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The peasants suffered from numerous economic injustices. In Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants, peasant leaders bemoaned that the lords forced them to preform services without compensation (Doc2). From any perspective, many would conclude this practice to be forceful slavery, which strips the peasants from what little freedom they already possessed. Also, in the Articles of Peasants of Memmingen, the peasants indict the nobles of turning them into serfs (Doc 3). Serfdom restricts the peasants’ freedom to travel and settle where they so choose. Also, it exchanges a stable income for free housing and protection, as long as the individual remains on the noble’s property and works for free, which would be the antithesis to a peasants ideal life. Given that peasant leaders wrote both documents 2 and 3, it can be assumed that these articles were created with passion and are biased to bolster the extent of oppression delivered by their leaders (Pov 1 and 2). The peasants had a reason to feel exploited. In fact, they were forced to pay feudal dues, church…
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This last class was divided into two groups consisting of free peasants and indentured servants. The free peasants held their own businesses and paid rent to the lords in order to use their lands. The indentures peasants, however, where bound to the land in which they labored to earn their stay. When the lands changed ownerships, the peasants living in those lands immediately came under the jurisdiction of the new lord. That class was under the control of these nobles who squeezed the peasantry hard in effort to maintain their luxurious lifestyle (Tignor p 428).…
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Even the smallest rise in the price of bread, their main source of food, brought about the threat of hunger or even starvation. Peasants were burdened by taxes on everything due to traditional privileges exempting the First and Second Estates from paying any. Enlightenment ideas led people to question the inequalities of the old regime. The Third Estate demanded that the privileged classes pay their share. Economic troubles also added to the social unrest and heightened tensions.…
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The requests of representation belonged to the third estate, who received little to no say in their government. This negligence is visualised by the chaier, also notebook, of the poor estate with no dictation of money since divides upon poor men earnings are large and mostly minimal for higher estates (Doc 1). The poor people who…
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There were numerous causes to justify The French Revolution. There existed problems inside France’s government, society, and economy. Most of these problems were ultimately experienced by the third estate, or the middle class. The third estate was then educated on a better way to live by the results of the Enlightenment philosophers and their philosophies. Certain conditions also led to the revolution, on top of its causes. Living conditions and representation in government are two examples. It is undeniable that the people of the third estate were correct in their campaign for change.…
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The French Revolution began in 1789 due to the inequality of French society. The French society was divided into three estates. The first two consisted of clergy and nobility respectively. The third was made up of merchants, businessmen, lawyers, and peasants. They had the least rights and privileges compared with the other estates. The third estate had to pay all the taxes imposed by the king, King Louis XVI, whereas the other estates were excused from it. This made life harder for the peasants, but also sparked the French revolution when the Third Estate began to demand more rights.…
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Throughout time, people have overthrown governments for a variety of social, political, and economic reasons. When basic needs aren't met and natural rights aren't protected, people start to question the government's morals and ideals. in the 18th century, the citizens of France were inspired by the Enlightenment ideas of Locke, Voltaire, and Rousseau, as well as the success of the American Revolution. As a reaction to their unfair treatment, the people of the Third Estate rebelled against the government, and eventually, after many deaths and changes of power, the people finally received their much-deserved rights. There were many well-justified causes of the French Revolution, and although many horrible effects presented themselves, the resulting…
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The rise of taxes wasn’t easy on anyone. Taxes made most of the peasants’ day to day lives difficult to live. There was really no way for them to escape the taxes, which forced them to give themselves to others and work as slaves. Slaves became very important to rich people because they would do things that needed to be done. They would take care of the fields and the crops, and they would also take…
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Document 2 shows how the third estate was made up of 97% of the population but only had 33% of the power. This meant the nobles and clergy could always outvote them, even thought they were only 3% of the population. One of the issues voted on were taxes, with the results being huge taxes on the poor and little to no taxes on the nobles and clergy, as recorded in document 1. This document also shows the miserable effects of this unfair taxing on the Third Estate, with people suffering and children running around in rags. The bourgeoisie, members of the Third Estate who were wealthy but were not born into a noble family, were enraged by their lack of representation and brought a list of grievances to the Estates General. One of said grievances from document 3 was that the votes in the assembly should be counted by heads, giving the Third Estate more influence on the results. When the king refused, members of the Third Estate formed the National Assembly as an act of…
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This meant the peasants (who paid the majority of the taxes) had smaller incomes and many became unemployed. Many people were starving and could not find food or work. While they starved the King and the nobility continued to live their lives of…
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The third estate was the most mistreated group out of everyone. They had no rights to anything even though they were half the population of France. People in the third estate paid all of the taxes that were owed to the government while the first and second estate paid nothing at all because they were higher than everyone. A quote from Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution says “The Third Estate is the People and the People is the foundation of the State; it is in fact the State itself; the other estates are merely political categories while by the immutable (unchangeable) laws of nature the People is everything. Everything should be subordinated (inferior) to it...…
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There were many issues that led up to the French Revolution. For example, the unfair tax burden. According to Document two, the Third Estate paid all of the government taxes. There were three estates. The 1st estate was all of the clergy; they had wealth because they collected taxes from the 3rd estate and they also owned land. They had power, food, liberty, and freedom. The 2nd estate was the rich titled nobility. They derived their wealth from land ownership, and they collected some taxes. They also had power, food, and freedom. The 3rd estate was separated into three different classes. The Bourgeoisie was the highest of the third estate; they had cash wealth since they were made up of the merchants, bankers, and artisans. The Bourgeoisie paid very high taxes, and had very little power, they had a food supply, but they had no power. The peasant farmers, and the city workers had no wealth, power, or liberty, and they had to pay taxes. The 1st and 2nd estate only took up about 3% of the population. The Bourgeoisie thought that the taxes were unfair to the entire 3rd estate. Document three explained how a peasant had 7 children, and couldn’t support her family, but she still had to pay taxes. This shows how unfair the tax burden was.…
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France’s social structure was an aspect of society that majority of the French were greatly displeasured about. The social structure was very unbalanced during the Old Regime. The majority of the Third Estate third estate was going hungry and only as time went on poverty kept increasing. It was also clear that as time went on that the nobles and the clergy were only seeking more privileges than what they already had. As if the Third Estate couldn't have any more burdens put on their lives, there was also a food shortage occurring that would completely shock the whole nation. The harvest season the year before was so “disastrous” that it’s effects were greatly “felt” and because of that bread prices quickly rose (Price 77). When that occurred, the poverty stricken people had a difficult time trying to provide for themselves along with their families. This enraged the Third Estate because while they were suffering horribly, the First and Second estates were living luxuriously and were able to afford the sky rocketing food prices. From there, the angered civilians had enough reasons to act out and because of that they lashed out against the higher ups. "The third estate seemed intent not just on removing fiscal inequality, but on undermining the entire social order” (Price 60). The Third Estate felt very strong about how they have been mistreated…
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A flawed fixed social structure and fiscal mismanagement are some of the plethora of issues that demonstrated the disdain for the rights of man in pre-revolutionary times. During this time, unequal distribution of wealth, status, and land lead to the economic downfall of France. To put a stop to the financial ruin, leaders knew they needed to make a radical change to their taxation system. Because the first and second estate benefited from tax exemption, the third estate felt the need to fight for their individual freedom and social equality, bringing about the revolution, it’s main goal being the pursuit of the rights of man.…
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The French revolution overthrew the country’s Liberty, ancient monarchy, equality and fraternity, and fought off a hostile Europe. There were lots of causes of the French Revolution. The French Revolution had long and short-term factors, which emerged from the social, political, and comic conflicts and conditions of the ancient regime. The long-standing injustice of the bourgeoisie, the breakdown and suffering of a government, aggregation of rising wishes with wealthy bourgeoisie and peasants, and creations of ideas among wide sections of the people are all factors that played apart as well as more. The effects of the French Revolution were not just happening in France but were widespread and happening worldwide. In European history, these events are marked as some of the most important events. The revolution was being caused by social, economic, and political discontent of the French people because they had a king who was poor and wanted a democratic government, society was divided into three estates, and his tax system was unfair.…
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