1. The French Revolution and Napoleon

2. In 1789 unrest exploded at a Paris wallpaper factory because of a rumor that the owner was going to cut wages when bread prices were soaring Riots like these did not worry most nobles. They knew that France faced sever economic crisis but thought that financial reforms would ease the problem The nobles were wrong and the crisis went deeper than government finances, reform would not be enough By July the people of Paris would take up arms, their actions would push events further and faster than anyone could have forseen

3. “Old order” Everyone in France was in one of three classes First Estate Clergy Second Estate Nobility Third Estate The vast majority of the population

4. The church owned about 10% of the land, collected tithes, and paid no direct taxes to the state High church leaders such as bishops and abbots were usually nobles who lived very well First Estate did provide some social services Nuns, monks and priests ran schools, hospitals, and orphanages Enlightenment philosophes targeted the Church for reform They criticized the idleness of some clergy, church interference in politics, and its intolerance of dissent

5. The Second Estate was the titled nobility of French society In the 1600s Louis XIV had crushed the noble’s military power but given them other rights Top jobs in government, the army, the courts, and the church Many nobles lived far from power While they owned land, they had little money income Felt the pinch of trying maintain their status in a time of rising prices

6. Many nobles hated absolutism and resented the royal bureaucracy Because the bureaucracy employed middle-class men in positions that once had been reserved for the aristocracy They feared losing their traditional privileges, especially their freedom from paying taxes

7. The Third Estate numbered about 27 million people, about 98% of the population The bourgeoisie or middle class were at the top of this estate Included prosperous bankers, merchants, and manufacturers, journalists, lawyers, doctors, professors, and skilled artisans

8. The bulk of the Third Estate were rural peasants Prosperous landowners, tenant farmers or day laborers The poorest of the Estate were the urban workers Apprentices, journeymen, industries like printing & clothing Many men and women earned a meager living as servants, stable hands, porters, construction workers, or street sellers of everything from food to pots and pans A large number of the urban poor were unemployed To survive some had to turn to begging or crime