1. The French Revolution

2. Table of Contents The Three Estates The National Assembly Executions
The National Convention
The Terror
Robespierre

3. The Three Estates Life under the ancien regime The Three Estates:
Clergy
Nobility
Everyone else
Late 18th-century financial crisis
Unfair taxation
Before the revolution, France operated under a system called the ancien regime, or “old regime.” According to this system, society was divided into three groups, or “estates.” The First Estate consisted of members of the clergy. The Second Estate was the nobility or aristocracy. Everyone else, from peasant farmers to wealthy merchants, belonged to the Third Estate. The Third Estate represented 98% of the population yet held virtually no power.
By the late 18th century, the system was in crisis, and members of the Third Estate were desperate for change. Even though the first two estates held much of the land and the wealth, they were exempt from almost all forms of taxation. That meant that the Third Estate had to support the monarchy and the government on its own. The Third Estate also had to pay taxes to landowners and to the Church. For the wealthier members of the Third Estate, this seemed deeply unfair: they had to pay a disproportionate amount in taxes yet reaped none of the benefits, since the nobility enjoyed a much higher status and held the highest positions in government. For the poorer members of the Third Estate, the burden was crippling. Many were desperately poor and starving, yet they still owed a huge percentage of what little they had.
The inequality of the ancien regime system became unbearable, and in 1789, the Third Estate revolted. It is easy to view the revolution as a case of the poor rising up against the rich, but the reality was much more complicated than that, as the following discussion will show.

4. The Three Estates
Give students approximately one minute to view the image, then proceed to the next slide.

5. What type of source is this? What appears to be happening?
At first glance, this picture might look like a painting that would hang in a museum. However, the action doesn’t look realistic: two men appear to be crushing a third man by standing on a rock placed on his chest. The fact that this is not a realistic action is a clue that the artist is using a metaphor to express a political opinion, not to depict an actual event.
The image is actually a political cartoon. The artist had a very specific political point to make when he created this picture. The image does not show portraits of specific individuals but instead presents a general representation of pre-revolutionary French society: in this case, the figures represent the three estates that made up the ancien regime.
The scene appears to be taking place in a rural area. There is some sort of farming tool on the right-hand side of the cartoon, and on the left a shepherd tends a flock of sheep.
What type of source is this?
What appears to be happening?
What is the setting? How can you tell?

6. Who does the man in the purple robe represent?
The man in the purple robe represents the First Estate, the clergy. You can tell this because he holds a Bible in his hand, and also because of the manner in which he is dressed.
How can you tell?

7. Who does the man in the red jacket represent?
The man in the red jacket represents the Second Estate, the nobility. You can tell this because of the way he is dressed, and also because he appears to be wearing a sword. Traditionally, nobles were the warrior class—those who fought in battles for the king and received land from him in exchange for their service.
How can you tell?
What is he wearing at his side?

8. Who does the man under the rock represent?
How is he dressed?
Is that surprising?
The man under the rock represents the Third Estate. The First and Second Estates made up just 2% of the population—everyone else was in the Third Estate.
The man from the Third Estate does not look like an impoverished peasant. Instead of being barefoot or dressed in rags, he is wearing a full set of clothes and appears to be somewhat prosperous. The Third Estate consisted of many different groups of people, some poor and some wealthy. Peasant farmers and poor city dwellers made up most of the Third Estate, but the group also included doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers, and merchants. This second, much- smaller group made up the “bourgeoisie,” or middle class. Some merchants from this group were as wealthy as members of the nobility. The man under the rock is likely a member of the bourgeoisie.

9. What are the two men standing on?
The words on the rock translate to “heavy taxes and forced labor.”
Why would the artist write those words on the rock?
The clergyman and the noble are standing on the rock crushing the man who represents the Third Estate. The artist wrote these words on the rock to show that the taxes and forced labor were like a heavy weight pressing down upon the Third Estate.
In the years preceding the revolution, the burden of taxation placed on the Third Estate was particularly heavy. By the 1780s, the financial crisis had grown so severe that Louis XVI was forced to ask the nobles to pay taxes. They refused, leaving the burden of taxation on the Third Estate.
Members of the Third Estate had to pay taxes to the king, the Church, and the noblemen whose land they worked. They also had to pay taxes on essential goods like bread, and peasants were forced to work on projects (such as road building) in addition to farming (hence the “forced labor” referred to on the rock). It is not surprising that the members of the Third Estate resented this twofold burden: not only did they have to pay higher taxes to support the monarchy and the government because the first two estates were virtually tax- exempt, they also had to pay taxes directly to the first two estates.

10. What is the relationship between the three men?
Do the clergyman and the nobleman seem concerned about the third man?
The cartoon implies that the Third Estate is being crushed by the First and Second Estates. The clergyman and the nobleman don’t look concerned about the third man: the clergyman’s face is particularly serene and unworried. Also, the nobleman has his arm around the clergyman. The artist may have intended to convey that the first two estates were united in their disregard for the Third Estate. Indeed, there was not a sharp division between the first two estates in the same way that there was a division between the First and Third Estates, or between the Second and Third Estates. Many members of the higher clergy were noblemen by birth, so the two groups were intertwined. Both prospered from the system and had a stake in maintaining the status quo.