Joseph+-+The+3rd+Estate


 * Question: What difficulties did the third estate to cause a revolution?**

Before the French Revolution, the society was divided into three different estates: first estate, second estate, and third estate. The first estate is made up of clergies who are basically priests. The second estate is made up of nobles and the third estate is made of two groups: the bourgeoisie and workers. Even though the bourgeoisie were sometimes rich than nobles, due to the position of the class, the bourgeoisie had to pay a more great amount of tax and also had less rights than the other two estates. The third estate embraced Enlightenment ideas and due to few political and legal rights, they had no power to convince the government of the change of the third estate.

The third estate was 97 percent of the whole population while the other two estates totaled up to only 3 percent of the population. Not only this, the third estate had to pay most of the taxes compared to the other two estates. Due to the French helping the Americans win the revolution against Britain, the French became in debt and most of the taxes were paid by the third estate and not much from the first and second estate.

The workers of the third estate may be very hardworking, but they are paid low wages from the government and were expected to give 50 percent of their wages to the king, first and second estate which constantly led to hunger in between other workers from the estate which caused stealing to occur for survival.



__Estates-General__ The Estates-Generals meet in a meeting on May 5, 1789 the three estates had to vote one vote for each estate, but the third estate was 97 percent of the whole population which caused the third estate to refuse to join and were kicked out. Through the Tennis Court Oath, the third estate awaited a new constitution and when the estates reformed, the French Revolution began. (The third estate awaited the new constitution during the Tennis Court Oath)


 * Citation:**

Beck, Roger B.. //Modern world history: patterns of interaction//. Evanston, Ill.: McDougal Littell, 2009. Print.

"Estates-General." //World History: The Modern Era//.ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.

"The Estates." //ThinkQuest : Library//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. .

Photos:

"French Revolution cause: An Economic Crisis." //Bastille Day and the French Revolution (1789)//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. .

"Global Studies." //Untitled Document//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. .