France+Before+the+Revolution+3+weiweil2013+08.31.10

1) 2) Society and unfair rights were a big reason the people of France wanted a change in the government of France. The people affected in a negative way by society, the estates and unfair rights, were the majority of the population of France. The third estate especially wanted more equal rights and a change of government.
 * Review and Assessment Questions**
 * ||  **Things that people disliked** ||  **Kinds of people that disliked these kinds of things**  ||
 * Society (source 6) || The estates were unequal in rights, wealth and population; it was especially unfair for the third estate. || The third estate (everyone but nobility and clergy) ||
 * Taxation (source 12) || Taxes were heavy, especially on the third estate; the nobility and clergy weaseled out of as many taxes as they could. The people had to pay direct and indirect taxes. || The third estate mostly ||
 * Feudal rights and dues (source 13) || The people who worked in their landowners’ land had to pay their landowners to “rent” their tools, considered a “right”. They also had to pay their landowners money and portion of their harvest. || The third estate (non-landowners) ||
 * Law (source 16) || The punishments were violent and often biased towards the first two estates and Christianity. || All (alleged) law-breakers, the third estate ||
 * Government (sources 20, 26 and 31) || The royal family was extravagant, too powerful, and constantly in debt. || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Everyone. ||

3) The government spent more each year than it received in taxes, so the government went bankrupt, so the government was deeply in debt, so the Finance Minister planned to raise money with a new tax on land. But an assembly of nobles and clergy refused to agree to the new tax, so Louis XVI ordered a meeting of the Estates General, hoping it would agree to the new tax. But the Third Estate deputies took over the Estates General and turned it into a National Assembly, so Louis XVI decided to hold a royal session of the Estates General and warn the third estates not the defy him, but the deputies gathered in a tennis court and swore an oath that they would continue to meet. E I B G A C D H F

All the events up to when Louis XVI ordered the meeting of the Estates General hoping it would agree to the new tax are causes of the Estates General meeting; this includes how the government spent more than it earned, how the government was deeply in debt and went bankrupt, and how the Finance Minister decided to solve this problem by making a new land tax.

4) a) Political - People thought the king and his ministers had too much power (eg, lettres de cachet), nobles disliked the government's plans for a new land tax because they would lose their privilege of tax exemption b) Social - People disliked the fact that Marie Antoinette was Austrian, people disliked the fact that Marie Antoinette's extravagant spending, nobles disliked the government's plans for a new land tax because they would lose their privilege of tax exemption c) Economical - Many poor people blamed the government for high prices and unemployment

5) I think the most important reason for the government's unpopularity was the high prices and unemployment that the poor people experienced. If a country or government has a poorly organised economy, then most of the wealth of a population belongs to a very small percentage, creating a large gap between the rich and poor. Eventually this gap becomes more and more obvious, and the poorer people start to see the unfairness and start to complain. The poorer people make up the majority of the population, so their complaining becomes very powerful.

6) Marie Antoinette played a part in spending the money and making the government unpopular, but even if Louis XVI had not married her, he most likely still would have been a tyrant with no regards to the value of money, who abuses power and does everything to assert that power.


 * The Estates General**
 * met very occasionally
 * 750 members, 250 from each estate
 * unfair voting system
 * each estate had one vote
 * first two could outvote third on anything
 * December 1788: third estate doubled, one vote each member
 * government bankrupt
 * big problem: mass hunger
 * due to freak weather
 * 13 July 1788: massive hailstorm, then drought, then cold winter, then melting snow flood
 * sharp rise in bread price
 * all but bread industry lost business
 * unemployment = anger, riots, strikes
 * elections for Estates General in spring 1789
 * voters drew up complaint lists
 * showed major changes were desired
 * eg: tax-free salt, tithe change, etc.
 * raised expectations of king's interest in the people's problems
 * 5 May, 1789: the first Estates General meeting
 * estates told to split up into separate rooms
 * third estate refuse, saying they'd be outvoted
 * requested all estates together in National Assembly
 * nobility and clergy refuse
 * third estate defy king (work in EG by themselves if 1/2 estates didn't join)
 * 19 June: clergy decided to join third estate
 * third estate locked out of meeting hall
 * Tennis Court Oath: 20 June, 1789
 * took shelter from rain in nearest building, tennis court
 * oath = carry on meeting until France government changed
 * 23 June: Royal Session, ordered to meet separately, refused
 * 27 June: National Assembly told to meet together, became France's legal parliament
 * revolution thought to be over - NOT SO.

The first Estates General meeting was on 5 May, 1789; at the meeting, the estates were ordered to meet in separate rooms. The third estate thought this unfair; the first two estates were fully intending to use the system to outvote them and block the king's plans to tax them. Louis was angered at their defiance, but two weeks later the clergy joined the third estate. The next morning, the third estate found themselves excluded from the Estates General; it started to rain, and to take shelter the deputies went to a nearby tennis court, where the Tennis Court Oath was sworn: to carry on meeting until the French government was changed. Faced at their fierce determination, Louis gave in, and thus France's legal parliament was formed from the National Assembly.
 * Summary**

Why DIDN'T Louis order them to leave? Why did Louis want them to meet separately in the first place? Did Louis know that the first two estates were planning to block his plans of taxing them?
 * Questions**