French Revolution Dbq Essay

In 1770 France was built of 3 estates. The first two estate were the privileged estates. They had access to high officials. The first estate was formed by the Roman Catholic Church. They owned 10 percent of the land in France. The second estate was made up of rich nobles. The nobles owned 20 percent of the land in France and paid almost no taxes. The third estate was about 90 percent of the people in France. The third estate laked privileges they had to pay high taxes. They felt that their wealth entitled them to a great degree of social states. There was three groups in the third estate. The peasants formed the largest group. There was more than 80 percent of France's 26 million people. They resented the first and second estates. The French Revolution started in 1789. It started because the third estate wanted equality, Liberty, and democracy. It happened and in Paris France. At the time Louis the 16th was the ruler of France. In 1993 Robespierre became leader of the committee of public safety. He governed France virtually as dictator and that period became known as The Reign Of Terror.

In document C it says “ The counter revolutions include some members of the aristocracy, priests, farmers, and townspeople”. Many people were against the revolution because they wanted to keep the power. I'm October 1793 revolutionaries decided to make an example of counter revolutionaries in Lyons. One day Revolutionaries destroyed about 1600 homes and chopped off 12 heads in five minutes. Vendee was the hub of the counter revolution. They fought against the military draft called the levee en mass and against laws that tried to abolish Christianity in France. There was between 80,000 and 500,000 French people on both sides dead in the vendee in