How did the Third Estate contribute to the French Revolution in 1789?

Question

How did the Third Estate contribute to the French Revolution in 1789?

Answer 1

The French government was split in three: The 1st Estate of the Clergy (100,00 people at the time), The 2nd Estate of the Nobility (1% of the population), The 3rd Estate of everybody else (96% of the population). The first 2 Estates had power to tax and control the Third Estate. As revolution began to creep into people's vocabulary, the Third Estate, allied with the lower clergy, called for more power to the people. The King, 1780 created the National Constituent Assembly to do just that. This group began to legally destroy the nobility and clergy by taking away their taxing privileges and forced them to pay taxes. This led the way for the French Revolution and is truly its first step.

Answer 2

Third Estate

The Third Estate (Fr. tiers état) was the generality of people which were not part of the other estates.

The Third Estate comprised all those who were not members of the aristocracy or the clergy, including peasants, working people and the bourgeoisie. In 1789, the Third Estate made up 96%[2] of the population in France. Due in part to a limited franchise, the representatives of the Third Estate actually came from the wealthy upper bourgeoisie; sometimes the term's meaning has been restricted to the middle class, as opposed to the working class.

They had to pay taxes to estate 1.