First Estate: clergy
Second Estate: nobility
Third Estate: everyone else
Louis XVI and lavish courts spent large amounts of $
Seven's Years War and American Revolution cost $
France government borrowed $ to bridge gap between money coming in and going out
Tax money was only enough to pay on loan interest
Created the Civil Constitution of the Clergy which ended the papal authority over the French Church and dissolved convents and monasteries.
This angered the Pope, bishops and priests who refused to accept it.
After an all-night combative meeting, they voted to end their own privileges of manorial dues, hunting rights, special legal status, and exemption from taxes.
People announced "Feudalism is abolished"!
At the top were the "bourgeoisie" (middle class) made up of bankers, merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and professors.
The bulk consisted of rural peasants, some were prosperous landowners, or tenant farmers/day laborers. Wages were small and rising prices could cause starvation.
The poorest members were urban workers, such as apprentices, journeymen, industry workers, servants, stable hands, construction workers, street sellers. A large number were unemployed needing to beg or commit crimes to survive.
Third Estate was burdened with paying all the taxes for everyone.
"Sans-cullotes" (wore Long pants) demanded a republic - government ruled by elected representatives instead of a monarchy.
"Jacobins" middle class lawyers and intellectuals. They used pamphleteers, and sympathetic newspaper editors to spread the cause.