Read each question, and choose the best answer. How did France's social divisions in the late 1700s contribute to the French Revolution? A. All of the estates in French society believed the government should be changed. B. Members of the First Estate believed those in the Second Estate should have greater rights and privileges. C. Members of the Second Estate demanded significant social and financial reform. D. Members of the Third Estate were dissatisfied with social and economic inequality.

Answer: D. Members of the Third Estate were dissatisfied with social and economic inequality.

Context:

Prior to the French Revolution, the vast majority of the people (98% of the population), were all considered "the lower class" or "commoners," referred to as the 3rd Estate. The clergy was classified as the 1st Estate. (Placing God's servants first seemed the godly thing to do ... but many of the leading clergy were far from godly.) Nobles were the 2nd Estate. The 1st and 2nd Estates (ranking clergy and the nobility) tended to cooperate with each other to their own advantage over against the 3rd Estate. The 1st and 2nd Estates were mostly tax exempt, with the 3rd Estate paying the fees and taxes that supported them and the monarchy.

Within the 3rd Estate, the bulk of the population lived in poverty as city laborers or rural peasants. Bourgeois merchant-class folks were also part of the 3rd Estate and had much more economic advantage, but also were taxed heavily and slighted on political rights. Absolute monarchy and the dominance of the 1st and 2nd Estates blocked them from political power. So a revolution was ready to happen, because of the dissatisfaction that was growing within the 3rd Estate.