Question

The eighteenth century France witnessed the emergence of the middle class. Who were they and what were their ideas?

Answer 1

Hint: The middle class were part of the third estate who became prosperous and had access to education and new ideas. They took full-scale measures and helped the people to bring out a change in the social and economic order. They wrote books to encourage other people for change.

Complete answer:The eighteenth century witnessed the emergence of the middle class in France who were the change-makers from the third estate. They earned their wealth through an overseas trade and by manufacturing goods such as woollen and silk textiles that were further exported or bought by the rich class. They were mainly traders and manufacturers.
Lawyers, Court officials, teachers, administrators and small businessmen were other members of the middle class. They were educated ones and their ideas were:
i. Privilege by birth should not be given to any group of the society.
ii. Special positions must depend on merit.
iii. Society should be based on freedom and equal laws and opportunities for all.
iv. Philosophers and thinkers such as John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu put forward the idea of equal rights, government based on a social contract between people and their representatives and division of power within the government between legislative, executive and judiciary.

Note: The educated middle class discussed the philosophers and thinkers ideas in salons and coffee-houses where they read them loudly so that people who couldn’t read and write get the benefit and in the future stand for their rights against the absolutist monarchy.