AP Euro Seminar

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AP Euro Seminar

• By Elaine Escalona
• Period 6
• 3 November 2011

2
The Prompt

• UNIT 5
• Identify the grievances of the groups that made
  up the Third Estate in France on the eve of the
  French Revolution, and analyze the extent to
  which ONE of these groups was able to address its
  grievances in the period 1789 to 1799.

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The Groups

• Few of the commoners were well educated and rich,
  and might even buy up manorial rights as
  profitable investments. (prosperous merchants or
  lawyers and officials) (the bourgeoisie)
• Many more commoners were urban artisans and
  unskilled day laborers.
• The vast majority of the third estate consisted
  of the peasants and agricultural workers in the
  countryside.
• Thus the third estate was a combination of vastly
  different social groups united only by their
  shared legal status as distinct from the nobility
  and clergy.

4
Background Information

• The bourgeoisie was basically united by economic
  position and class interest.
• With the general economic expansion, the middle
  class grew rapidly in the 18th century, tripling
  to about 2.3 million (or about 8 of Frances
  population).
• Increasing in size, wealth, culture, and
  self-confidence, the bourgeoisie became
  progressively exasperated by the feudal laws
  restraining the economy.
• As a result, the French bourgeoisie rose up to
  lead the entire third estate in a great social
  revolution that destroyed feudal privileges and
  established a capitalist order based on
  individualism and a market economy.

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Their Grievances

• Each Estate had drawn up a list of grievances
  called Cahiers de Doléances. As part of the
  electoral process of 1789, the cahiers were
  intended to inform and instruct the deputies of
  local views and authorize reform.
• There was general consensus among the three
  Estates
• That the royal power had to be limited.
• That the Estates General had to meet regularly
• That the individual liberties had to be
  guaranteed by law.
• However, the middle class, especially the lawyers
  who primarily made up the Third Estate, placed a
  greater emphasis on protecting the citizens
  rights than the needs of the peasants.

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Their Grievances (cont.)

• Included the demand for a tax system that would
  be more equitable.
• Also, some more practical notions, such as the
  need to limit the size of sheep herds, since
  their bad breath was destroying French pastures.

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Before The Addressed

• Increasingly, writers began to declare that the
  Third Estate, consisting of all non-clergy and
  non-aristocracy (the majority of Frenchmen), was
  the true embodiment of the political will of the
  nation. By the end of 1788, the King agreed to
  double the number of representatives to the Third
  Estate which meant little since voting would
  still be cast by each estate as a unit and not as
  individuals.

8
Abbé Sieyès

• (1748-1836), an obscure lower clergyman, who
  wrote
• What is the Third Estate? Everything.
• What has it been in the political order up to the
  present? Nothing.
• What does it ask? To become something.

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How Their Grievances Were Addressed

• May 5,1789 marked the first day of the meeting of
  the Estates General.
• Immediately, Louis XVI angered the members of the
  Third Estate by keeping them waiting for several
  hours as he formally received the credentials of
  members of the first two estates.
• The well educated and rich among the Third
  Estate would be the representatives. Mostly
  lawyers and government officials.
• There were no delegates elected from the great
  mass of laboring poorthe peasants and urban
  artisans.
• Since it was clear that the King would not
  compromise on voting as individuals (voting was
  cast by each estate as a unit and not as
  individuals), the members of the Third Estate
  delayed formally submitting their credentials for
  several weeks.

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How Their Grievances Were Addressed (cont.)

• On June 17, in a momentous decision, the Third
  Estate declared that it would not meet as a
  medieval estate based on social status but
  instead would only assemble before the King as a
  national assembly representing the political will
  of the entire French nation, including
  representatives from all three estates.

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To What Extent Were They Addressed?

• Simple parish priests who saw themselves as
  having more in common with the members of the
  Third Estate voted to join the Third Estate and
  to meet as a national assembly.
• In response, the King granted a number of
  concessions, such as promising to periodically
  call the Estates General and to drop some of the
  more onerous taxes on the Third Estate.

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To What Extent Were They Addressed? (cont)

• This means that the bourgeoisie group were, to an
  extent, able to limit the rights of the nobility
  because now, some priests were joined with them.
• Finally, on June 27, a desperate Louis XVI
  formally agreed to the consolidation of all three
  estates into a new national assembly.