French Revolution Analysis by Soumya Degala

The French revolution was influenced by many of the enlightenment ideas. Some of these ideas were derived from people such as John Locke and Montesquieu who believed that society’s citizens should have free will, and right of speech, and that the society should be run by the people. With many of these ideas flooding the community of France, the three main estates of France had different opinions.

The first estate of France was much like the third estate of peasants, however they consisted of clergy. The clergy helped out the poor form their unbearable conditions. They regulated their education, and kept detailed records of births, deaths, and marriages. Though this estate was a lot like the third estate, they did have some major contrasting opinions on the enlightenment ideas, since the first estate did consist of high-ranking people. This estate still believed it was best to stick to the absolute monarchy, and their opinions still rooted from religious ideas, since they consisted mainly of bishops, popes, ad other religious figures. These contrasting ideas caused the first estate to object some of the enlightenment values.

The second estate consisted of the nobles. These people could be viewed as the “spoiled/filthy rich people” of France. Unlike The first estate, they did not help the third estate at all. In fact, the second estate paid no taxes, and collected the money of the third estate as taxes for the country. The second estate owned about  twenty percent of the land, and did not believe in the enlightenment ideas, such as the “rule of the people”, as well. They also stuck to old Regime ideas, such as absolute monarchy.

The third estate was about ninety-eight percent of the population. These people lived in terrible conditions, as they did not receive much money, yet they still payed most of, if not all of the taxes for the national debt of France. Due to their terrible conditions, the enlightenment ideas, such as free will, and rule of the people appealed to the third estate, greatly.