InNo+France+before+the+Revolution+p.+4-14+michellel2013+08.28.10

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media type="custom" key="6790187" Something i drew myself to show the three estates.



=France before the Revolution =
 * Summer of 1789–normally law-abiding French people joined a violent revolution
 * Used violent to change the way they lived
 * By end of the year, their system of law and government was destroyed
 * In the next decade they go on to transform their society, religion, and economy

__**French people and their Society **__


 * The three estates **
 * Social classes: peasantry, town working class, middle class/bourgeoisie, nobility.
 * According to French law, people didn't belong to classes but to estates
 * The three estates:
 * Clergy(130,000 people)–ones who made a living by working in Church
 * had own law courts
 * did not have to pay certain taxes
 * Nobility(120,000-350,000)
 * had right to carry a sword
 * special treatments in law court
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">did not have to pay certain taxes
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">did not have to do military service
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Everybody else (about 27 million)
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">no privileges
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">During middle ages (before 1789), the three estates were important–nobles were soldiers who fought for France at war, clergy ran the country's education+religious life
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Kings therefore gave them their own estates+privileges
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">By 1789, they became less important (nobles did not have sole responsibility for war)
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">French people thought the system of estates was outdated and unfair


 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Poverty **
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Some nobles and middle class were very rich, but most people were poor
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Several million people were so poor they depended on charity to survive


 * Unequal Taxation **
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Poor people still had to pay tax
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Two kind of taxes
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">taxes paid directly to government
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">indirect taxes which people paid when buying certain goods
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Average family paid 10-15% of yearly earnings in tax
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Nobles were exempt from paying direct taxes, clergy was exempt from some direct taxes
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Some provinces were exempt from indirect taxes, but some indirect taxes were not exempt for anyone
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In addition to paying taxes, peasants had to pay landlord
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Most nobles+clergy were landlords (seigneurs)–owned land and rents to peasants to farm
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Feudal Rights and Dues–what dues the peasants owed to their landlord


 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Everyone in a parish had to give church a tithe–give church around 1/10th of their yearly income/produce.
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Poor farmers can only pay with his hard-earned crops because not enough money

__**<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Critics of French Society **__
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Most French people didn't question how their society was organized except for the philosophes
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">philospphes–a group of writers, journalists, and scientists who shared a way of thinking which they called Reason


 * A Philosophe at Work **
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Scientist Lavoisier became famous by discovering how things burn
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Scientists used to believe anything that burned contained a substance called phlogiston
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Lavoisier discovered that that idea was wrong and that things actually burn because of a material combined with a recently-discovered gas; which he named oxygen
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">He was also involved in social and political issues
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">He proposed number of reforms to help the poor


 * The Calas Affair **
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The most famous philosophe was the write Voltaire
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">He questioned the power and beliefs of the French Church
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">He showed his views clearly when he was involved in a sad and injustice case called the Calas Affair
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Calas Affair
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">A cloth merchant called Jean Calas was a Protestant, living among catholics
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">One of his sons hanged himself in his fathers warehouse
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Rumor had it that Jean murdered his own son to stop him form converting to Catholic since his other son did already
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Calas was tied to a cartwheel and had his limbs smashed with an iron bar, he was then strangled and his body burned
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Voltaire believed that Jean Calas was innocent so he carried out a campaign to clear his name
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Calas was found un-guilty
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Volaire carried out the Calas case because he thought it presented major wrongs in the French Society
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">religious intolerance to non-catholics
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">cruelty of law that allowed Calas to be tortured to death


 * Changes in Public Opinion **
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Public opinions changed due to the writing of the philosophes
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">By 1780s most educated people agreed on some basic ideas and values
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">a more humane and torture-free system
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">toleration of non-Catholics such as Protestants and Jews
 * <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">changes in the way France was governed–wanted a say in how the country was ran

//**<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Questions: **// <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 1) Were the people born into a certain class? Was it possible to move up or down the social pyramid? <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 2) Were the nobles or the clergies higher in status? <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 3) How did Voltaire prove Calas as un-guilty?

//**<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Summary: **// <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This chapter basically talks about how France was organized and ran before the Revolution. The French society was divided into four different classes: the nobles, the middle class, the town workers, and lastly the peasants. But according to their law, the people actually belonged to estates and not classes. The three estates were divided into clergies, nobles, and then everyone else. The clergies and nobles enjoyed special privileges while the other estate did not. But after 1789, the French people started thinking the system of estates was outdated and unfair, therefore the nobles and clergies became less important. In the French society, the majority of the people were suffering from poverty, and many poor people depended on charity to live. Unfortunately, these poor people still had to pay tax, while the rich (nobles and clergies) were exempt from paying certain taxes. Farmers usually will have to pay with their yearly earnings of crops. In addition, peasants who lived in a parish also had to pay dues/tithes to their landlords, which were the nobles and clergies. Philosophes, helped the disadvantaged citizens of France by trying to make life easier for them. Since they were more educated, they started to question how their society was organized. Lavoiser proposed number of reforms to help the poor, and he also discovered how things burn. Voltaire helped open minds to the wrongs of French society through fighting the Calas affair. Writings of Philosophes lead to changes in public opinions, and by the 1780s most educated people agreed that France needed more humane laws, religious tolerance, and changes in French governing.