Why did the French Revolt?

FirstEstate

SecondEstate

ThirdEstate

The Church (0.5%) They owned 10% of the land. Bishops and Archbishops earned lots of

money. The church controlled books, newspapers, ran schools and hospitals.

Structure of French Society The Nobility (1%) They own 30% of

the land and pay no taxes. They collect taxes from the peasants (who also pay them rent!) They have all the top jobs – but have to do what

the King wants.

BOURGEIOUSIE (8%) Lawyers, merchants and bankers.

SANS-CULLOTES (5%) Unskilled workers who did manual labour

PEASANTS (85%) Live in the countryside and worked on the

land – together they owned 40% of all land.

Does this order in society potentially cause problems?

Discuss in your table.

The Old Regime This cartoon from the era of

the French Revolution depicts the third estate as a person in chains, who supports the clergy and nobility on his back.

The Third Estate

Estates General Task

Archbishop Brienne of ToulouseIt is February 1789. The King has called an Estates General, to be held at the Versailles Palaces in May. You will

represent the First Estate.  You are happy with King Louis; he gave you your job. You are a very important person in Toulouse

and live a very nice life near the Cathedral. Your main job is delivering sermons on a Sunday: Parish Priests do all your hard work for you, like talking to the common people of the Third Estate. You believe that God’s greatest gift to France was the vine and you spend most of your time worshipping it from a glass.

You also believe that God chose Louis to be King and because God supports him, you do to.   You hope that Louis manages to raise the taxes on the Third Estate because last year he tried to

get you to pay tax. However, you were able to convince him that he was wrong to ask the Church for money.

  You need Louis to stay as King so that you keep your power and by taxing the Third Estate the King

will have money enough to fight wars and keep his wife in the luxury she deserves as Queen.  TASK - Prepare a speech for the Estates General  Introduce yourself: describe your life in Toulouse Cathedral Explain why you support everything the King says Give the King your support in taxing the Third Estate and explain why you support this extra tax.

Duchessede Polignac, Governess to King’s Children, Versailles Palace

It is February 1789. Your Majesty the King has called the Estates General. You have just heard that your brother will represent the Second Estate at the Estates General in Versailles in May. You cannot represent the Second Estate, as you are a woman. Your brother is living with his wife in England so he has asked you to write his speech based on your experiences of France in 1789.

You live in luxury in Court where you take care of and teach the King’s three children. When you are not with the children, you are able to enjoy the entertainment in Court: drinking, eating, theatre, chess... You are great friends with Marie-Antoinette and find her great fun to play cards with.

You have a great life and want the King to tax the Third Estate at the Estates General so that the Court can continue to entertain you. You are also worried about the King’s son who is very ill and so you want the King to have as little stress as possible at the meeting. You will tell your brother to give the King the Second Estate’s full support.

  TASK - Prepare a speech for the Estates General Introduce yourself: describe your life (job, family etc) Write your brother’s speech for the Estates General. What do you think the King should

do to raise money for his Kingdom? 

Georges Couthon, Lawyer, LyonIt is February 1789. You will represent the Third Estate at the Estates General in

Versailles in May. You think that the King has called the meeting to demand more money from the Third Estate. You think that the Third Estate will not let him do this, but will use the opportunity to demand several things from him. 

You are a very successful lawyer. You are well educated and recently have been spending much time reading books from new writers in France and other countries. They are suggesting that the King’s rule of France is so unfair that it should be changed immediately. You think this is an excellent idea and will be willing to lead a revolution.

  You see how unfairly the law treats poor people everyday in your work, because

they cannot afford to pay for a lawyer or pay off their fines. At the Estates General you will demand “A reform of the laws so that justice is given equally to everybody at the least possible cost”

TASK - Prepare a speech for the Estates General Introduce yourself: describe your life and your work You (and the members of the Third Estate you will be representing) must draw

up a list of complaints to take to the Estates General. Plan out your speech looking at the problems within France and how you think they should be solved.

Marie-Rose Barre, Lace-maker, Paris It is February 1789. Your husband will represent the Third Estate at the

Estates General in Versailles in May. You cannot go to the Estates General because you are a woman.

You work long hours in poor and dangerous conditions in a factory. You are paid much less than male workers. However, you are very lucky to have a job because many people in Paris are out of work.

75% of your wages (little as they are) goes on bread and the rest goes on taxes.

Like most people you think Louis is a very weak King. You think he is embarrassing France because his Austrian wife Marie-Antoinette is always seen with other men – in fact you think the King’s children are not actually his! You hate the fact that nobles and royalty live in luxury in Versailles whilst you struggle to survive in a polluted city.

  TASK - Prepare a speech for the Estates General Introduce yourself: describe your life (job, family etc) You must write a list of complaints that your husband will take to the

Estates General and the solutions that he should propose.

Louis Legrande, Banker, ParisIt is February 1789. You will represent the Third Estate at the Estates General in Versailles

in May. You live in luxury, having made your money banking for the merchants who stream through Paris from far off lands 

Six years ago you returned from America where you had been fighting with the settlers. They were revolting against the British King. They became a Republic and a Democracy: this meant that everyone in the country was treated as equal and could decide (by voting) who they wanted to lead them. You think this is as brilliant system and have returned to France telling everyone of these new ideas for governing. You hate the fact that the King has all the power and the Third Estate has none.

You demand that the Estates General meets regularly, at least every three years and that the number of deputies at the meeting represents an equal number of people. It disgusts you that at the Estates General there are the same number of representatives for the First and Second Estates as there is the Third (meaning that the Third Estate can be outvoted).

You want the slogan “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” (Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood) to become the words of a Revolution.

TASK - Prepare a speech for the Estates General  Introduce yourself: describe your life (job, experiences in America etc) Write your speech for the Estates General: listing your complaints about France and how

you think these problems should be overcome.

Pierre Lacombe, Peasant, Brittany  It is February 1789. You will represent the Third Estate at the Estates General in

Versailles in May.  You are very poor. You are ashamed that your children have never worn a pair of shoes

and you live in a mud hut with no windows. 80% of your money goes on buying bread for your family to survive. There have been exceptionally bad harvests in 1787 and 1788 and the price of bread has risen dramatically. You cannot afford to feed your family and pay taxes.

You pay SIX taxes in all. The Taille is an income tax; the Feudal tax you pay to the local noble; the Tithe you give 10% of your yearly income to the church; the Gabelle is a tax on salt; the Aide is a tax on wine and the Corvee is a work tax which means you work in your village e.g. building roads. 

You have heard that King Louis wants to tax the Third Estate even more because he is bankrupt. Standing over your town is a huge chateau where a noble and his wife live in luxury. They are in the Second Estate and so do not pay any taxes. You will use the Estates General to show your anger (about the poor paying so many taxes while the rich pay none) to the King and hope that the rest of the Third Estate will join you in a revolution.

TASK – Prepare a speech for the Estates General Introduce yourself: describe your life (job, family, etc) Explain your complaints about the present taxes. Explain why you will not pay the new taxes King Louis wants Show your anger at the King and tell the Estates General how you think France should

change

What were the causes of the French Revolution? There were FOUR main categories that caused the French Revolution:

Social = the lifestyles and standard of living experienced by people living in a country.

Economic = the way money is shared and who does the work in a country. Political = the way power is used in a country. Intellectual = new ideas about how a country should be run and how

people should be treated.

Discuss – Which category do you think would have had the biggest impact?

Long term causes or trends are

bigger factors which build up

over time.

E.g. The prices in the tuck shop

have been increasing over time

from beginning of 2013 R3 per

packet to R5 at the end of 2013

Short and Long Term Causes

Series1

Long Term Trends Short Term Causes TriggersEVENT

Short term causes are those events which cause a build up of pressure before the event

happens. They tend to quickly get more severe than the trends

but they also feed into them. E.g. Suddenly, at the beginning of term 2 the price is raised to

R10.

Triggers are those very severe events which effectively set the whole explosion off. They feed on

all the energy created by the other causes and lead to the event itself.E.g. One person throws a tomato at the tuck shop lady, which sparks a food fight.

TASK = Now try and identify LONG TERM and SHORT TERM causes of the French Revolution. You should write either a ST

or an LT next to the cause.

It is generally agreed that:

1700 – 1783 – LONG TERM

1784 – 1789 – SHORT TERM

LOUIS XVI

He became King in 1774 at the age of 20. He ruled from his palace (which he rarely left!) He made all the important decisions and sacked

people if they did not follow his orders. He could put people in prison without trial. There was NO Parliament to help run France.

475,000,000 = ANNUAL INCOME 587,000,000 = EXPENDITURE

Can you work out how much money Louis was in debt by each year?

CHALLENGE – Do not use a calculator!

ANSWER = -112,000,000

Per year!

He eventually owed

1646,000,000

The Palace at Versailles – Pierre Patel 1662

Versailles in 1722 – Pierre – Denis Martin

SHORT HOMEWORK TASK:

Find one source on Louis XVI and one source on Marie Antoinette. These sources may be pictures/ written sources. For each source, answer the following questions:

1.1. What is one thing you learn about Louis XVI/ Marie Antoinette from the source?

1.2. How do you know this? I2. If you had been a poor peasant in France in 1789, how would

you have felt if you saw/ read this source?

Watch the following clip. Does this help us understand why the people

of France were so angry?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq_VUZL4HNo

What were the causes of the French Revolution? Watch the following song – does it explain the causes of

the French Revolution? Which causes could you see/hear? Do you think it missed anything out?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXsZbkt0yqo

Vive Le Revolution! You now have to explain the causes of the French Revolution. You can choose how

you wish to do this: SONG HORRIBLE HISTORIES SKETCH (Must write the script!) Extended answer Comic Strip Poem Documentary (Must write the script)

Acknowledgements

This PowerPoint was adapted from http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/What-were-the-causes-of-the-French-Revolution-6418033/

The Estates General role play lesson was adapted from a lesson by Johanna Woodhouse.