis XVI is forced to call a meeting of the
Dawn of the Revolution
A Weak Leader
• Louis’s poor decisions and lack of patience
add to France’s problems
• He calls Estates-General (May 1789)—
meeting of representatives from all three
estates
• Each Estate got one vote
• 3rd Estate wanted each delegate to have a
vote
• King and other 2 Estates said NO - why?
The National Assembly (June 1789)
• The Third Estate broke w/ the others and
met separately
• Delegates of the Third Estate sets up
National Assembly—new legislature to
make reforms (the beginning of
representative govn’t in France)
• got locked out of their meeting because
they spoke out
• Broke into a tennis court - Sieyès
persuades them to make major changes in
French government
• Tennis Court Oath — delegates decide to
write new constitution for France
Storming the Bastille
• Louis tried to make peace
• Encouraged the Nobles
and Clergy to join the
National Assembly
• Rumors fly in Paris that
Louis wants to suppress
National Assembly and
attack French citizens
• Mob attacks and seizes
Bastille (a Paris prison),
killing guards on July 14,
1789
• The mob wanted gun
powder to defend Paris &
themselves
A Great Fear Sweeps France
Rebellion
• Rumors and panic spread
throughout France
• Great Fear— attacks by
peasants taking place
across France
• Peasants destroy legal
papers binding them to
feudal system (had to pay
fees to the nobles)
• In October 1789, Parisian
women revolt over rising
price of bread “The
March to Versailles”
• They demand action,
forcing Louis to return
from Versailles to Paris
• King and Queen never
return to Versailles