1. Events and Ideas #3 The French Revolution
World History
Unit 2

2. Complete the Crash Course worksheet that goes with this video
Crash Course: Episode #29 – The French Revolution

3. Essential Questions:
Explain the Three Estates and their part in the French Revolution.
Which Estate “won” in the end and how did they win?

4. Three Estates 1st Estate – Clergy 2nd Estate – Nobility
First two combined – 3%
3rd Estate – Everyone else
97%
The First Estate
The French Catholic Church maintained a wide scope of powers - it literally constituted a state within a state and it had sustained this position for more than 800 years. The clergy was divided into the lower and upper clergy. Members of the lower clergy were usually humble, poorly-paid and overworked village priests. As a group, they resented the wealth and arrogance of the upper clergy.
The bishops and abbots filled the ranks of the upper clergy, men who regarded their office as a way of securing a larger income and the landed property that went with it. Most of the upper clergy sold their offices to subordinates, kept the revenue, and lived in Paris or at the seat of royal government at Versailles.
The Second Estate – The Nobility
Like the clergy, the nobility represented another privileged Estate. The nobility held the highest positions in the Church, the army and the government. As an order, they were virtually exempt from paying taxes of any kind. They collected rent from the peasant population who lived on their lands.
The Third Estate – Everyone not a member of estate one or two
Totaling approximately 25 million souls, the Third Estate was composed of the bourgeoisie, the peasantry and the urban artisans. As a class, the bourgeoisie - merchants, manufacturers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, intellectuals - had wealth. In some cases, enormous wealth. But, wealth in the ancien regime did not mean status or privilege and it should be clear by now that "success" in 18th century France meant status and privilege. Wealth was nothing without status.
The Peasantry
Peasants were victimized by heavy taxation - taxes were necessary to pay for the costs of war, something that had already consumed the French government for an entire century. So, the peasants paid taxes to the king, taxes to the church, taxes and dues to the lord of the manor, as well as numerous indirect taxes on wine, salt, and bread.

5. The Three Estates The social structure in France was rigid.
Society was based on custom and tradition.
Only the Third Estate had to pay taille, which means the chief taxes
The Three Estates

6. YouTube clip: A good student project explaining the Three Estates:
Write video clip on the left
Summarize all video clips in two sentences

7. French Revolution
The French National Assembly swore the Tennis Court Oath which was a vow to continue to meet until they had produced a French constitution
Storming of the Bastille -- July 14, Celebrated as a national holiday
Mob of citizens killed guards and paraded heads around Paris on pikes
The Women march on Versailles
October 1789.
Bread prices rising.
Women demand action.
Demand the King and Queen return to Paris.

8. Parisian Woman
Louis XVI was forced to accept the national Assembly’s decrees because thousands of armed Parisian women captured him and his family.

9. The French Revolution
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen proclaimed equal rights for all men, but no political rights for women
Louis and Marie are executed

10. Reign of Terror Under the direction of Robespierre:
3000 killed in Paris
40,000 killed throughout France
85% of those who died were peasants
Robespierre himself is arrested and beheaded. Reign of Terror Ends.

11. Reign of Terror
The Committee of Public Safety (headed by Maximillian Robespierre) were given broad powers to defend France from threats
These threats were usually from regular citizens who spoke out against the leaders

12. Reign of Terror
The sans-culottes were a political group who were ordinary patriots without fine clothes
The National Convention pursued a policy of de-Christianization, adopting a new calendar

13. Reign of Terror

14. Answer the Essential Questions:
Explain the Three Estates and their part in the French Revolution.
Which Estate “won” in the end and how did they win?
Minimum of five academic sentences