1. The Causes of the French Revolution

2. The French Revolution In the 1770’s France was ruled by the Old Regime. Under this system there were three social classes or estates. The first class was the clergy of the Catholic church. They owned about 10% of the land in France.

3. The French Revolution The second estate was made up of rich nobles. The nobles only made up about 2% of the population but owned about 20% of the land. Most of the people in the first two classes paid no taxes.

4. The French Revolution The other 97% of the French people belonged to the third estate. In the third estate there were another three classes. The first was called the Bourgeoisie which were mostly bankers, merchants and factory owners. Many of them were as rich as nobles but had to pay extremely high taxes.

6. The French Revolution

7. The second class of the third estate was made up of the workers. They were the poorest of the third estate and many times went unemployed and hungry. Peasants made up the third class of the third estate and they were mainly farmers. 80% of France’s people fell into this group.

8. The French Revolution Third Estate First class: Merchants, Bankers And Factory Owners Second Class: Workers Third Class: Peasant Farmers

9. The French Revolution The third class became inspired by the American Revolution and became upset that they had little control over their country During the 1780’s France’s economy became troubled and many of the farmers and workers were out of work. Also the extravagant lifestyles of King Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antoinette made money scarce.

11. The French Revolution After France ran out of money Louis XVI decided to raise taxes on the nobles. The nobles unhappy about the taxes called a meeting with the king called the Estates- General. The meeting was held by all three estates to approve the new taxes.

12. The French Revolution The third estate asked for more delegates because they had more people but the King sided with the nobles. The third estate upset decided to make the National Assembly which would reform laws for the people. After several days of meetings Louis had them locked out of there meeting room.

13. The French Revolution The National Assembly broke into a tennis court and protested the kings ruling. This would be known as the Tennis Court Oath. Louis sent the military to deal with them and citizens took up arms against the soldiers. Peasants looking for gun powder took siege to a prison called the Bastille.