1. FRENCH REVOLUTION

2. The Three Estates First Estate
Clergy Collect taxes, operated schools and hospitals
Less than one percent of population
Owned 10 percent of land
Second Estate
Nobility
Born into rights and privileges
Tax exempt
Less than two percent of population
Owned percent of land
Both hated enlightenment ideas
Do you have population percentages for these? This is important.
Move 3rd estate to own slide?

3. Third Estate Rest of society Mostly peasants Paid ALL taxes
97 percent of population
Bourgeoisie
Owned means of production
Lawyers, doctors, etc.
Exploited by clergy and nobility

5. Life of a peasant No food Starvation Few privileges
Servants = skilled and unskilled
Laborers
Responsible for taxes
Wars, palaces, used to support wealthy
Bourgeoisie included doctors, lawyers, etc.
This slide would be better organized by saying who they are first, then about taxes, then about their problems.

6. Louis XVI and Marie antoinette
King and Queen of France
Supported American Revolution, 1776
Represented absolute monarchy
Inherited debt
Bad spending habits
Palace of Versailles
You might want to remind the students about the spending habits of Louis XIV and his son (palace of Versailles)
Also this would be a good time to tell some details about these two. Don’t need to put them on the slide.
Executed in 1793

7. Long term Causes Corrupt & inconsistent leadership Massive debt
Absolute monarch
Resentment of 3rd Estate privileges
Paid largest sum of taxes
No voice in government
First and Second Estate would overrule Third Estate
Each estate had one vote
Enlightenment Philosophy
“Freedom of the Individual”
Voltaire, Diderot, Turgot
Saw effects of American Revolution
Sounds like the 3rd estate had the privileges.
= equality, people are equal

9. Short Term Causes Government debt Did not tax upper class
War debt, tax evasion
Poor harvest
Bad weather in 1780s led to crop failure
Increase in the price of bread
Rejection of financial reforms
Attempted to force nobles to pay taxes, failed
Visual won’t be readable—make it one entire slide.

10. Estates general One vote per estate
Clergy and nobility joined to outvote Third Estate
Versailles May 1789
First meeting since 1614
Third Estate formed National Assembly
Sign of revolution

11. National assembly Third Estate established own government 1789
Inspired by Abbe Sieyes
French Roman Catholic

12. “the third estate awakens”

13. Confrontation with king
Louis XVI locked Third Estate out of National Assembly’s meeting hall
Moved to nearby tennis courts for meetings
Tennis Court Oath
Vowed not to leave
King reversed position
Ordered first two estates to join National Assembly
Called French troops to Paris

14. Storming of the Bastille
Rioting in Paris, early July
Louis fired Necker
Lowered Third Estate taxes
Paris mobs seized weapons from armory
Attacked Bastille
Prison and armory: symbol of oppression
Soldiers refused to stop attack
Bastille destroyed
Doesn’t need to be on slide, but need to explain who Necker is.
Jacques Necker – Swiss, finance minister of Louis XVI until 1789, controlled all of wealth, “cooked the books”

15. Declaration of the rights of man and citizen
Adopted by National Assembly, 1789
Enlightenment ideas
Outlined basic freedoms held by all
Asserted sovereignty of the people
“Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”