Ap European History

Matthew McDaniel

Mr. Jameson

4th Period APEH

17 November 2014

Question: Identify the grievances of the groups that made up the Third Estate in France on the eve of the French Revolution, and analyze the extent to which ONE of these groups was able to address its grievances in the period 1789 to 1799. (2007 #7 Rewrite)

The French Revolution was a huge change of the society and political system of France during the period of 1789 to 1799. On the eve of the French Revolution, there were many grievances that were among the Third Estate. The Third Estate was made up of the peasants, urban poor and women. The people of France, mainly the third estate, bearded the burden of unequal taxation, the unfair persecution of different religions, and the interference of the government of the people's lives.
           One of the concerns of the Third Estate is that they were not permitted to get government jobs and have to live off the rest of the French people. King Louis XIV was later plagued by a list of grievances that had to be handled to try and prevent revolution. Though also the Third Estate was the largest population of France which were the peasants, merchants, and all the other working people that were not considered to be in the upper classes. The only one of these groups that were able to address the Third Estate's grievances were the bourgeoisie which were the more upper ones in that estate.
           The grievances of the Third Estate were the high taxes that were put on the people having to pay instead of the First or Second Estate. This unequal taxation left most of the tax burden on the Third Estate. The First estate was the clergy while the Second Estate was the nobility. They were the ones that took control of the Third Estate and made them do the harder work since they both voted that they should be the ones that had to be paying the taxes which would make it two against one and the vote of the Third Estate would be worth nothing. This action would make it impossible for the Third Estate to be able to make any gains in their life economically and politically. It became very difficult for the peasants to be able to pay for the taxes and had times when they became short on the food and sometimes were not able to eat because of the taxes that were forced on them. Which lead to a crowd storming the Bastille on July 14, 1789 in search of food that was thought to be hidden by nobles and hoarders in the Bastille.