1. A great fear sweeps France
1.1. national assembly
1.1.1. storming the bastille
1.1.1.1. tennis court oath
1.1.1.2. the third estate delegates found themselves locked out of the meeting room so they broke into the tennis court and drew up a new constitution
1.1.2. rumors flew around paris that louis was gunna use military force to seperate the nation assembly
1.2. third estate delegates named themselfs the national assembly
2. The Old Order
2.1. The Privileged Estates
2.1.1. The First Estate, the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, owned 10% of the land in France.
2.1.2. The Second Estate was the rich nobles, just 2% of the population, they owned 20% of the land and paid almost no taxes.
2.2. The Third Estate
2.2.1. About 97% of the people were Third Estate, they differed greatly in their economic conditions. The bourgeoisie was the middle class, they were as rich as nobles but paid high taxes.
2.2.2. The workers were the poorest group of the Third Estate. The peasants were the largest group, more then 80% of 26 million.
3. Dawn of the Revolution
3.1. great fear
3.1.1. october 1789
3.1.1.1. the king and his family left the palace forever after the riot
3.1.2. thousands of parisian women rioted over the price of bread
3.2. there was a rumor that nobles were hiring outlaws to terrorize the peasents, so then the peasents went buck wild
4. The Forces of Change
4.1. Enlightenment Ideas
4.1.1. Enlightenment Ideas were spreading in the Third Estate, they were inspired by the success of the American Revolution. They started questioning.
4.2. Economic Troubles
4.2.1. The economy was declining because of all the taxes and the cost of living, and bad weather for the crops.
4.2.2. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette spent a lot of money, making things worse, and there was already a big debt.
4.3. A Weak Leader
4.3.1. Louis XVI was a bad leader, was indecisive and allowed matters to drift. Marie often interfered in the government and offered poor advice.