Meeting of the Estates-General
- On May 5th, 1789, Louis XVI was forced to convene the Estates General meeting after a gap of 175 years with an objective to impose further taxes upon the Third and Second Estate.
- The Second Estate forced him to call a meeting of the Estates-General, an assembly of representatives from all three estates, to get approval for the tax reform.
- The first and second estates sent 300 representatives each, while there were 600 members of the third estate. Peasants, artisans and women were denied entry to the assembly.
- Estates General assembly voting in the past had been conducted according to the principle that each estate had one vote.
- This time too Louis XVI was determined to continue the same practice. But members of the third estate demanded that voting now be conducted by the assembly as a whole, where each member would have one vote.
- When the king rejected this proposal, members of third estate walked out of the assembly in protest.