InNo+15-21+French+revolution+Jerry

French Revolution
The Government of France -governed by King Louis XVI (16) -absolute monarch, did not share his power unlike King george 3 of britain who shared power with parliament. -lived in thousand room palace(18km out of france), thousands of nobles, serving him as courtiers, run affairs. -wife marie, austrian archduchess. married 1770,she 14,him15. lost popularity as years went by. disliked marie.

Marie Antoinette
-many people disliekd her -reasons, foreign, called her the austrian women, in french made to sound like bitch. -disliked her for spending lots of money on clothes jewellry and gambling. -having favourites at court, -thought she was unfaithful. Louis gave marie own small palace, Versailles. Petit Trianon -spent lots of money on gardening, shew built a village in her garden known as hamlet, eithet thatched ottages with barn stables and dairy. made to look like a real vilalge. sheep goats cows in fields. -money spent to make it look like a poor village. could use money to improve peopls home, rid of signs of poverty in certain parts. -not all hated it, 12 rustic cottages were built, 12 poor families lived inside. -also it helped agriculture, ran on commercial lines, 6000 livres per year

Use and Abuse of Power
-not only marie who made government look bad/ unpopular, disliked becuase king pocessed too much power. -example, sealed letters, royal warrent odering the imprisonment exile of the person named on it. signed bythe king ,folded sealed by wax. person on the seal stay in prison for as long as wished. ministers were allowed to use them too. - Sealed letters were hated more than anythign else - letters often filled with names due to minister. - 14000 sealed letters issued (louis 16th), against peoepl who disagreed with the government. -people sent out of france, or inprisoned. -becuase he could do what ever he wished, called louis a "despot" 18th century way of saying dictator.

Financial Problems
- louis had to deal with lots of problems, government in debt. -debt for nearly 100 years. -spending more than receieved in taxes. -had to either raise taxes, borrow more money, or reduce their spendings.
 * -The Royal Debt**

Attempt to Reform
-only way to prevent bankrupt was to raise taxes. -Calonne finance minister plan ferom the tax system -Land tax, all landowners have to pay it. -however they would do all they could to get out paying it (clergy nobles) -refuse to register in paris law courts, or Parlement which they controlled, and all new laws had to be registered by the Paris Parlement, delay new tax from comign into effect. -Calonne wanting to avoid delay invited 150 leading nobles clergymen discuss to approve of new tax. -known as the assemble of notables, refused this land tax. -louis then dismissed the assembly of notables and tried to introduce the tax without their help, but the Parlement refused. -only body with the power to agree to new law was Estates General. although louis insisted he had the power himself, and exiled entire parliament from paris. -people everywehre in france protested. some violent protests -Day of Tiles, when a mob of protesters pelted soldiers with tilestorn from the citys rooftops, four people died. -louis ordered election to be held for an Estates General. May 1st 1789

Estates General
-nobles clergy welcomed idea for estates general. -use it to blcok his plans to tax them. -thoguht they could do so because of the voting system used by the estates general.

Voting System
-estates general met with king whenever king wanted to consult it. -not often last time met 1614. Then made up of 750 mebers about 250 each of the three estates. met in three seperate rooms. one vote each estate. -third estate thought it was unfair, because the first and second estate can out vote them. proposed double the number of people. one vote per member. -December 1788, government bankrupt, new finacne minister Jacques Necker adivsed him to double the amount of ppl in the third estate

Food Crisis
-finance wasnt the only problem, mass hunger, countryside. -Casued by freak weather. 12 july 1788 hailstorm destroyed cornfields vegetable plots orchards and vineyards all over central France. -followed by drought, poor harvest. -weather did not return back to usual, followed by coldest winter, rivers froze over, stopping watermills from grinding flour, bloakced roads, prevented food from reaching markets. Snow thawed in spring, floods, ruined areas of farmland -sharp price rise of bread. rose to 15 livres in Feb 1789. -spending all they had on bread. -stopped buying clothes candles shoes fuel, made companies go out of buisness. -unemployment, added to hunger led riots and strikes to many parts of the country

Summary
France was ruled by Louis XVI (16th). He had a wife marie which almost everyone hated. Spent a lot of money on gardening her palace and spent even more on clothing and gambling etc. Louis had absolute power over France, doing what ever he pleased. Louis could send sealed letters to order imprisonment or exile of anyone. One of the things people feared the most. French Government was in debt, they had to either raise taxes, borrow more money, or reduce the amount spent in order to avoid bankruptcy. Calonne came up with land tax but it was rejected by the Parlement which was ran by the first and second estates. Assembled something called the Assembly of notables which was only created to bring out the new land tax, But it failed eventually Louis tried to carried it out himself, but to only find himself being rejected by the parlement, and exiling them all from france. Louis called up an election for an Estate general. But then soon France became bankrupt and followed by violent revolts. But worse was mass hunger, odd weather changes hailstorms cold winters, snow in spring cuased crops to fail over and over causing food shortages. One of the toughest time ever.

Questions
Why did marie spend so much money although they were in debt.? How did they come out the famine?