Notes+P+4-14+amypx2013+8.26.2010

Revolution In France - P 4-14






Four Social Classes and Three Estates Privileges Inequality
 * peasantry
 * town-working class
 * middle class (bourgeoisie)
 * nobility
 * First estate : clergy/ people who worked in the church
 * Second estate : nobility
 * Third estate : everyone else
 * First and second estates had rights that provided them with great advantages - especially financial rights
 * First estate (130,000 people) - own law courts and did not have to pay certain taxes
 * Second estate (120,000-350,000 people) - carry sword, special rights in law courts, did not have to pay certain taxes, no military service.
 * Third estate (27 million people) - No privileges.
 * 1789, nobles and clergy were less important than they were in the Middle Ages.
 * People thought that the estate system was outdated and unfair.
 * Some nobles and bourgeoisie were incredibly rich
 * Some peasants were incredibly poor.
 * Taxation - poor people still had to pay taxes (10%-15% of their yearly earning to the government)
 * Some people (nobles and clergy) were exempt from taxes.
 * Nobles who owned land rented them to farmers and had feudal rights.
 * Because of those rights, peasants had to pay lots of feudal dues to the land owners.
 * People in a parish had to give the Church a tithe (10% of their yearly income)

A mind map illustrating the three estates (click to view details): media type="custom" key="6785155" align="center"

Lavoisier
 * Discovered how things burn
 * Tried out new farming methods
 * In 1787 he proposed a lot of reforms to help the poor

The Calas Affair
 * Jean Calas was sentenced to death because people believed that he murdered his son to stop him converting to the Catholic faith.
 * Writer Voltaire believed that Calas was innocent. He started campaigns.
 * In 1765 the court pardoned Calas.
 * This case showed major wrongs in the French society, including religious intolerance and cruelty of the law.

My Summary : In the French society before the revolution, there was a great inequality among the people; a lot of peasants suffered from poverty and and inhumane laws, while nobles and clergy were free from taxes and owned special rights (e.g. Feudal rights). There were also problems such as religious intolerance. Thus the French society started to change- people had a different opinion and started looking for a torture-free and humane system of law, which was probably what led to the revolution.

Question : -Why did the French society not allow other religions other than Catholic?