The Causes of the French Revolution

The French Revolution

• In the 1770’s France was ruled by the Old Regime.

• Under this system there were three social classes or estates.

• The first class was the clergy of the Catholic church.

• They owned about 10% of the land in France.

The French Revolution

• The second estate was made up of rich nobles.

• The nobles only made up about 2% of the population but owned about 20% of the land.

• Most of the people in the first two classes paid no taxes.

The French Revolution

• The other 97% of the French people belonged to the third estate.

• In the third estate there were another three classes.

• The first was called the Bourgeoisie which were mostly bankers, merchants and factory owners.

• Many of them were as rich as nobles but had to pay extremely high taxes.

The French Revolution

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1st

Estate

3rd

Estate

Paid inTaxes

Owned Land

The French Revolution

• The second class of the third estate was made up of the workers.

• They were the poorest of the third estate and many times went unemployed and hungry.

• Peasants made up the third class of the third estate and they were mainly farmers.

• 80% of France’s people fell into this group.

The French Revolution

Third Estate

First class:Merchants, BankersAnd Factory Owners

Second Class:Workers

Third Class:Peasant Farmers

The French Revolution

• The third class became inspired by the American Revolution and became upset that they had little control over their country

• During the 1780’s France’s economy became troubled and many of the farmers and workers were out of work.

• Also the extravagant lifestyles of King Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antoinette made money scarce.

The French Revolution

• After France ran out of money Louis XVI decided to raise taxes on the nobles.

• The nobles unhappy about the taxes called a meeting with the king called the Estates- General.

• The meeting was held by all three estates to approve the new taxes.

The French Revolution

• The third estate asked for more delegates because they had more people but the King sided with the nobles.

• The third estate upset decided to make the National Assembly which would reform laws for the people.

• After several days of meetings Louis had them locked out of there meeting room.

The French Revolution

• The National Assembly broke into a tennis court and protested the kings ruling.

• This would be known as the Tennis Court Oath.

• Louis sent the military to deal with them and citizens took up arms against the soldiers.

• Peasants looking for gun powder took siege to a prison called the Bastille.