French Revolution DBQ Reading Response

Instructions: Review the following documents and respond in a reply to this topic. You may use your textbook and class notes as secondary sources. Due by the end of today's class.

Document 1: The three estates in 1789 and the land each held during the Old Regime.



Question 1:What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?

Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?



Document 2: The Political and Social System in 18th century France



Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?

Question 1: What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
- The conclusions I can make of the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate is that the third estate made u most of the population, owned more land, and had to pay more taxes the first two estates.
Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
- The unfair conditions that existed in pre-revolutionary France were that the Third Estate had to pay tax and had to work even though they made up most of the population. And the decisions were almost taken by the first two estates.
Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?
- The cartoonist is saying that the relationship among the three estates in France were very unfair. At the top you had the First Estate that was Clergy or the church. Then you had the Second Estate that was the noble people. The clergy and the nobles as you can see in the picture were on top of the Third Estate or the least fortunate people, they were the ones that had to pay taxes and work the land while all the money was really going to the clergy and the nobles. That is why 98% of the populations that made up almost the whole country were poor and had little to eat. That explains why the country was in crisis.

Question 1:What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
The percentage of the land owned by the first and second estates is lower than the third because there is less people in those estates. They don’t use up a lot of land and they don’t focus much on farming or harvesting as a source of income so there is no use for much land. The first and second estates have more money, they are the ones that have money so taxes are not a big problem for them, not a lot of people have money. If you are fortunate enough to be raised in a wealthy family than you will be in the first or second estates. The unlucky ones have to work their way to success and sadly live in poverty.

Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
The conditions that existed were the way the third estate was treated. They lived in poverty and that was the biggest population. The thing was that the first and second estates made the third estate pay the same taxes that were charged on them. But they didn’t have that amount of money, the first two did and it was no problem for them to pay them but the third estate was poor. The third estate couldn’t do anything about it but pay. Most decisions were made by the first two estates.
Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?
In the cartoon its shown how the first two estates sort of dominate. They set the rules and people must follow, even if they are unfair. The two estates were breaking the third estate with taxes they couldn’t pay. Since the third estate was poor they couldn’t pay, but the first two still gave them those high taxes to pay. The first two were wealthy and they had the leadership, when the third estate just had to sit there and pay the price.

Question 1: What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
The graph shows that in the Third Estate they have the majority of the percentage; they made up more of the population of all three that are shown on the key on the right side. You can see in the First and the Second Estate they were more privileged compared to the other they had hard labor work and had to pay many taxes, which came out to see that was pretty unfair.
Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
The pre-revolutionary in France the conditions were totally unfair the first and second estates were exempt from most taxes (taille), while the third estate was not, the third estate was forced to pay feudal dues to the nobles and the kings, the higher estates banned hunting that was necessary for survival among the people of the third estate.
Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?
This imagine the cartoonist is showing the difference in the relationship between the First, Second, and Third Estate. The First Estate was the one with the most power which had the clergy of the church. Then there is the Second estate which were the noble people. And last but not least there was the Third estate which were un lucky ones, the less fortunate. They were the ones that had to pay most of the taxes and work the hard labor and pretty much live their life for someone else. The money they produced was gong to the clergy and the nobles which were in an higher estate. It shows in the picture very well how the First and Second estate are on top of the Third estate, it shows their power compares to the Third estate. And the in graph above you can see a great difference in percentage between the three estates and you can see the three estate makes pretty much all the population and these were all peasants and that’s why the country had so much troubles.

Question 1:What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
In the first and second estate the percentage of land owned is greater than the percentage of total population. On the other hand, the third estate had a larger percentage of total population than the percentage of land owned. This shows that in the third estate people had fewer chances due to various reasons of having less land. The first and second estate had more chances of having land because they were in a higher class.

Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
The unfair conditions that existed in pre-revolutionary France were that the first class (clergy) did not pay any kinds of taxes and they enjoyed all types of privileges and wealth. The Second Estate (nobles) had to pay a tithe only. They still benefited from having a variety of rights. The third estate (bourgeoisie, bankers, merchants, manufacturers) covered 98 percent of the population. They were the most deprived estate and they were offended by the rights given to the higher estates. Peasants were loaded with taxes, the bourgeoisie couldn’t get the best jobs because they were reserved for nobles so they couldn’t grow or exceed as much as the nobles. Unfair voting was a big problem. Each estate had their own vote and since the first and second estate didn’t have a large population, they would all agree on one vote without any problems. However, since the third estate was composed of a huge population, there were all kinds of conflicts because people wanted different votes. The third estate recommended that votes should be taken individually (by head) so it would be more fair and they would have less conflicts.

Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?
The cartoonist is saying about the relationship among the three estates in France that the first and second estates have a greater power than the third estate. They are standing on a stone stepping on the third estate peasant. The stone stands for all the taxes and feudal dues. This cartoon shows that the third estate is in charge of paying them and the first and second estate proudly stand of top of it carelessly. This shows the unfair treatment between the estates.

Question 1: What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?

What I can deduct that the information on the table is unfair. Even if the first and second estates (Clergy and Nobility) are small in numbers they have a lot of land and privileges that the third estates did not have.
Overall the first and the second estates had a lot of land because they were wealthy and they had gained it from the monarchy or by inheritance from other family members or other nobles.

Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?

Even though the third estate consists of 98% of the population in France they had to pay heavy taxes in which the first and second did not have to pay like: importation tax or home fees, ect… (Even though the rich people could afford to pay the taxes they chose not too because they were greedy. The nobility spent their wealth on useless things: such as material wealth. For example: “The Palace of Versailles”). Other privileges that the first and second estates had was the “The right to vote” because in the “Estate General” it would be difficult for the third estate to impose their laws as the nobility would always 2 to 1 as the they would always want to keep their privileges.
Overall the wealthy could eat and do whatever they wanted when the people ordinary man could barely afford to buy two or three loafs of bread per day for a family of 4 or 5.

Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?

I believe that the cartoonist is trying to show that the first two estates did not have to live with the burden of having to pay taxes, this just shows that the wealthy are living with their riches when the third estate was struggling to survive (hints: the man that is under the rock might be dying because the massive object is crushing him).
As the man is trying to take the rock off (taxes) and pay his bets the rock would fall right back on the man because new taxes would arrive making it difficult for him to free himself from the burden.

Question 1: What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
The conclusions that I can draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate is that the higher the population there is in the specific estate the higher amount of land is owned. But In the first and second estate, which consists of the higher ranked people like the Clergy and Nobles, the percent of the amount of land owned is higher than the percent of the population. And unlike these two estates the third estate has less amount of land that it does population, because these are the lower ranked people like merchants and bourgeoisie.

Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
Some of the unfair conditions that existed in pre-revolutionary France were that the first and second estates were exempt from more taxes even though they consisted of the wealthier people like the Clergy and the Nobles. And because of this the taxes on everything had to be paid by someone and those people were the ones of the third estate, which consisted of the less fortunate people like bourgeoisie, bankers, merchants, landowners, urban workers, servants, construction workers and manufacturers. Another unfair condition is that the third estate consists of 98% of the population but only owns 70% of the land. And then the First estate is 0.5% of the population but owns 10% of the land and the second estate is 1.5% of the population but owns 20% of the land.

Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?
In this cartoon we can see that there is a priest (first estate) and a noble (second estate) standing on top of a peasant (third estate), meaning that the priest and noble are higher ranking than what is under the stone. The stone in the middle of the priest, noble and peasant represents taxes and feudal dues.

Question 1: What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate? The relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate could be considered strange or even unfair. The first estate formed 0.5% of the population but owned 10% of the land; 9.5% difference. The Second estate owned 1.5% of the population and owned 20% of the land; 18.5% difference. And finally the third estate with a 98% of population only owned 70% of the land; 18% difference. We can conclude that the first and second estates had a lot of power over the third estate which is why they owned more land. Also, many of these members of the Third estate were peasants and very few owned land which they probably couldn’t afford due to the poor salary they had. A conclusion I can also think of is that of the Third estate not being well educated, which could mean that they got tricked if they bought or sold land or in other cases. Although this could of happened they finally revolted trying to make everything and everyone equal.
Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France? Unfair traditions that existed in a pre-revolutionary France were that the first and second estate did not pay taxes (except tithes) but the third estate had to pay even the smallest taxes that existed. Although the Second estates had little money income and were far from the center of power they were above the Third estate. The third estate resented the privileges enjoyed by the first and second estates. The best jobs were reserved for nobles, and urban workers earned miserable salaries, even the slightest increase of prices could send a big portion of the population into great huger and starvation. People questioned themselves about this inequality that existed and throughout France, the Third Estate called for the privileged classes to pay their share.
Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France? The relationship the cartoonist is depicting in the picture about the three estates is the inequality that existed among the three estates. The First and Second estates were superior to the Third which was being crushed and buried beneath all taxation taken upon them.

Question 1: What conclusion can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
I conclude, that there is more people from the third estate (the common people) living in France than there is from the first (the clergy) and second (the nobility). The people from the third estate own more land than the others, and worked the lands. The population and land owned percentage in 1789 for each estate was at: First estate population; 2% and land owned; 10%, Second estate population; 4% and land owned; 24% and Third estate population; 96% and land owned; 64%.
Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
In pre-revolutionary existed many unfair conditions towards the third estate. This made the third estate become discontent. They rose the prices, peasants (third estate) could no longer afford buying bread, they had to pay taxes and the best jobs were given to the nobles, so it was hard for them to find a job.

Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?
This picture shows the relationship between the three estates. It shows how the peasants are treated, in this cartoon the noble and clergy are crushing a peasant. At the botton the stone represents taxes and dues. This shows the inequalities between France three estates.

Question 1: What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
The conclusions I can make is that the more privileged estates are 2 percent of the population and own a big part of the land even though they are fewer. The third estate has 20,000,000 and doesn’t have enough land for everyone to fit in. Even though the common people owned more land than the first two estates, it wasn't enough because they were too much for that land, but the first two estates had an enormous amount of land compared to the amount of people they had.

Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
The unfair conditions were the way the people of the Third Estate were treated. They had 98 percent of the population but had no privileges nor wealth. They had to work harshly and pay an enormous amount of tax while the First Estate didn’t pay any, and the third estate payed very little. The other 2 percent of the people were either in the First or Second Estate and had many more privileges and much more wealth. Another unfair condition was that the two first estates were taking over all the decisions and voting out the third estate on all their ideas.

Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?
The cartoonist is saying that the First and Second Estate get along and ally against the Third Estate. The First and Second estate are more rich and are not suffering because of poorness or hard labor. Meanwhile the people of the Third Estate have nothing. They have to work under horrible conditions to receive enough money to survive and pay taxes. The Third Estate is being “bullied” by the nobles and the clergy. The common people were living in poverty while the clergy and nobles were living in luxury with no worries and a great life quality, they did not care what was going on with the 3rd estate and preferred not to have any kind of contact with them. The wealthy were very ignorant.

Question 1: What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
-The third estate had a higher percentage. They were the major part of the population and had more land than the other estates, since there were more poor people. As you can see in the graph the first and second estate had the most money and was formed by the clergy and the nobles.
Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
-Some unfair conditions that existed in pre-revolutionary France were that the third estate was force to pay all the taxes unlike the first and second that received that money and used it for their own personal likes. Also the higher estates banned hunting that was necessary for the survival of the third estate.
Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?
-What the cartoonist is trying to say in this drawing is that the third estate was treated unequally among like the first and second estates that were beside each other. Also the third estate had to pay all of the taxes and the third estate was below it, as it is shown a big rock on top of them, it was a huge weigh. The third estate was reallu unfortunate since they also had to do all the work such as work the land and servants, which most of them had to do to pay some debts when they couldn't pay the taxes. Even though the third estate was really unfortunate they were deep thinkers and started questioning about why their own rights weren't respected. When they complained their opinions weren't taken in consideration and were practically just ignored.

Question 1: What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
Out of the three estates, the third estate owned the majority of the land with approximately 65 percent. Next came, the second estate with approximately 25 percent of the land. Lastly, the first estate had 10 percent of the land. The third estate had the majority of the population with a 98 percent. The first and second estate had the other two percent. Although the second estate had about 1 percent of the whole population of France, they controlled 25 percent of the land and the same thing happens with the first estate. This means that the land was not evenly distributed.

Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
Some of the unfair conditions that existed in pre-revolutionary France were that the third estate had to pay a lot of taxes while the first and second estate didn’t pay taxes at all. Also, while the first and second estate lived a wealthy life in palaces and in mansions, the rest of France was starving. Another unfair condition that existed in [re-revolutionary France was that the land was not evenly distributed. The third estate which was the biggest in population of all estates had only about 60 percent of the lands while the first or second estate which only had about 1 percent of the population had 25 percent of the land.

Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?
With that cartoon, the cartoonist wanted to express the inequality between the three estates. He wanted to say that the first and second estate was really wealthy and that they lived from the taxes that the third estate paid. Also that since the first and second estate used all of the money to build palaces and churches, there was no money for food and that the third estate were all starving

Question 1:What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?

What I can depict from the chart on the website, was that it was an immense amount of people living in France that were part of the third estate; and a very small amout of people from the first and second estate. In 1789, the calculation for the population of France was peasants(third estate): 98% of the people; Nobles(second estate): 1.5% of the people; Cleregy(first estate): 0.5% of the people. However, the land occupation of France in 1789 was not proportional to the calculation above. Peasants(third estate): 70% of the land; Nobles(second estate): 20% of the land; and Cleregy(first estate) 10% of the land. It was an unfair amout considering the amout of peasants living in France in 1789.

Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?

In the pre-evolutionary France, there was a lot of unfairness having to do with the peasants’ (third estate) rights. First of all, The Nobles(second estate) and The Cleregy(third estate)-the wealthiest estates economically- were exempt from all taxation. And the third estate or peasants were obligated and forced to pay high and unfair taxes. Also the burgousie couldn’t obtain a higher title.

Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?

The cartoonist wants to send a message to the viewer. He tried to express how the first and second estate didn’t mind the third estate. Also that the first and second estate are proudly superior to the third estate. A good example of this point was Louis XIV and especially Marie Antonette who responded to a question that they made to her: “Madame, what are we going to do? The peasants don’t have their daily bread.” And she responded: “Well if they don’t have their bread, then why don’t they eat cake?” That’s the type of attidute the first and second estate had with the third estate.

Question 1: What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
-The third estate had the highest percentage of people. They were the major part of the population and had more land than the other estate. most of the people int he third estate were poor. The graph shows that the first and second estate had the most money and was formed by the clergy and the nobles.

Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
- many unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France like that the third estate was forced to pay countless taxes while the first and second collected it all and used it for themselves. Also, the first and second estate passed many laws by abusing the usual 2-1 vote.

Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?
-What the cartoonist is trying to say in this drawing is that the third estate was treated unequally compare to the first and second estates. Also the third estate had to pay all of the taxes and the third estate was below it, as it is shown a big rock on top of them, it was a huge weight. The third estate was really unfortunate since they also had to do all the work such as farming and building, which most of them had to do to pay some debts when they couldn't pay the taxes.

Question 1:What conclusions can you draw about the relationship between the percentage of the population in each estate and the percentage of land owned by that estate?
The first and second estate have a lot of of the total percent of land even though the number of population is very little. It is the opposite with the third estate, it has a higher percentage of population than of land properties owned. This presented that the first and second had more opportunities to buy land because 50% of their income didn’t go to pay taxes.

Question 2: What unfair conditions existed in pre-revolutionary France?
There were a lot of unfair condition that existed in pre-revolutionary France. The first class, the clergy, didn’t pay any taxes even though they were capable of doing this. Because of their high position they were rewarded with benefits and privileges. The second estate, nobles, only paid feudal dues. The amount they had to pay didn’t hurt them compared to their income. They were exempt from a lot more taxes that the poorest class had to pay. The third estate, bourgeoisie, bankers, merchants and manufacturers, made up 97% of the population. They didn’t enjoy from the other benefits the other estates had. The peasants had to pay for all the taxes even though they didn’t even have enough money to buy a loaf of bread. The bourgeoisie couldn’t work hard enough to get the most prestigious jobs because those were reserved for the nobles. The first and second estate also didn’t allow the third estate to win any votes, because they would vote for the same thing and the third estate would lose. The third estate had suggested that they did the votes by the number of heads, since the third estate made up much more of the population. This couldn’t happen because the clergy and the nobles were opposed to it.


Question 3: What is the cartoonist saying about the relationship among the three estates in France?

The cartoonist is saying that the relationship among the three estates in France was unfair. It shows that the first and second estate feel much more superior than the third estate. They are crushing the peasants with a rock and that would probably be the taxes and feudal dues imposed on the third estates. The first and second estate aren’t bothered or struggling with anything while the third estate is barely surviving. This shows the unpleasant and unfair conditions happening in the French Revolution.