Question

When ,where and why did Louis XVI convene the estates general ? How was voting conducted.

Answer 1

Bankruptcy, and the potential of defaulting on paying their national loans, and not receiving enough income to keep the government going. Okay, I know what your thinking? He’s the king. Why doesn’t he order the nobles, and clergy to pay higher taxes, or simply standardize the taxes for everyone with an equal proportion going straight to the state. Well, he had a chance at the Assembly of Nobles that met the year before, but he did not force, or even pressure the representatives of the first two estates to agree with him.

Louis could have defaulted on the governments repayments, but he called an Estate General, with the idea that he could get all three estates to agree on a plan to save the government. Yet, he failed to realize that this would imply that he would have to stand up to the first two estates (and members of his own family) , and back the calls for reform coming from the third estate. Instead, he seemed to support the first two estates, and reject the demands of the third estate. This would spell disaster. In conclusion, Louis needed to know which side his bread was buttered, and that supporting the nobles, after their outrageous rejection of his earlier calls to reform, was a doomed plan.