The French Revolution: Social Causes

The Frech Revolution was an event that took place in Europe during a ten year period from 1789 to 1799. It came right after the American Revolution which occured only a decade ealier. France was the most advanced and the most wealthiest country in Europe, with a large population and a prosperous foreign trade. France's culture was widely praised and emulated by the rest of the world. But all this success hadn't led to good only, with high taxes, high prices, and disturbing questions raised by The Enlightenment ideas of Rousseau and Voltaire, came to a great unrest in France. The Revolution was helped caused due to the economic and inequalities in the Old Regime. The French Revolution caused the transformation of France, which went from absolute monarchy to a republic of theoritically free and equalized people. A feudalized system came about in the 1770's called the Old Regime. This caused France to be divided into three larger social groups, or estates.
The first estate were clergy of the Roman Catholic Church and only made up 1 percent of the population in France. They had privilages including access to high offices and exemptions from paying taxes, and owned 10 percent of the land in France. It provided education and relief services to the poor and only contributed 2 percent of its income to the government. They scorned the Enlightenment ideas.
The second estate were made up of rich nobles and only made up 2 percent of France. Most of their wealth was off land they owned. The nobles owned 20 percent of the land and paid no taxes. They also scorned The Enlightenment ideas as radical notions that threatened their status and power as privileged persons.
The third estate was made up of three different groups. The peasant farmers, the bourgeoisie, and the urban lower class. They owned about 98 percent of the land in France and paid 48 percent more of taxes than the other two estates. They had no power to influence the government and they all believed in the Enlightenment ideas. All three groups differed in their economic conditions. The bourgeoisie were merchants and artisans. The bourgeoisie felt their wealth entitled them to a greater degree of social status and political power becuase some were as rich as nobles, but they paid high taxes and lacked privileges just like the others of the third estate. They were well educated people and believed strongly in the Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality. The urban lower class were the wrokers of France's cities and were made up of cooks, servants, and others. They were poorer than the bourgeuisie and paid low wages and were frequently left without work. They had to attack carts of grain and bread when they were hungry cause they couldn't afford the prices after they were raised. The third and last group were the peasants and were the largest group of the third estate. They made of 80 percent of France. The peasants were heavily taxed, having to pay half of their income in dues to the nobles, tithes of the church, and also to the king's agents. They joined the urban poor in resenting the clergy and the nobles for their privileges and special treatment.
On July 14, 1789 occured a symbolic act of revolution to the French people. It became a national day to all. On this day the Bastille, a Paris prison, fell into control of the citizens after they overwhelmed the king's soldiers. This came to the end of absolute monarchy and a new beggining of a better government.