How did the resentment of the middle class lead to the French Revolution?

1. Prior to the French Revolution, France was ruled by an autocratic rule in a reckless manner.

2. Nine-tenth of the population died of hunger and one-tenth of indigestion.

3. The majority of people were living in a state of misery.

4. A great degree of socio and economic inequalities existed in the country.

5. The society was divided into 3 estates-Clergy, nobility, and the middle class.

6. The middle-class consisted of traders. writers, lawyers, teachers, bankers. farmers and craftsmen.

7. This was the lowest social status that played no role in the administration.

8. They paid taxes to the clergymen and the nobility as well as a land tax or taille to the government.

9. Many thinkers such as Voltaire and Rosseau inspired the people to revolt against this tyranny.

10. The luxurious life of the rulers coupled with drought, crop failure, etc led to the bankruptcy of the French government.

11. King Louis XVI called upon the representatives of all the three estates to discuss the introduction of new taxes on the people.

12. Usually, the clergy and the nobility overruled the middle class.

13. The members of the Third Estate declared themselves as the ‘National Assembly of France’. They gathered in a tennis court and decided not to leave until the framing of a Constitution, This was called the ‘Tennis Court Oath’.

14. Various events followed this such as on the 14th of July 1789, the revolutionaries stormed with the slogans of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’. they demolished the Bastille prison and this was the commencement of French revolution.

15. Soon, the National Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

16. In October 1789, thousands of women marched from Paris to the Palace of Versailles with the slogan ‘Give us bread’.

17. In September 1792, the national convention was formed as per the new Constitution, proclaimed France as a republic.