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The French Revolution
«setting the stage for democracy
France in the 1780s
A
round
1780, France fell upon hard times. Bad weather caused many crops to fail. With so little wheat from thecrops, many of France¶s people could not afford bread.Many people starved to death.The ruler of France was King Louis XVI. King Louis was aweak king who borrowed large sums of money from hisnobles so that he could have riches and palaces. He oftenchose to play games and go hunting rather than governFrance.The poorest people in France had little power and paid half of their income to the nobles. People wanted more libertyand were interested in democracy and equality.Because France was in severe debt, the nobles forced Louisto call an assembly of the nobles, priests, and peasants.This meeting was called the Estates-General and took placein 1789.
The King of France, Louis XVI
The Meeting of the Estates General
T
he Estates-General was made upof three groups, or estates. Theassembly was called to solve thefinancial crisis and pass a new taxlaw. Each estate was a social class.The First Estate was made up of the priests of the Roman CatholicChurch. The Second Estate was thenobles, and the third was therepresentatives of the peasants. Eachestate had one vote and met in aseparate hall to decide what their vote on the issue was going to be.
The Estates-General assembly in 1789
Although the peasants had their voice, they were not happy. The Third Estate representedmost of the people in France. For every nobleman or priest in France, there were a hundredcommoners. But the Third Estate together got just one vote, meaning their opinion had novalue if the noblemen and clergy disagreed with them. The Third Estate tried to change this bysuggesting that the estates get one vote for every delegate they had. King Louis turned downtheir request.
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