French Revolution
Causes

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WHAT IS A REVOLUTION?

A revolution is when people rebel against the government or the way other people treat them. They will try to change these things, and try to get into power themselves. In the French Revolution, the common people of France rebelled against the absolute king and the way the rich and socially-important minority exploited and mistreated them. They tried to change the whole social order that made the minority mistreat them.

WHAT CAUSED THE FRENCH REVOLUTION?

In France, there was a very strict social order that determined your place in society, what you could do for a living, and where you could live. It was called the Ancien Régime or Old Order.

The Old Order divided society into three groups or Estates. The first two Estates were very privileged: most of them had big houses and a lot of money, so that they did not have to work. They also did not have to pay taxes. These two Estates were the clergy (those working for the Roman Catholic Church, like priests and monks) and the aristocracy (or nobles). Together, these two classes made up only 2% of all the people in France. The other 98% was the common people, or the Third Estate. They included peasants (farm workers), urban workers and a small group of businessmen and educated people called the bourgeoisie, or middle class.

The peasants and the urban workers (the masses) were very poor. They had little to eat, and the peasants were not even allowed to hunt for food – they lived on land owned by noblemen, and it was seen as their right alone to hunt and fish. Sometimes they had to get the permission of their landlord to get married, or the landlord chose whom they should marry. They could not leave the land they lived and worked on without permission from their landlord. This was all part of a system called the feudal system, which had existed from the Middle Ages. By the 1780s, things became even worse. The price of food like bread became very high, and the city workers could not afford it. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the king raised the taxes. Not only could they not afford to buy bread, but now they had to pay higher and higher taxes to both the king and the Church!

The bourgeoisie was not as poor as the masses. They were educated and talented, and some of them were even richer than some of the noblemen! But because they were part of the Third Estate, they could not hold high positions in the government, army, or the Church – that was reserved for the Second Estate. They felt this was very unfair – why should some people get a good jobs even if they were not the most talented ones, just because they were born into the right Estate?

The Third Estate became so dissatisfied and angry that they were ready to fight against the higher classes and the unfair Old Order. At the beginning of 1789 they became more hopeful – it looked like the king would allow changes and give them a say in their own lives. But by July they realised that the only way their lives would ever get better was to take matters into their own hands. The urban workers in Paris were the first ones to make a move: they stormed the Bastille and took it over. When the peasants heard about it, they also started a revolt in the countryside. The French Revolution had begun.

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Learning Outcome 1: Historical Enquiry
Asking questions about aspects of the past and to begin an investigation of a topic (working with sources).

Activity

Look at the picture, then answer the following questions:

(Source: www.historywiz.com/ frenchrev-mm.htm)

The three men in the picture stand for the three Estates of the Old Order.

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Activity