What is the Third Estate? By Sieyèsis a political pamphlet written in January 1789, shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolution, by the French thinker and clergyman Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836). The pamphlet was the response of Sieyès to finance minister Jacques Necker's invitation for writers to state how they thought the Estates-General should be organized.In the pamphlet, Sieyès argues that the Third Estate – the common people of France – constituted a complete nation in itself and had no need of the "dead weight" of the two other orders, the First and Second Estates of the clergy and aristocracy. Sieyès stated that the people wanted genuine representatives in the Estates-General, equal representation to the other two orders taken together, and votes taken by heads and not by orders. These ideas came to have an immense influence on the course of the French Revolution.The Declaration of Rights of Woman The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen was published in 1791 and is modelled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789. Olympe de Gouges dedicated the text to Marie Antoinette, whom de Gouges described as "the most detested" of women. Marie Gouze (1748–93) was a self–educated butcher’s daughter from the south of France who, under the name Olympe de Gouges, wrote pamphlets and plays on a variety of issues, including slavery, which she attacked as being founded on greed and blind prejudice. In this pamphlet she provides a declaration of the rights of women to parallel the one for men, thus criticizing the deputies for having forgotten women. She addressed the pamphlet to the Queen, Marie Antoinette, though she also warned the Queen that she must work for the Revolution or risk destroying the monarchy altogether. In her postscript she denounced the customary treatment of women as objects easily abandoned. She appended to the declaration a sample form for a marriage contract that called for communal sharing of property. De Gouges went to the guillotine in 1793, condemned as a counterrevolutionary and denounced as an "unnatural" woman.French Revolution – main causesAmong causes of the French Revolution, the principal condition was the "revolutionary situation" which had developed in 18th century France through mismanagement of the economy and, in particular, the costs incurred in fighting the Seven Years' War and the AmericanRevolutionary War. The economic crisis was compounded by years of bad harvests and resulted in urban and rural resentment of the wealth and privilege enjoyed by the nobility and clergy. In due course, the crisis led to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789 and, subsequently, as the revolution unfolded, it came to be seen in terms of Enlightenment ideals which some held to havecreated a "revolutionary spirit".Estates General in France of the pre-Revolutionary monarchy, the representative assembly of the three “estates,” or orders of the realm: the clergy and nobility—which were privileged minorities—and a Third Estate, which represented the majority of the people.The origins of the Estates-General are to be found in traditions of counsel and aid and the development of corporate representation inthe 13th century. The first national assembly of representatives of the three estates met in April 1302 to aid Philip IV the Fair against Pope Boniface VIII. There were several comparable meetings, to obtain political or financial support, in the first half of the 14th century. But it became clear during the Hundred Years’ War, if not before, that the Estates-General were too unwieldy (and too unyielding) to become an institutional organ of consent. The attempt of such assemblies to take administrative initiative in the 1350s failed not only because of the assassination of the bourgeois reformist Étienne Marcel but also because of provincial dissatisfaction. Although general Estates were occasionally summoned during the next century, their constitutional functions were, in many areas, assumed by provincial Estates, which were easier to attend, easier to manage, and better in keeping with regional custom.Tennis court oath was a pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General on 20 June 1789. The only person who did not sign was Joseph Martin-Dauch, a politician who would not execute decisions not sanctioned by the king. They made a makeshift conference roominside a tennis court located in the Saint-Louis district of the city of Versailles, near the Palace of Versailles.Committee of Public Safety Political body of the French Revolution that gained virtual dictatorialcontrol over France during the Reign of Terror (September 1793 to July 1794). The Committee of Public Safety was set up on April 6, 1793, during one of the crises of the Revolution, when France was beset by foreign and civil war. The new committee was to provide for the defense of the nation against its enemies, foreign and domestic, and to oversee the already existing organs of executive government. The members of the committee, at first numbering 9 and later increased to 12, were elected by the National Convention (representative assembly) for a period of one month and were eligible for reelection.Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. It was triggered by a vote of the NationalConvention to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, and several other leading members of the Terror. This ended the most radical phase of the French Revolution. The name Thermidorian refers to 9 Thermidor Year II (27 July 1794), the date according to the French Revolutionary Calendar when Robespierre and other radical revolutionaries came under concerted attack in the National Convention. Thermidorian Reaction also refers to the remaining period until the National Convention was superseded by the Directory; this is also sometimes called the era of the Thermidorian Convention. Prominent figures of Thermidor include Paul Barras, Jean-Lambert Tallien, and Joseph Fouché.Sans-culottes were the radical left-wing partisans of the lower classes; typically urban labourers, which dominated France. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army during the early years of