The French Revolution The French revolution began on July 14, 1789 in France. King Louis XIV ruled over France during that time. His wife was Queen Marie Antoinette. During the French Revolution, there was three estates. The first estate was made up of the catholic clergy. They owned 15% of the land and didn’t pay taxes. The second estate was made up of the aristocracy and nobles. They owned 25% of the land and payed very little taxes. The second estate didn’t have much say in the government. The third estate was made up of everyone else, such as peasants and florists. In the third estate, people who worked the land owned the land. They had no say in the government. There were causes and effects that led up to the French Revolution. Causes …show more content…
First, there was poor leadership from King Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette. King Louis and Queen Marie didn’t care if the peasants had no food and if they were poor. Rich people paid no taxes and poor people paid high taxes. Which was unfair distribution of wealth. Second, influence from the American Revolution helped trigger the French Revolution. Social cause was also a huge problem during the revolution According to the site historydiscussion.net it says, “The social condition of France during the 18th century was very miserable.” Society was divided into 3 classes-The clergy, Nobles, and Commoners. The clergy was made up of priests, church leaders, etc. The nobles were made up of the king, queen, their children and so on. Commoners were everyone else who weren’t important to the king or queen. Lastly, the Reign of Terror. When Maximilien Robespierre ruled over Italy, he beheaded over 40,000 people, including the king and