Fuel for the Revolutionary Fire

1
Fuel for the Revolutionary Fire
2
The Estate System

• Estate orders/classes of society
• First estate Those who prayed (clergy)
• Second estate Those who fought (nobles)
• Third estate Everyone else
• Which one best represents the French people?

3
Why the Estates Matter
of population of land Rights and privileges
Royals .5 25 -Absolute power!
Clergy 1 10 -Received tithes -Lived well
Nobles 2 25 -Lived well -Govt positions
Bourgeoisie / Peasants 96.5 40 -Few political rights -No voice in govt
What might each group be upset about in the late
1700s?
4
Percentage of Population
5
Percentage of Land
6
An Economic Crisis

• Spending on foreign affairs and elaborate court
  life
• No taxes were being collected from the First and
  Second estates
• Banks refuse to lend Louis XVI
• Crop failure and bread shortages
• Response (May 1789) Summon the Estates General!

7
Conflicts Between the Estates

• Each estate gets 1 vote in the Estates General
• 3rd Estate thinks this is unfairwants to meet
  jointly and have each delegate vote individually
• How will this alter the potential outcome?
• Louis XVI opposes this idea and the 3rd estate
  gets locked out.
• Creation of the National Assembly and the Tennis
  Court Oath

8
The Tennis Court Oath (please refer to your
handout)

• Why are these people gathered?
• How does the oath define legislature?
• What are their goals? Which do you think is the
  most important?
• How does the oath regard monarchy?

9
July 14, 1789

• The Bastille (in Paris) was a prison where the
  monarchy held prisoners (both justly and
  unjustly)
• Stormed by a mob trying to steal weapons for the
  National Assemblys defense (rememberthe king
  had been gathering troops _at_ Versailles)
• The Great Fear begins

Outcomes?
10
Reforms of the National Assembly (please refer
to your handout)

• Who benefits from these reforms?
• Who does not?
• Based on the shifting power, what do you think is
  going to happen next in this story?

Power
Power
Power
Bourgeoisie Philosophes Businessmen
Commoners Workers
Monarch Church/clergy Nobility