InNo+hyejijun94+08.30.10

*This chart shows the events that happened in France to reform their tax system.


 * Inside of the Petit Trianon, a small palace that Marie Antoinette owned.


 * A little Belvedere in Marie Antoinette's garden.


 * A painting of Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis that most people disliked.

__** Revolution in France (pg 15-21): **__


 * The government of France: **
 * France was governed by King Louis the Sixteenth
 * He was an absolute monarch
 * Louis' wife was Marie Antoinette, an Austrian archduchess
 * People like Louis and his wife at first but after all became disliking them, especially his wife, Marie Antoinette


 * Marie Antoinette: **
 * People disliked Marie Antoinette for following reasons:
 * She was foreign (people called her 'Austrian woman' which, in French, could be made to sound like 'bitch')
 * She spent huge amounts of money
 * People thought she was unfaithful to Louis
 * 1774, Louis gave Marie Antoinette her own small palace, called the Petit Trianon
 * Antoinette spent huge amounts of money to create the gardens beautiful and built a village (hamlet)
 * Her purpose was to make the village seem old like a real village and people though it was silly
 * Not everyone criticized Marie Antoinette (ex. foster-brother and some modern historians)


 * Use and abuse of power: **
 * People disliked the royal government because the king had too much power (ex. King's use of 'sealed letters')
 * Sealed letter was a royal warrant ordering the imprisonment or exile of the person named on it
 * People criticized Louis of being a 'despot', meaning dictator


 * Financial problems: **
 * Louis had to deal with many problems, especially the problem that his government was in debt
 * The French government spent more each year than it received in taxes
 * 1786, Calonne, the finance minister, told Louis that the government was close to financial collapse


 * This diagram shows the debt problem in 1786.


 * An attempt at reform: **
 * The government had to raise taxes to avoid bankruptcy
 * Calonne drew up a plan to reform the tax system (ex. landowners would have to pay tax on land)
 * The laws had to be registered by the Paris //Parlement// but the nobles and clergy would refuse to do it
 * Calonne invided 150 leading nobles and clergymen to agree with the new tax
 * They (the Assembly of Notables) refused to agree to the new tax, saying that they had no power to approve new taxes
 * They said that only the Estates General had that power
 * Louis then exiled the entire //Parlement// from Paris
 * People protested angrily against this
 * August 1788, Louis ordered elections to be held for an Estates General

France was governed by King Louis the Sixteenth. Many French people disliked the royal government, the king with too much power and even his wife Marie Antoinette. Louis' wife was criticized because she was Austrian and she spent huge sums of money in decorating herself and her own palace. But it wasn't only Marie Antoinette who made the royal government unpopular. People disliked the king abusing his absolute power by using the 'sealed letters', which are royal warrants ordering the imprisonment or banishment of the person named on it. People who disagreed with the government were sent into exile and some were put into royal prisons. People then started to criticize him for being a dictator or tyrant. There were also some financial problems that needed an immediate reform. A finance minister, Calonne drew up a plan to reform the tax system but it wasn't successful. Since the nobles and clergy were claiming for the Estates General to register the new tax, Louis exiled the entire //Parlement// from Paris. This ended up causing violent protests from people in France. In August 1788, Louis had no choice but to order elections to be held for an Estates General.
 * Summary: **

Why did the nobles and clergy claimed that they did not have to power to approve new tax? What exactly was the 'Assembly of Notables' and what does it mean?
 * Questions: **