Definition of Third Estate

At the request ofFeudalism and the Old Regime, the Third estate, It's one of the three basic classes that made up the society at that time and in the aforementioned contexts.

One of the estates into which feudal and Old Regime society was divided and to which the poorest and most unprivileged citizens belonged.

Especially composed of the population lacking the privileges of those who did enjoy the nobility and the clergy, they were also often referred to as the group of the not privileged. Other names that the third state has also received throughout history: pecheros, plain state, town, common town, common people.

Who made it up and the internal differences

The sectors that made up this third state are, on the one hand, the peasantry, which was the majority of the population, commonly enrolled in serfdom or in the manorial regime, and on the other hand the bourgeoisie, who were those city dwellers, theoretically free, unlike the peasants who were not in fact; meanwhile, the bourgeoisie comprised: the

craftsmen of each trade organized in turn into guilds, the merchants and merchants, which also had an organization similar to that of the peasants, especially in cities and periodically at fairs, and finally the urban plebs.

Generally there were great differences in terms of wealth among the members of the third estate, since for example in the peasantry there were the rich farmers who were owners, or failing that, tenants of large farms and, on the contrary, day laborers, belonging to this same group but who did not even own the tools tillage.

There were also important differences within the bourgeoisie itself, differing in upper bourgeoisie and lower bourgeoisie. To give you a fair idea, those who were the richest members of the third estate even outnumbered the lower nobility.

However, and despite constituting the majority sector of the population, in some situations, they lacked rights and were subject to the decisions of the monarchs and others estates.

In the French case, in times of monarchical absolutism, the third estate was obviously considered an integral part of society but they did not have any privilege, Even more, they were certainly relegated in terms of recognition of rights with respect to the most relevant and considered superior classes such as the nobility and the clergy.

Substantial role at the behest of the French Revolution to achieve their freedom and expand their rights

On the eve and after the French Revolution (1789) the Third Estate was fundamental in the dissemination of new ideas and of course in the support they provided to the revolutionary uprising to overthrow the monarchy in a definitive way, because in this way it was possible to achieve the right and limit the historical supremacy of the clergy and nobility.

As we have already pointed out, it was made up of a wide range of trades and professions that were undoubtedly the economic engine of those times and that as such they wanted to be heard and have a representation in the condition.

Little by little, the Third Estate accumulated money that allowed it to promote changes in the current political and economic state, added to the revolution in progress of course.

The discrimination and the rejection he suffered by the monarchy led him to fight it at any rate and to promote above all things the corporatism that regulated the professions, arts and trades in the old regime, and that of course violated its labor freedom.

They also wanted the prohibitions on access to public office and the army to be repealed, since these were intended only for the higher echelons.

The triumph of the French Revolution meant in some way the triumph of the Third Estate and its demands for greater recognition and social freedom and politics.

So much so that it became the ruling class after this pivotal moment in history.
Their authority was supported by the ideas of the Enlightenment and also by the wealth they knew how to accumulate.

All your demands such as freedom, safety legal and property, were recognized and established in the famous Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which the Assembly held in August 1789 recognized and approved.

Third Estate Issues