 France was a society based on clear class divisions.  What were the three different classes?  What was the power structure like?

 Before the revolution, France was a society rooted in privilege and inequality.  It’s population of 27 million was divided into three estates.

 Consisted of the clergy and numbered about 130,000 people who owned approximately 10 percent of the land.  Divided between the higher clergy and parish priests.  Higher clergy stemmed from aristocrat families and shared the interests of the nobility.  Parish priests were often poor and from the class of the commoners.

 Consisted of the nobility, composed of 350,000 people who owned 25 to 30 percent of the land.  Held many of the leading positions in the government, military, law courts, and higher church offices.  Sought to expand power at the expense of the monarchy.

 Consisted of the commoners, and constituted the overwhelming majority of the French population.  Resented “relics of feudalism” as the obligations they had to their local landlords. ▪Payment of fees for use of village facilities.  Burdened by heavy taxes, fees to church and rents to landlords.  Peasants and city workers.

What is happening in this picture? What does this picture tell you about French society leading up to the French Revolution? Who do you think would have produced this image and why?

 Who was the King of France at the time of the French Revolution?

 What kind of leader was he?

 During much of the 1700s, the French economy prospered.  However, economic activity slowed in the 1770’s. Bad harvests in 1787 and 1788 and the beginnings of a manufacturing depression resulted in food shortages, rising prices and unemployment.

 The most serious economic problem facing the French government during the 1770’s and 1780’s was the huge dept owed to bankers.  The government had borrowed large amounts of money to pay for the wars of Louis XIV. Louis XV and Louis XVI continued to borrow to support wars in Europe and overseas.  The Seven Years War

 When Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774, he recognized a need for economic reform.  However, Louis XVI proved to be a weak ruler in that he was unprepared for the job and lacked motivation.  The desperate economic crisis convinced him to take action and in the fall of 1788 he summoned the Estates-General to meet.

 Before Louis XVI is killed, he tries to stop or slow the revolutionary forces within France at the time.  One step was when he called together the Estates-General.  What was the Estates-General?

 French parliamentary body that consisted of representatives from the three estates of French Society.  In the elections for the Estates-General it was decided that the clergy and nobility would have 300 delegates each while the third estate would have 600 delegates.

 Opened at Versailles on May 5, 1789 and was troubled from the start.  Question of whether voting should occur by order or by head.  Third estate wanted one vote per person.  When first estate voted in favor of voting by order the third estate responded dramatically.

 Right now, we are going to focus on the causes of the French Revolution and the very early stages of the Revolution, but we will go over the rest of the Revolution in a few days.