French society was divided into classes or estates.

There were two privileged classes-the elegy and the nobility. These were known as the first estate and estate respectively. These two classes together owned about 40 per cent of the total land of France. They were exempted from taxes and controlled most of the administrative posts and all the high ranking posts in the army. Their income primarily came from their large land holdings.

A minority of these also depended on pensions and gift from the king. They considered it beneath their dignity to trade or to be engaged in manufacture or to do any work. The life of the nobility was everywhere characterized by extravagance and luxury. Due to what France was suffering economic crisis. There were of course poorer sections in these two top estates. They were discontent and blamed the richer member of their class for their misery.

The rest of the people of France were called the Third Estate. They were common people and numbered about 95 per cent population of the total. People of the Third Estate were unprivileged people. Louis XVI was the king when revolution broke out.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Every phenomenon in history has got an economic interpretation. And the revolution of 1789 was definitely an economic revolution. The cleavage between man and man, based upon the privilege which was enjoyed by a set of people and denied to another, was mainly an economic difference. It was that privilege that shifted the main burden of taxation upon the shoulder of the poor and denied the high posts in the government to all but the well born. Thus the difference between privileged and the unprivileged was based on some opportunities lavishly bestowed upon some and totally denied to others. This inequality or desire for equality or the demand for social and economic justice was the fundamental reason of the revolution of 1789. As a result of the revolution all privileges were abolished and people started to avail equal opportunities. Thus the French Revolution attacked privileged not the property.