can someone please tell me a brief introduction that describes the conditions in France in the late 1780s!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
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Position:Home>History> Can someone please tell me about the conditions in france during the french revoQuestion: Can someone please tell me about the conditions in france during the french revolution !? can someone please tell me a brief introduction that describes the conditions in France in the late 1780s!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The Revolution proper started 1789 and ended ten years later!. A series of political and social crises led up to it, including widespread popular discontent because of poverty made worse by poor harvests!. The royal treasury's normal state of near bankruptcy had become desperate because of help given to the American revolt against Britain!. Attempts 1787 and 1788 by ministers of Louis XVI (reigned 1774-92) to address the financial problem by reducing the privileges of the aristocracy (and the clergy) produced revolt on their part!. They induced him to call, for May 1789, the first meeting since 1614 of the Estates General, an assembly of representatives of feudal society!. This body consisted of the First Estate, the clergy, the Second, the aristocracy, and the Third, the rest!. The aristocracy expected to dominate the Estates General and although the king had decided in December 1788 that the Third Estate would have the same number of representatives as the other two together, they were still intended to sit and vote separately!. If the First and Second agreed, they would always have defeated the Third!. None of the estates was united!. Each was divided between rich and poor members, and among different interest groups!. When the Estates General met, the Third Estate withdrew and declared itself the National Assembly, inviting the others to join it!. After some of the first two estates, especially the clergy, joined the Third, the king ordered them to combine into a single chamber, which then declared itself competent to give a new constitution to France!. On 14 July 1789, the fortress in Paris known as the Bastille, then used as a prison, was seized and demolished as a symbol of despotism!. In fact, although this event has been celebrated almost ever since as a national holiday, it contained only seven prisoners, and it is even possible that the demolition had already been ordered by the existing regime!.Www@QuestionHome@Com In France (and most of Europe) you had "the Haves" and "the Have-Nots!." The Haves were the clergy (or First Estate) and the nobles (or Second Estate)!. also included in the Haves were the successful merchants, specialists, and artists who were paid by the Haves to supply what was desired (clothing, fine foods, tax revenues, medicine, etc)!. The Haves had access to material wealth and the good life!. The Have-Nots were everyone else and did not have access to significant wealth!. The harsh living conditions made the common man bitter and eager for revolution!. Www@QuestionHome@Com Paris was really the only ig city!. Everything else was extremely rural!. In Paris, houses were stacked on top of eachother, there was almost no running water and no indoor plumbing!. Most people lived within a 2-3 block radius of where they worked!. There were also no streets running east and west and north and south!. If you wanted to cross the city, you had to weave through small crowded streets!. In rural France,, everyone was predominately Catholic and lived below the poverty line!. There was also a high illiteracy rate!.Www@QuestionHome@Com To add to the above, in France people NEVER washed and when they went to the toilet they did it while standing (and still do)!. This is unlike the Germans who (males and females) do everything while sitting!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Very bad, no proper sanitation!. Disease ridden!. There was the very poor and the wealthy!. During the revolution life was very iffy for the wealthy because of Madame Guillotine and very iffy for the poor because of lack of food!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |