InNo+mengxinw2013+08.28.10


 * AWESOME PART **


 * = Name of Tax ||= Did the nobles or clergy pay ||
 * = Taille ||= no ||
 * = Capitation ||= no ||
 * = Twentieths ||= no ||
 * = Corvee ||= no ||
 * = Gabelle ||= yes ||
 * = Octroi ||= yes ||
 * = Aides ||= yes ||
 * = Traites ||= yes ||

In reality, the nobles and clergy only needed to payed half of the taxes everyone else payed, and the amount they pay is a lot lesser than the non-nobles.

What brought the French people to revolt? The events above slowly built up to the climax, the ...dun dun dun...French Revolution:O.
 * financial differences between classes
 * too much tax
 * privileges that first and second estate get, especially unfair taxation
 * poverty
 * inequitable feudal rights and dues
 * unreasonable amount of tithe to the church
 * questionings from the educated philosophes
 * the Calas affair


 * NOTES of Pg. 4-14 **
 * · millions of law-abiding French people took part in violent revolution, 1789
 * · cities, towns, villages all over France, people used violence to change the way they lived
 * · by year end, destroyed their centuries-old system of law and government

Social Classes and Estates
 * · most French people belonged to four social classes, peasantry, town working class, middle class/bourgeoisie, and nobility
 * · nobles and middle class, bourgeois lived significantly different life than the peasants and town workers
 * · according to French law, people didn’t belong to classes, but estates
 * · there are 3 estates, first estate, the clergy, second estate, the nobility, third estate, everyone else
 * · first 2 estates had privileges, mostly financial privileges, including not paying certain taxes
 * · in middle ages, nobles were soldiers with the job of fighting for France in wartime, clergy ran country’s education and religious life, therefore they had more privileges
 * · by 1789, nobles and clergy were less important; nobles no longer had sole responsibility for war, therefore French people thought the system was outdated and unfair
 * · the greatest inequality in French society was people’s wealth
 * · some nobles and bourgeoisie were incredibly rich, but most people were poor

Unequal Taxation and Rights of Landlords
 * · even though most people were poor, still had to pay taxes
 * · two kinds of tax – tax paid directly to the government, indirect tax which people paid whenever they bought certain goods
 * · average family paid between 10% and 15% of yearly earnings in tax to the government
 * · nobles and clergy only had to pay a few of the long list of taxes in France, on the ones they pay, they paid no more than anyone else
 * · millions of peasants also had to pay money to their landlords, which includes many nobles and many clergy, called seigneurs
 * · they rent their land to peasants to farm
 * · peasants owed dues to their landlords, including paying landlords with tax, free labor, and crops
 * · peasants had to follow rights of the landlord, including paying to use ovens, mills, press, and landlords have the right to damage their crop
 * · everyone had to give the Church a tithe, around a tenth of their yearly income or produce

Philosophes
 * · most French didn’t question the way society was organized because they knew no other way of life
 * · educated people questioned it, they were the philosophes, group of writers, journalists and scientists, who shared a way of thinking they called Reason; believed that only way to know if something was true was to observe and test it, refused to accept anything true without questioning it
 * · scientist Lavoisier was a philosophe, famous by discovering how things burn
 * most famous philosophes was writer Voltaire
 * questioned the power and beliefs of the French Church

Calas Affairs:
 * Jean Calas, was a Protestant, living among Catholics
 * his son hanged himself, when body was found Cahtolics gathered outside
 * Rumour spread that Jean Calas murdered the boy to stop him converting to Catholic faith
 * magistrates accepted rumor as true and condemned to death
 * Voltaire believed that Calas was innocent
 * an appeal court in 1765 found Calas not guilty and pardoned him even though he's dead
 * Voltaire took up the case because it showed some major wrongs in French society - religious intolerance - cruelty of the law
 * public opinion began to change as most educated people agreed on a number of basic ideas and values: more humane, torture-free system of law
 * wanted a say in how the country was run


 * Questions **


 * 1) Why are parish priests, nuns, and monks in a higher estate than the king, queen, prince, and princess?
 * 2) Why did the court not help the poverty in its country by reducing taxes for people who are desperately poor? Or was the court not even aware of the poverty?
 * 3) Why would someone like Lavoisier, who's passion is science, get involved with politics?

There were significant class differences in France: the peasants lived in poverty, the town workers were poor, the middle class were well off, while the nobles lived in luxury. However, according to French law, people belonged to estates instead of classes. There are three estates, the first, second, and third. The archbishops, bishops, cannons, priors, nuns, monks, and parish priests belonged to the first estate. The second estate includes the king, queen, royal family, and the nobles. Everyone else belonged to the third estate. The first two estates got privileges because during the middle ages, the clergy ran the religious life and education, while the nobles were soldiers with the job of fighting for their country. As time passed, the nobles and clergy were less important, therefore, the system of estates seemed unfair and outdated for common French people. The greatest inequality in French society was people's wealth. While some nobles and middle class were incredibly rich, millions of others were in poverty. These people rely on charity to live. Despite the fact that many people were poor, they still had to pay large sums of tax, while nobles and clergys had to pay only a few of the taxes everyone else had to pay. Nobles and clergys were landlords who rented their land to peasants. Peasants owed dues to the landlords while the landlords had many unfair rights on the peasants. The landlords were allowed to damage the peasant's crops, while the peasants had to give the landlord free labor, crops, and money. In addition to this, everyone had to pay tithe to churches, which is around a tenth of their yearly income. Philosophes, who shared a way of thinking called Reason, questioned the way their society was organized. One of the most famous philosophes was the scientist Lavoisier, who discovered how things burn. Voltaire, a writer, was the most famous philosophe. Jean Calas, who was a Protestant living among Catholics was tortured to death because his son hanged himself. The court thinks that Jean Calas murdered the boy, however, after he's dead, Voltaire appealed to the court and Calas was found no guilty. Public opinions began to change in the 1780s, educated people agrred that there should be more humane in the society, a torture-free system of law, and a say in how the country was run.
 * Summary **