Old Regime was a class system called the Estates General. It consisted of the 1st Estate, 2nd Estate, and the 3rd Estate. The 1st estate was made up of 0.5% of the population. This estate was made up of the higher nobles, which included the clergy, who were very privileged and wealthy. They paid no taxes. The clergy owned 70% of the land. As for the 2nd Estate, it was made up 1.5% of the population, known as the noblemen. These men usually held a high position in offices in the army or church. Like the 1st, these nobles also enjoyed many privileges and were consirebily wealthy. Among the many privileges, they only had to pay a few taxes, and owned 20% of the land in France. The 3rd Estate, the largest of the estates, was made up of 98% of the population. This group included the bourgeoisie, peasants, and city workers. This group had no privileges at all. They had to pay a burden of taxes, and lived in near poverty, while owning less than 10% of the land. Further, whenever the Estates met together to discuss political issues such as equality in taxes and privileges, the 1st and 2nd Estate would always outvote the 3rd Estate. The 1st and 2nd Estate liked the conditions as they were, since the 1st estate did not have to pay taxes and the 2nd Estate paid next to nothing for taxes along with their great privileges. This inequality caused a lot of unrest among the 3rd Estate, especially because a government cannot co-exist in a society where the majority opposes it. During these times there was a growing economic crisis as well in France. Where King Louis XVI was incompetent and had bankrupted France by continuing to war with England, in the American War for Independence. In addition, like hid previous monarch Louis XVI was less interested in governing and more into wasting the countries wealth on his wife’s beauty, thus a reflection of a foreign alliance. On top of an unequal taxing system, mercantilism was practiced, which ...
