French+Revolution+p.4-14+Bernard+Yue+08.25.10

__**"Awesome" thing - a video**__ media type="custom" key="6774305" This is a brief video on inequality during the French Revolution. It is a very basic video. Pictures were chosen because they showed poverty and how the poor people did not have any privileges. I made a video because keynote is one of my favorite tools on the macbook. I have used keynote projects during many occasions last year, and I hope to bring that joy up again in this class. The song "Ruination" was specially chosen for this video, as the song is about corrupted governments and how humans have turned Earth into a land of chaos. The song talks about nuclear war, which of course did not happen during the French Revolution yet, but shows modern corruption. The inequality during the French Revolution was the corruption during that time. This video relates to the notes because it talks about poor people having no privileges, and how despite that fact, they still had to pay taxes. Although notes also talk about the clergy and nobility having privileges, the video is related.

Song: Job For a Cowboy - Ruination Love picture Money picture Landlord picture "No rights" picture "Corruption" picture Title picture

__France before the Revolution__
-belonged to __ESTATES__, not classes -ESTATES = clergy (had privileges), nobility (had privileges), everyone else (27 mil, no privileges) -greatest value = financial privilege -greatest inequality in French society = people's wealth -most nobles and bourgeoisie = rich, everyone else = poor -philosophes = group of writers, journalists, and scientists who shared a way of thinking which they called REASON -result to writings of philosophes = public opinion changed
 * 1787, millions took part in revolution
 * 20 million French ppl were peasants
 * 2 millions ppl worked in towns
 * 2 million ppl belonged to the bourgeoisie
 * btwn 120,000 & 350,000 ppl were nobles
 * 4 social classes = peasantry, town working class, middle class (bourgeoisie), and nobility
 * 1789, nobles + clergy = less important than they had been in middle ages
 * some million had to rely on charity to survive
 * a family of 5 needed at least 435 //livres// (pounds) a year for BASIC NEEDS
 * ppl were poor but they STILL had to pay TAXES!!!!!
 * 2 kind of tax = tax directly to gov. & indirect tax people pay whenever buying certain goods
 * avg. family paid btwn 10% and 15% of yearly earnings in tax to gov.
 * nobles and clergy were exempt from many taxes
 * mil. peasants paid landlords too
 * evry1 in parish had to giv church a **//tithe//**
 * observe and test
 * Lavoisier the scientist, became famous by discovering how things burn
 * scientists believed anything that burn had phlogiston
 * Lavoisier decided there was no phlogiston, but OXYGEN instead
 * 1787, Lavoisier tried helping poor by proposing # of reforms
 * most famous philosophes = Voltaire
 * questioned power and beliefs of the French Church
 * he believed there were major wrongs in French society:
 * religious intolerance
 * cruelty of the law
 * 1780s, educated ppl agree on basic ideas and values:
 * more humane, torture-free system of law
 * favored toleration of non-Catholics
 * change in the way France was governed
 * a say in how the country ran

__**SUMMARY**__
There were 28 million people living France during the French Revolution. There were three estates that consisted of the clergy, the nobility, and everyone else. Clergies and the nobility basically had most or all privileges. They could have their own law courts, or even the right to carry a sword. Everyone else, such as doctors and lawyers had no privileges AT ALL. As if this inequality wasn't enough, poverty contributed to inequality even more. The 'everyone else' group of people were extremely poor as well, but still had to pay taxes. For the clergy and the nobility it wasn't a problem because they were usually rich. Not only did the poor people had to pay tax to the government, but also to their landlords. This resulted in some poor people relying on charity! ;( This is inequality, this is corruption, damnation of a society. But later as people become more educated, they soon realize the major problems and obstacles of the French society.

Some educated people known as the //philosophes// started believing that something was only true if it has been observed, tested, and has been approved. Lavoisier was one the most famous //philosophes//. Soon, educated people started working towards a better society, and their writings soon changed public opinion.