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History glossary

Estates-General

the representative assembly of France’s three estates called in 1789 amid fiscal and political crisis.

Category
Institution
Region
Global
Date range
Varies

What it means

The representative assembly of France’s three estates called in 1789 amid fiscal and political crisis.

Stories using this term

The French Revolution

From royal debt and social inequality to republic, terror, and Napoleon, the French Revolution dismantled the old order and produced the political ideas of citizenship, rights, and nationalism that defined the modern world.

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