In France, before the French Revolution, the governing body was called the Old Regime. Under Louis XIV and his queen Marie Antoinette, the French society was divided up into three groups. These groups were called the three estates. In this system, the first two estates lived very well while the third estate was very impoverished. This paired with the lack of a strong leader (Louis XIV) caused rising tensions in the third estate. This eventually led to revolution. The main cause of this was the layout of the Old Regime.
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The Old Regime was made up of three estates that were very different in their governmental abilities and their amount of money. The first group of the Old Regime system was the first estate. This group was made up of the Roman Catholic Church clergy and less than one percent of the population. Although their small population, the clergy owned a baffling ten percent of all French land. Instead of being religion centered and striving for the betterment of the community, most of the members of this group were very corrupt.
They collected taxes while they actually did not pay any taxes of their own. This was due to the French being very Catholic. They believed that if they taxed the clergymen, they would be taxing God. There were a few, however, who did do good deeds such as working and donating money to the poor. In general, the first estate was a corrupt, dishonest, and greedy group of people who used God to reinforce their unjust actions. The next group in the Old Regime was the second estate. This estate was made up of the nobles in France.
Along with the clergy, they held a very high position in society. Also, the second estate had a low percent of the population; about two percent. Those in this estate held high positions in military and in the government. The nobility held about twenty percent of all land in France. The nobility was known for being much focused on material goods rather than the good of their community. They were “Thoughtless, irresponsible, and extravagant. ” They had a vast amount of money and paid little to no taxes.
This was a very wasteful group that seemed useless to society. The final group of the Old Regime was the third estate. This was France’s workforce. These people made up ninety-seven percent of the population, but were only allotted seventy percent of the land. The third estate had sub-groups of its own. The first group was the Bourgeoisie. This translates into “city dwelling” but is commonly known as the middle class. Those that made p this group were doctors, lawyers, and merchants. These people were fairly well off and had a bit of extra money.
The main difference between the Bourgeoisie and the others in the third estate was that the Bourgeoisies were educated, specifically in enlightenment ideas. They later helped to steer the French Revolution. The next group within the third estate was laborers and artisans. This group consisted of the skilled craftsman in society. Along with the others in the third estate, they had low wages and high taxes. The third group of the third estate was the peasants. Making up roughly eighty percent of the population, the peasants were at the bottom of society.
They lost nearly half their wages to taxes even though they had miniscule wages in the first place. They were forced to pay a tax to the church (tithe) and could not influence society. They disliked the first estate because they were the tax collectors and the second estate because they were the government officials. They fought this by creating the General Assembly June 17th, 1789. This was the first sign of revolt and was the first time that the people were in control of power. The third estate was a very strong group that was determined to get change in the French government.
They officially declared this on June 14th, 1789 when they stormed the Bastille (hated French prison) in search of weapons. They were finished with the Old Regime and were taking a stand. The Old Regime was a very unfair system that gave all the power to the first two estates and left the third estate to fend for itself when actually, the third estate was the basis of all French society. This system was the main cause for revolution. The Old Regime was made up of three estates that were very different in their governmental abilities and their amount of money.
