estates general was the first estate in the french revolution.
what was the first estate in the french revolution?
estates general
at the time of the revolution, the first estate comprised 10,000 catholic clergy and owned 5–10% of the lands in france—the highest per capita of any estate. all property of the first estate was tax exempt. the second estate comprised the nobility, which consisted of 400,000 people at the time, including women and children. since the death of louis xiv in 1715, the nobles had enjoyed a resurgence in power. they had almost a monopoly over distinguished government service, higher church offices, army parliaments, and most other public and semipublic honors by the time of the revolution. like the first estate, they were not taxed by the principle of feudal precedent. the third estate comprised about 25 million people: the bourgeoisie, the peasants, and everyone else in france. unlike the first and second estates, the third estate were compelled to pay taxes, but the bourgeoisie found one way or another to be exempt from them. the heavy burden of the french government therefore fell upon the poorest in french society—the peasantry, the working poor, and the farmers. there was much resentment from the third estate towards its superiors.
estates general (france)
the french revolution and its political legacy had a major influence upon the development of fascism. fascists view the french revolution as a largely negative event that resulted in the entrenchment of liberal ideas such as liberal democracy, anticlericalism and rationalism. opponents of the french revolution initially were conservatives and reactionaries, but the revolution was also later criticized by marxists for its bourgeois character and racist nationalists who opposed its universalist principles. racist nationalists in particular condemned the french revolution for granting social equality to "inferior races" such as jews. mussolini condemned the french revolution for developing liberalism, scientific socialism and liberal democracy, but also acknowledged that fascism extracted and utilized all the elements that had preserved those ideologies' vitality and that fascism had no desire to restore the conditions that precipitated the french revolution. though fascism opposed core parts of the revolution, fascists supported other aspects of it, mussolini declared his support for the revolution's demolishment of remnants of the middle ages such as tolls and compulsory labour upon citizens and he noted that the french revolution did have benefits in that it had been a cause of the whole french nation and not merely a political party. most importantly, the french revolution was responsible for the entrenchment of nationalism as a political ideology – both in its development in france as french nationalism and in the creation of nationalist movements particularly in germany with the development of german nationalism by johann gottlieb fichte as a political response to the development of french nationalism. the nazis accused the french revolution of being dominated by jews and freemasons and were deeply disturbed by the revolution's intention to completely break france away from its past history in what the nazis claimed was a repudiation of history that they asserted to be a trait of the enlightenment. though the nazis were highly critical of the revolution, hitler in "mein kampf" said that the french revolution is a model for how to achieve change that he claims was caused by the rhetorical strength of demagogues. furthermore, the nazis idealized the "levée en masse" (mass mobilization of soldiers) that was developed by french revolutionary armies and the nazis sought to use the system for their paramilitary movement.
fascism and ideology