The French Revolution changed the face of France and all who were associated with it so drastically that it was almost the exact opposite of what it used to be. Most of the people in France at the time were very upset by the way the government had been being run for so long. Many historians believe that the period of increased knowledge and ideas, or The Enlightenment, was the cause of the revolution. In any case, the people wanted change. King Louis XVI ruled France under an absolute monarchy in 1789, but the government also consisted of three estates, or classes, of people who helped govern France. The first estate was made up of the clergy and Church officials who held much of the power, however they only made up a small percentage of France’s population. The second estate consisted of France’s nobles. The nobles only made up 2% of France’s population, but they owned more than 20% of France’s land. The third estate actually has three separate classes within itself. The first group, the bourgeois, were just as wealthy as the nobles, but had very little power at all. The nobles didn’t have to pay taxes, so the bourgeois were angry that they had the wealth, but no political stature to go with it. The farmers and lower-class workers were always subject to huge taxes on literally every thing they owned to help pay for wars, and other political money problems. The poor people of France were outraged at the tremendous prices of bread and could no longer afford to feed their families. The third estate made up 98% of France’s population but had less power than the other two estates. The third estate began screaming revolt and Louis XVI was forced to call the first Estates-General since 1614. The Estates-General met at the Palace of Versailles and each of the three estates presented their problems with the way things were being run. The conference was supposed to be run based on the rules o...
