{"id":23782,"date":"2026-09-03T09:50:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T14:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/?p=23782"},"modified":"2026-09-03T09:50:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T14:50:28","slug":"off-with-their-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2026\/09\/03\/off-with-their-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

Hey guys! Today we are going to talk about the main causes of the French Revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

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During the thirteenth century French society was legally divided into three groups. Though the groups were technically legal the burdens of taxation were unequally distributed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The First Estate was made up of clergy (church leaders) which made up about one percent of the overall population. This estate owned a majority of French land, collected church taxes(tithes), had tax exemptions (they paid none at all!!!), and enjoyed many other major privileges.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Second Estate consisted of nobility (people related to royalty) which made up about two percent of the population. This estate controlled a lot of land, were in high military and government positions, and enjoyed some of the same privileges as the First Estate.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lastly, the Third Estate consisted of rich but not insanely rich people, working class people, and peasants. They made up about ninety percent of the population. They paid the most direct taxes and feudal dues while having the least amount of political power.<\/span><\/p>\n

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PAUSE. If you were here last week then you know about the Enlightenment. Guess what gave the French commoners an idea to resist the power of the higher classes\u2026? That’s right, the Enlightenment!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Around the fourteenth century leading into the nineteenth century France had a lot of economic problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Since France spent heavily on wars (mainly on supporting the American colonies during the American Revolution) creating <\/span>war debts<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Since the privileged estates (the first and second estates) refused to pay taxes, the monarchy struggled to raise enough revenue. This was the downfall of France’s <\/span>government finances<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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France resorted to <\/span>regressive taxation<\/b> which meant many taxes fell most heavily on the ordinary, mostly working class and peasants. (Funding a nation by draining poor people dry instead of the rich) now what does that sound like?!!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Poor harvests in the late 1780s increasing food prices increased the price of bread (the main source of food for most of the population).<\/span><\/p>\n

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When wages failed to keep pace with food prices, urban workers had less money for necessities. This led to<\/span> economic hardship<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A financial crisis forced the king to call the Estates-General in 1789, giving the estates a chance to challenge the political system (this was a<\/span> political consequence<\/b>).<\/span><\/p>\n

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When the Estates-General was called, the First and Second Estates outvoted the Third Estate 2-1. The members of the Third Estate argued that representation should reflect the number of people they represented.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In June 1789, Third Estate delegates declared themselves as the National Assembly. This is when the Ideas spark\u2026See you next week!!!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey guys! Today we are going to talk about the main causes of the French Revolution. \u00a0 During the thirteenth century French society was legally divided into three groups. Though the groups were technically legal the burdens of taxation were unequally distributed. \u00a0 The First Estate was made up of clergy (church leaders) which made … Continue reading “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!!!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23782"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23806,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23782\/revisions\/23806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}