{"id":2713,"date":"2017-07-28T06:11:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T06:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2713"},"modified":"2026-02-23T09:10:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T09:10:53","slug":"france-before-the-french-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/france-before-the-french-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"France Before the French Revolution: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

France before the French Revolution<\/a> was an absolute monarchy ruled by King Louis XVI<\/a>. French society was based on the Estates System<\/a>, with power concentrated in the hands of the king and the privileged First and Second Estates. The country faced a severe financial crisis due to years of war, lavish royal spending, and an unfair tax system that placed the burden mostly on the members of the Third Estate. Together, these issues combined to create the perfect conditions for revolutionary uprisings, which ultimately led to the events of the French Revolution<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WHAT WAS THE FRENCH REVOLUTION?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0French Revolution<\/a>\u00a0was a major event in the history of Western societies, and had a profound effect on the world today.\u00a0 Beginning in 1789, the revolution saw the French people overthrow their\u00a0absolute monarchy\u00a0and bring about a republic that was based on the principles of equality, liberty and fraternity.\u00a0 As the revolution unfolded, the country went through a dramatic transformation, and changed completely from its earlier form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"French
‘Storming of the Bastille and arrest of the Governor M. de Launay’ by Jean-Baptiste Lallemand. (1790) The Storming of the Bastille was an important events in the beginning of the French Revolution.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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FRANCE BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION – ESTATES SYSTEM<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before the French Revolution, French society was structured on the relics of\u00a0feudalism<\/a>, in a system known as the\u00a0Estates System<\/a>.\u00a0 The estate to which a person belonged was very important because it determined that person\u2019s rights and status in society.\u00a0 Usually a person remained in one estate for his or her lifetime, and any movement from upwards in the estate system could take many generations.\u00a0 The first estate was the clergy, the second estate was the nobility and the third estate was the peasants.\u00a0 While the peasants made up the vast majority of the people in French society, over 96%, they lacked any political or economic power.\u00a0 In contrast, the clergy and the nobility controlled the majority of the land in France and held all of the important positions in the government, military and church.\u00a0 This is the period before the French Revolution and is a time known as the Ancien Regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Estates
Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) on its back. It highlights the Estates System of France before the French Revolution.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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FRANCE BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION – ABSOLUTE MONARCHY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Besides being based on feudalism, French society was also centered on the political structure of absolute monarchy<\/a>.\u00a0 An Absolute Monarchy is a form of government that was popular during medieval Europe and up until the end of the 18th century.\u00a0 It involved society being ruled over by an all-powerful king or queen.\u00a0 The monarch had complete control over all aspects of the society, including: political power, economics, and all forms of authority.\u00a0 Absolute monarchies often contained two key features: hereditary rules and divine right of kings. Hereditary rule meant that the monarch received their position due to their birth and as one in a long family line of monarchs.\u00a0 As well, medieval European absolute monarchs included the practice of divine right of kings, meaning that the monarch derived his or her power from god.\u00a0 This furthered the power of a monarch because it ensured that the king or queen did not get their power from the people, and therefore the people had not control or say over the monarch\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Louis XVI<\/a>\u00a0was the absolute monarch of France in the years leading up to the French Revolution.\u00a0 At the beginning of Louis XVI\u2019s reign, France was under the Ancien Regime which was a system based on absolute monarchy and the feudal traditions of the estates system.\u00a0 The\u00a0Age of Enlightenment<\/a>, which had been occurring throughout the 1700\u2019s began to introduce ideas to people in Europe that opposed these principles and were instead based on liberty and equality.\u00a0 The spreading ideas of the Enlightenment would eventually lead to the outbreak of the French Revolution, which would ultimately result in the end of the French monarchy and the\u00a0death of Louis XVI<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Louis
‘Louis XVI, King of France and Navarre, wearing his grand royal costume in 1779’ by Antoine-Fran\u00e7ois Callet. (1778)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

France before the French Revolution was a society deeply rooted in inequality. For instance, French society was structured on the relics of\u00a0feudalism, in a system known as the\u00a0Estates System.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":83,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[87,15],"class_list":["post-2713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-french-revolution","tag-french-revolution","tag-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2713"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5580,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions\/5580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}