clergy made up the first estate in the french revolution.
who made up the first estate in the french revolution?
clergy
the best known system is the french "ancien régime" (old regime), a three-estate system used until the french revolution (1789–1799). monarchy was for the king and the queen and this system was made up of clergy (the first estate), nobles (the second estate), and peasants and bourgeoisie (the third estate). in some regions, notably scandinavia and russia, burghers (the urban merchant class) and rural commoners were split into separate estates, creating a four-estate system with rural commoners ranking the lowest as the fourth estate. furthermore, the non-landowning poor could be left outside the estates, leaving them without political rights. in england, a two-estate system evolved that combined nobility and clergy into one lordly estate with "commons" as the second estate. this system produced the two houses of parliament, the house of commons and the house of lords. in southern germany, a three-estate system of nobility (princes and high clergy), knights, and burghers was used. in scotland, the three estates were the clergy (first estate), nobility (second estate), and shire commissioners, or "burghers" (third estate), representing the bourgeois, middle class, and lower class. the estates made up a scottish parliament.
estates of the realm
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