WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The peasantry Peasants inhabited the bottom tier of the Third Estate’s social hierarchy. Comprising between 82 and 88 per cent of the population, peasant-farmers were the nation’s poorest social class. While levels of wealth and income varied, it is reasonable to suggest that most French peasants were poor.

Detailed explanation-2: -In late April and May 1775, food shortages and high prices ignited an explosion of popular anger in the towns and villages of the Paris Basin. Over 300 riots and expeditions to pillage grain were recorded in the space of a little over three weeks. The wave of popular protest became known as the Flour War.

Detailed explanation-3: -In October 1789, thousands of Parisian women rioted over the rising price of bread. Brandishing knives, axes, and other weapons, the women marched on Versailles. First, they demanded that the National Assembly take action to provide bread. Then they turned their anger on the king and queen.

Detailed explanation-4: -But when the grain crops failed two years in a row, in 1788 and 1789, the price of bread shot up to 88 percent of his wages. Many blamed the ruling class for the resulting famine and economic upheaval. On top of that, peasants resented the gabelle, a tax on salt that was particularly unfairly applied to the poor.

Detailed explanation-5: -The middle class emerged as the immediate winners of the revolution as they broke down the barriers of the estate system through political reformation. However, the revolt of the peasants and urban working class perpetuated the French Revolution.