Third Estate In The National Assembly example essay topic

Revolutions are generally the result of political problems, economical problems, social reasons, or a combination of all these factors. The French Revolution of 1789-1799 was one of the most important events in the history of the world. It questioned the authority of kings, priests and nobles. The primary cause of the revolution was the dispute over the people's differing ideas of reform.

It was essentially a revolution of all classes of society against the old system of government. France, a feudal country in the eighteenth century, was ruled under the 'ancien regime'. The king was the absolute monarch. He had centralized power in the royal bureaucracy. At this time in French history, the social classes played a very important role in the lives of the people. The social structure of France was divided into three groups: The First Estate, The Second Estate and The Third Estate.

The First Estate was the clergy (the church). During the 'ancien regime', the church was equal in terms of its social, economic and spiritual power. This class owned nearly ten percent of the land in France. It paid no taxes, but to support church activities such as school running and caring for the poor, it collected a tithe, or a tax on income. About one third of the entire clergy in France served as parish priests. This estate was a minor one, making up 1 to 2 percent of the entire population.

The Second Estate was the most powerful one, made up of nobles. They enjoyed extensive rights and privileges. Although they were only about 1.5 percent of the population, the nobles owned about one third of the land in France. Thus, economically, the nobility was characterized by great land wealth. Like the First Estate, they hardly paid any taxes. Typical sources of income for them were rents and dues for the use of their farms and estates.

The First and Second Estates were grouped together because they had similar political beliefs. The Third Estate essentially consisted of everyone who did not belong to one or other of the two privileged estates. It included the bourgeoisie, peasants and city workers. The bourgeoisie were by far the wealthiest in this group. They were merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, doctors and other upper class professionals. The other extreme, however, was the peasantry.

They were forced to pay hefty taxes, tithes to the church and rents to their landlords for the land they lived on. The last group within the Third Estate was made up of urban workers. Most of these people lived in crowded towns, and insanitary tenements. They were forced to work long hours, and while prices roes by 65%, their wages only rose by 22%, thus their standard of living was in decline.

The middle class was often worried about social status, for they were not recognized because they were part of the third estate. Since the first two estates were exempted from taxes, this left the third estate to provide almost all of the country's income. They were forced to pay taxes on their income, land, property, crops, salt, tobacco, wine and cider. This were just too much for a hard working individual to pay and on top of all of this, they were forced into military service Members of the third estate were tired of being treated unfairly.

Clearly this system was unjust and reforms were necessary. The major causes of the Revolution were the differences these groups had. France was suffering from harsh economic problems at this time. There was no central treasury to collect taxes and so in many parts of France, the taxes were either not paid, or kept by the accountants. This resulted in a deficit.

The government borrowed money to pay for the wars of Louis XIV. These costs greatly increased the national debt, which was, at the time, already too high. When King Louis XVI came into power, he realized that these problems were severe. He appointed Robert Turgot to help ease the financial crisis.

However, Turgot faced a crisis when trying to introduce a major reform, to tax the nobles. The king could not tax the nobles unless the Parliament approved of the new tax laws. The people in the courts that voted on these laws were the nobles, called 'noblesse de robe' and they therefore rejected Turgot's reforms immediately. After he failed, Louis summoned the Estates General in 1789. When they met, the representatives from the Third Estate demanded that the three estates meet together, with each deputy having an equal vote. That way, the First and Second Estates could outvote the Third Estate.

The King, however, demanded that the three estates meet separately. This caused anger within the Third Estate. The deputies from this class declared themselves the National Assembly. Louis immediately rejected these deputies from the meeting.

He eventually decided that it would be best if the three estates met together. He therefore ordered the other two estates to join the Third Estate in the National Assembly. Although they successfully met together, there was division amongst them. Some wanted to protect their rights, while others wanted to establish a limited, constitutional monarchy. This sparked change amongst the French people. Immediately, after the National Assembly secretly began working on a constitution, the peasants and workers expected relief from taxes and other dues that they paid.

Little happened and they faced the same problems of unemployment and inflation. When Louis brought troops to Versailles, many citizens feared that he wanted to get rid of the National Assembly. As a result, they stormed the Bastille. Other disturbances broke out. People were caught in what was known as the "Great Fear". The peasants destroyed grain towers and destroyed tax records, showing that they would never pay taxes.

To raise money that was needed, the government began to sell off church lands, which angered many Catholics. This was essentially the beginning of the much-needed revolution in France to introduce reforms. The Revolution was sparked by the discontent of all the classes in the French society at the time. The nobles wanted power that was taken from them by the monarchy. They wanted to ensure that the king does not introduce tax reforms. The bourgeoisie resented the privileges of the nobles, and felt that they should be allowed to enjoy such luxuries as well.

They also despised the absolutism of the monarchy The Bourgeoisie, along with the peasants, criticized the tax system, since unlike in a normal system, where the rich are taxed to help the poor, the poor were taxed to make the rich even richer. The peasants especially grieved the seigniorial system, which allowed greater income disparity in France and a real separation of classes. It was these grievances that the three estates had, which consequently led to the beginning of the revolution of the classes in France, against the 'ancien regime'.