Assignment #1: Causes of the FR Reading Response

Our next unit deals with one place that did NOT industrialize…because they were busy fighting a gigantic revolution.

Let’s rewind Remember this? List everything you remember about French Absolutism….role of Church? Nobility?

And these guys?

Voltaire thinking about free speech Montesquieu thinking about branches of government Rousseau thinking about the general will When we last left off our Enlightenment thinkers were busy thinking…..

The Enlightenment leads to the French Revolution Words lead to action…. France’s unequal society: Three “estates” or social classes. Unlike England’s growing capitalist class, France had 1.The “privileged estates” – the 1 st estate: the clergy, the 2 nd estate: the nobility = no taxes 2.The third estate: everyone else. That means the middle class, the peasants, the urban poor. Everyone. The third estate paid most of the taxes to either the crown or the nobility. The third estate was 98% of the population.

Who came after Louis XIV? The next Louis (XV) drove the monarchy further into debt with participation in the 7 Years War (remember that?) Leaving a debt-ridden economy to his son Louis XVI – who made it worse (more on this later).

Directions Read Critique of the Old Regime by Alexis de Tocqueville. While you read take notes on the following questions: 1.According to the reading, how did the philosophes undermine the old regime? 2.Why did de Tocqueville believe the French people were receptive to the philosophes?