12.1.2

The Estates-General

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The Estates-General, 1789

Although France was very powerful throughout most of the 1700s, towards the end of the century it faced financial and political problems. These problems caused tensions within society, which led to demands for change.

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1789

  • By 1789, France was facing financial crisis:
    • The country had war debts.
    • Prices were rising at an alarming rate.
    • Bad harvests meant that many peasants faced starvation.
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The ‘Estates-General’

  • France’s king, Louis XVI, agreed to call a meeting between France’s three ‘estates’ (key groups), so that they could discuss the problems and advise the king on what to do.
  • This meeting was known as the ‘Estates-General’.
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The Estates

  • The First Estate was made of up the clergy (people who work in the church like bishops, priests, etc).
  • The Second Estate was made up of the nobility.
  • The Third Estate was made up of the rest of the population (the middle-classes, workers and peasants).
  • Although the Third Estate contained the vast majority of the population (around 98% of French society were within the Third Estate), they had no more political power than the First Estate or Second Estate.
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Disagreement

  • The meeting did not go well.
  • The Estates-General would not agree to the king’s demands for more taxes, and the Third Estate, in particular, was angered by their lack of political power and their treatment within society.
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The National Assembly

  • Desperate for more political recognition and a greater say in how the country should be run, the Third Estate broke off to form a new group called the National Assembly.
  • They demanded political reform and wanted to have their say in French politics.

Jump to other topics

1The Medieval World: 450-1450 AD

1.1Anglo-Saxon England

1.2The Contest for the English Throne

1.3Conquering the Holy Land, 10-96-1396 AD

1.4King John

1.5The Magna Carta & Parliament

1.6The Black Death

2Worldviews

3The Empire of Mali

4The Renaissance & Reformations, 1500-1598 AD

5The British Empire, 1583-1960 AD

6The Peasants' Revolt

7Religion in the Middle Ages

8Slavery, 1619-1833 AD

9The English Civil War, 1642-1660

10The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1840

11US Independence, 1775-1783

12The French Revolution, 1789-1815

13The British Empire, 1857–1930

14Suffrage

15World War 1, 1914-1918

16The Inter-War Years, 1919-1939

17World War 2, 1939-1945

18The Cold War, 1947-1962

19Civil Rights in the USA, 1954-1975

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