InNo+Number+One+caroline.norgreen+08.25.10


 * France Before the Revolution InNo - pages 4-14 **



Relevance: This shows the three estates of French society, and what each estate has in common.

media type="youtube" key="s4uvLXCUhVg?fs=1" height="385" width="480" Relevance: This shows the start of the French Revolution, why people started getting upset and their reason for revolting against the government.


 * FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION - Notes **


 * France, summer of 1789 – violent revolutions all over the country to change way of life
 * During revolution – old law systems and government were in ruins
 * After Revolution – wanted to change the society, religion, & economy

French People and Their Society
 * Before the Revolution 28 millions lived in France
 * 20 million of the population were peasants
 * 2 million were workers (shopkeepers, craftsmen, builders, etc)
 * 2 million were bourgeoisie – the middle class (ship-owners)
 * 120,000 – 350,000 were nobles – high class (land owners & had titles)

The Three Estates
 * According to law people were not classified in classes, but in estates
 * Estate one – people who worked within/for the Church
 * Estate two – nobility
 * Estate three – everyone else
 * Estates were popular during war time, but in 1789 they were less important and people thought the system was outdated and unfair

Poverty
 * Huge difference in wealth. Estate one and two were extremely rich and could easily afford many things, while estate three mainly were poor, who lived in small cramped spaces, traveling for refuge to refuge to find somewhere they could afford to live for a bit
 * Millions relied on charity
 * 1790 government finally gave families of five, 435 “livres” (pounds) of supplies a year.

Unequal Taxation
 * Average family had to pay 10-15% of their yearly income
 * Many Nobles and clergy got to avoid a big part of the taxes, thus they had no problem paying for the taxes while everyone was struggling.
 * Not only did peasants have to pay tax but also had to pay rent to the landlord which were the higher classes (as well as feudal dues)

Critics of the French Society
 * Many people did not know a different way of living life, so did not question the system
 * There were a group of writers, scientists, and journalist, (the philosophes) who all shared the same idea, called the Reason
 * Did not believe anything was true unless tested and proven.

A Philosophe at Work
 * Lavoisier – a scientist that came up with the idea of burning – also got involved with social and political issues
 * He had an experimental farm on his estate to try to come up with ideas for peasants to improve their crops.
 * Proposed new reformed, abolished old ideas, and coming up with the old age pension, and new hospitals as well to help the poor.

The Calas Affair
 * Voltaire – a writer – got involved with questioning the power and beliefs of the French Church
 * He also got involved with Jean Calas who was a Protestant who lived among Catholics.
 * He was tortured to death because the Church found him guilty at first of murdering on of his own sons (thought to be because he wanted to follow the Catholic beliefs)
 * Voltaire believed Calas was innocent and the Church just prosecuted him because he was Protestant.
 * He carried out a series of campaigns over three years – finally a court found Calas not guilty
 * He found major problems in the French society – 1, religious intolerance – 2, cruelty of the law

Changes in Public Opinion
 * Because of people like Voltaire people started to change their opinion of the government and church
 * 1780’s they wanted a government with more humane and torture-free system that allowed non-Catholics to be present in the country
 * But mainly they just wanted a say in how the country was governed

This first reading of France before the Revolution of 1789 shows the three different estates. It also ties to depict the way people where treated if they happened to be part of the 20 million that where in like peasant/commoners class, giving detailed information on how much poverty was in France. This reading also explained the tax policies in France, emphasizing that the peasants had to pay most of the tax to not only the government but also from the nobles/high classes who they were renting land from. When the average family had to pay 10-15% of their income and then also pay a lot more to all the high classes it became hard for a family to survive. Once the philosophes starting coming into play, the ones that started testing everything, and not believing anything was true before accurately testing it started coming into play in the French history. They were the ones that came up with new reforms and got rid of all the old ideas. Once they started criticizing the government of wrong doings, such as they did in the Calas Affair, the people suddenly started to become aware of how cruel the government really was.
 * Summary **

Why did the people not realize what was going on from the start - or did it slowly get more and more cruel? How was the education system in France? Did everybody get to go to school? How was health care then - was there any?
 * Questions **