[Music] hey there students this is going to be the first in a series of lectures on the French Revolution this introductory lecture goes out to Elise who has a big test tomorrow hope you do well on it keep in mind that one of the themes of the French Revolution is going to be the transformation of France from a collection of privileged groups to a nation and so let's first look at what historians call the old regime which is the way that things were before the French Revolution before the French Revolution came about the population of France was divided into three Estates the first estate being the clergy the second estate being the nobility and the Third Estate being everyone else which was about 97% of the population so odds are you were a member of the Third Estate but these first two estates had several privileges the foremost among these privileges being tax exemptions now let's think about this now surely okay exempting 3% of the population from taxes can't make too much of a difference but keep in mind that the clergy and the nobility make up the wealthiest classes in early modern France if you take a look at this uh graph here you can see that in the United States today the top 1% of the population pays 38% of the taxes and then you go to the top 5% that's 58% of the taxes so if you think about that in terms of today if we Exempted the top 3% of our population from taxes that would be maybe roughly half of the tax revenue that we get that would make a very drastic impact on the government's ability to raise money so keep in mind that with these tax exemptions That Thing One and Thing Two over here get the clergy and the nobility this is going to cause a fiscal crisis for the monarch now another thing contributing to this fiscal crisis was the American Revolution which we here in America are very thankful that the French gave us military and financial assistance which made our Victory possible why did the French even bother to get involved in this American Revolution after all wasn't America a republic wasn't it across the ocean from Europe that's a good question Richie well the thing is the reason France got involved in our Revolution was really to stick it to the British uh the reason that Nations got involved in wars in the 18th century in Europe was uh how can I affect the balance of power in Europe how can I stick it to my enemies keep in mind that France had just lost its North American colonies in the Seven Years War so France was looking for an opportunity to get Britain back and that is exactly what they did but the French are kind of retting this because it's like ahaa you lost your colonies too well some of them and it only cost us a lot so the French were regretting this decision at least in financial terms because the American Revolution really pushes France to the brink of bankruptcy when we look at the French national budget at this time in the 1780s 50 % of the French budget was going to service this massive debt uh from the Seven Years War and from the American Revolution and for you know whatever other stuff the French were in debt for then you look at the next part here 6% of the budget is going to maintain Versailles so if you think about this uh if that we were measuring in dollars this would be a nickel and a penny of every dollar going to maintain the king's personal household and his extravagant lifestyle so so far here's 56% now then 19% to the military of course we want to maintain a strong military but then again we know that Absolut States in a lot of cases built bigger militaries than were necessary and then you've only got 25% a quarter of the money that's being spent in France is going to Public Works is going to something that actually benefits the people people so the French monarchy is in trouble and part of this is the French monarchy's inability to raise revenue and it's not going to get any easier because Louis the 16th we're not talking about Louis the 14th anymore you take that uh that I or one or whatever and you move it to the end take it out of the middle move it to the end and you get Louis the 16th Louis the 16th was a wheat King and while Louis the 14th had put the nobility down over the reign of Louis the 15th and Louis V 16th you see an aristocratic Resurgence that the Nobles are asserting their power again and they have become more powerful than they were under Lou the 14th had gotten some of their privileges back such as the parlmont and uh various other things and so Louie cannot tax the Nobles by decree Louie instead has to beg so in 1787 he calls an assembly of notables Now by notables these are representatives of the tax exempt classes these are representatives of the church hierarchy and of the nobility and Louie wants to see would you mind if I start taxing you H and this is basically the response Louie gets from the Assembly of notables this is a failure now there's a political cartoon from the time and as you can see here there are a bunch of ducks geese some sort of winged creature and this uh Fox looking guys asking them with what sauce would you like to be cooked keep in mind the French use a lot of sauces and that sort of thing and the Ducks the geese whoever they're looking at each other and they're thinking we'd rather not be cooked at all and in fact not only do we not want to be cooked but if you have in mind to cook us okay we want the Estates General to convene we want this to be a bigger thing than just an assembly of notables so this assembly of notables is a failure and so Louie really has no choice but in 1789 to call the Estates General which was an advisory body for the king that had not been convened since 1614 before the reign of Louis the 14th the Estates General hadn't met in 175 years keep in mind this is a representative body absolute monarchs had no use for that so when Louie calls the Estates General this is going to bring the French Revolution to a whole new level and that is going to be the subject of next lecture stay tuned for that until next [Music] time