Cahiers de doléances
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The Cahiers de doléances were the lists of grievances drawn up by each of the three Estates in France, between January and April 1789, the year in which the French Revolution began. Their compilation
Cahier de doléances of Saint-Louis, Senegal (1789)
Ancien régime
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The ancien régime was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France that the French Revolution overturned. This was accomplished through its abolition in 1790 of the feudal system of the Fr
Cahiers de doléances
…and the hunting rights of the aristocracy. While the cahiers conveyed the grievances of common people, they were not meant to directly challenge the Ancien Régime. They were instead suggestions of reforms. Still, the writing of the cahiers forced the people of France to think about the problems that France faced…
Louis XIV (the Sun King), under whose reign the ancien régime reached an absolutist form of government; portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1701
The Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, later taken to mark the end of the ancien régime
Dioceses of France in 1789
A prerevolutionary cartoon showing the Third Estate carrying on his back the Second Estate (the nobility) and the First Estate (the clergy)