France, a feudal country in the eighteenth century, was ruled under the ‘ancien regime’. The king was the absolute monarch. He had centralized power in the royal bureaucracy. At this time in French history, the social classes played a very important role in the lives of the people. The social structure of France was divided into three groups: The First Estate, The Second Estate and The Third Estate. The First Estate was the clergy (the church). During the ‘ancien regime’, the church was equal in terms of its social, economic and spiritual power. This class owned nearly ten percent of the land in France. It paid no taxes, but to support church activities such as school running and caring for the poor, it collected a tithe, or a tax on income

The middle class was often worried about social status, for they were not recognized because they were part of the third estate. Since the first two estates were exempted from taxes, this left the third estate to provide almost all of the country’s income. They were forced to pay taxes on their income, land, property, crops, salt, tobacco, wine and cider. This were just too much for a hard working individual to pay and on top of all of this, they were forced into military service Members of the third estate were tired of being treated unfairly. Clearly this system was unjust and reforms were necessary.

Although they successfully met together, there was division amongst them. Some wanted to protect their rights, while others wanted to establish a limited, constitutional monarchy. This sparked change amongst the French people. Immediately, after the National Assembly secretly began working on a constitution, the peasants and workers expected relief from taxes and other dues that they paid. Little happened and they faced the same problems of unemployment and inflation.

The Third Estate essentially consisted of everyone who did not belong to one or other of the two privileged estates. It included the bourgeoisie, peasants and city workers. The bourgeoisie were by far the wealthiest in this group. They were merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, doctors and other upper class professionals. The other extreme, however, was the peasantry. They were forced to pay hefty taxes, tithes to the church and rents to their landlords for the land they lived on. The last group within the Third Estate was made up of urban workers. Most of these people lived in crowded towns, and insanitary tenements. They were

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