MAKING OF A NEW NATION 1776 1800
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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execute those who did not support the revolution
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increase the influence of the peasants
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raise taxes to pay off a growing debt
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protect the privileges of the First and Second Estates
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Detailed explanation-1: -The political and financial situation in France had grown rather bleak, forcing Louis XVI to summon the Estates General. This assembly was composed of three estates – the clergy, nobility and commoners – who had the power to decide on the levying of new taxes and to undertake reforms in the country.
Detailed explanation-2: -Summoned by King Louis XVI, the Estates General of 1789 ended when the Third Estate formed the National Assembly and, against the wishes of the King, invited the other two estates to join. This signaled the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Detailed explanation-3: -The Estates-General of 1789 ended in failure because the Third Estate (commoners) refused to accept the decision made by majority vote where the First Estate (aristocracy) and Second Estate (clergy) voted together to put the bulk of the taxation responsibilities on the shoulders of commoners.
Detailed explanation-4: -taille, the most important direct tax of the pre-Revolutionary monarchy in France. Its unequal distribution, with clergy and nobles exempt, made it one of the hated institutions of the ancien régime. The taille originated in the early Middle Ages as an arbitrary exaction from peasants.