1. Causes of the French Revolution

2. Objectives Outline the social structure of France’s Old Regime.
Explain the economic troubles France faced in 1789.
Identify the reasons Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General.
Explain why a Paris crowd stormed the Bastille.

3. Current Day Map of France

4. About France in the late 18th Century
Population around 28 million – has grown by 10 million in just 100 years!
Over 20 million people lived in the countryside
A few large towns, but dominated by Paris with over 600,000 people.
System of Government was a Monarchy.

5. The three estates The King The First Estate: the clergy
The Second Estate:
The Nobility
The Third Estate:
The peasants

6. The Old Regime First Estate Second Estate Third Estate
Under the ancien regime, or old order, everyone in France belonged to one of three classes…
First Estate
Second Estate
Third Estate
The CLERGY
Enjoyed enormous wealth and privilege
Owned about 10 percent of land, collected tithes, and paid no taxes
Provided some social services
The NOBILITY
Owned land but had little money income
Hated absolutism
Feared losing traditional privilege, especially exemption from taxes
BOURGEOISIE and PEASANTS
Peasants were 98 % of French population
Resented privilege of first and second estates
Burdened by taxes, miserable wages faced hunger, starvation

7. Resentment among the Third Estate
Best jobs were always reserved for nobles
Urban workers earned miserable wages
Peasants taxed on land, necessary goods and spices
Nobles imposed “manor dues” – tax paid directly to noble instead of state
Only nobles had the right to hunt wild game
Enlightenment thinkers led people to question the logic of the the Old Regime…..where is the reason for it???

8. Economic Troubles
For years, the French government had engaged in too much spending
Louis XIV had left France in a lot of debt.
Recent wars, a general rise in costs in the 1700s, and the lavish court were incredibly costly.
Bad harvests in the late 1780s sent food prices soaring and brought hunger to poorer peasants and city dwellers.

9. Economic Troubles…Summarized
Too much spending
Debt
Wars
Inflation
Lavish court
Borrowed money
Bad harvests

10. Absolute Monarchy Weakens
The heirs of Louis XIV were not the right men to solve the economic crisis that afflicted France.
Louis XV pursued pleasure before business and ran up France’s debts
Louis XVI was well-meaning but weak and indecisive

11. Meeting of the Estates General
The Estates General was a meeting of all three Estates
Each Estate had one vote
Under this system the First and Second Estates always outvoted the Third Estate

12. Meeting of the Estates General
Delegates of the Third Estate left the Estates General and declared themselves to be the National Assembly who represented France
They invited members of the other Estates to help them write a Constitution for France
When the hall they were supposed to meet in was locked against them, the National Assembly met on a tennis court…

13. Tennis Court Oath
Delegates swore “never to separate and to meet whenever the circumstances might require until we have established a sound and just constitution”

14. Meeting of the Estates General
France’s economic crisis worsened, bread riots spread, and nobles denounced royal tyranny.
Louis XVI summoned the Estates General in 1788
The Third Estate declared themselves to be the National wrote a constitution.
When reform-minded clergy and nobles joined the Assembly, King Louis accepted it.

15. Storming of the Bastille
On July 14, 1789, more than 800 Parisians gathered outside the Bastille, a medieval fortress used as a prison. They demanded weapons they thought were stored there in order to protect themselves from the royal troops surrounding Paris.
The commander of the Bastille opened fire on the crowd, and a battle started, in which many people were killed.
The storming of the Bastille quickly became a symbol of the French Revolution, a blow to tyranny. Today, the French still celebrate July 14 as Bastille Day or Independence Day.

16. Storming of the Bastille

17. Review Questions
Which class made up 98 percent of the population of France in 1789?
a) the First Estate
b) the Second Estate
c) the Third Estate
d) the First and Second estates combined
Which of the following was not a cause of France’s economic troubles?
a) deficit spending
b) bad harvests
c) overspending by Louis XIV
d) increased wages for peasant workers

18. Questions
1. What was the French system of government during the time before the French Revolution?
2. Who is in the first estate? Second estate? Third estate?
3. What percent of the population was the peasants?
4. Name two reasons the Third Estate resented (or did not like) the First Estate (or nobles)
5. What did enlightenment thinkers lead to?
6. What led to French debt?
7. What brought hunger to poorer peasants and city dwellers?
8. What is the national assembly?
9. Where did the third estate go when the assembly hall they were supposed to meet in was locked?
10. What is the tennis court oath in your own words?
11. What is the storming of the Bastille?