Estates & Inequality
French society was divided into three social groups called ______.
What are the Estates?
A government where the king holds nearly all power is an ______.
What is an absolute monarchy?
John Locke said people are born with ______ rights.
What are natural rights?
By the late 1700s France faced a serious financial ______.
What is a crisis (debt crisis)?
The Estates-General was an assembly with representatives from the ______ Estates.
What are the three Estates?
The First Estate was mainly the ______.
Who are the clergy (Catholic Church)?
The belief that the king’s authority comes from God is called ______.
What is divine right?
Locke’s three natural rights were life, liberty, and ______.
What is property?
One major cause of debt was expensive ______.
What are wars?
Louis XVI called the Estates-General in ______ to solve the financial crisis.
What is 1789?
About ______ percent of France belonged to the Third Estate.
What is 97%?
In an absolute monarchy, ordinary people had little or no ______ in government decisions.
What is a voice?
Voltaire argued for ______ before the law (same laws for everyone).
What is equality?
France spent money supporting the American colonies during the ______ Revolution.
What is the American Revolution?
Each Estate brought lists of complaints called ______.
What are cahiers?
Name two groups inside the Third Estate.
What are peasants, city workers, and/or the bourgeoisie? (any two)
Louis XVI became king in the year ______.
What is 1774?
Rousseau believed government should be based on ______ of the governed (the will of the people).
What is consent (social contract)?
When a government borrows money, it must pay it back with ______.
What is interest?
Traditionally, voting was “by Estate,” meaning each Estate had ______ vote.
What is one vote?
Explain the biggest inequality in one sentence: who paid most taxes and who paid little or none?
What is: The Third Estate paid most taxes, while the First and Second Estates paid little or none?
Why did royal life at Versailles create anger? Give TWO reasons.
What is: royal luxury while people faced hunger/high bread prices, money spent during debt, no public input, symbol of inequality?
Montesquieu argued power should be divided into branches; this idea is called ______.
What is separation of powers?
Why was it hard to fix the debt crisis? Explain using taxes and privileges.
What is: The wealthy Estates (clergy/nobles) paid little or no taxes and resisted reforms, so the government relied on taxing the Third Estate?
The Third Estate wanted voting “by head.” What would that change and why did they want it?
What is: Each representative gets a vote, giving the Third Estate more influence because they had more representatives and represented most of France?