The Ancient Regime was the social, political, and economic system that existed in Europe before the French Revolution during the Early Modern Age. It was characterized by a primarily agrarian economy with a feudal system of land ownership. The population grew slowly due to high mortality rates. The economy was based on subsistence farming, craft industries with little machinery, and triangular trade of slaves, raw materials, and manufactured goods between Africa, America, and Europe. In the 18th century, Enlightenment thinkers like Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau spread liberal ideas that questioned the Ancient Regime and influenced the French Revolution.

1. UNIT 3: THE ANCIEN RÉGIME AND ITS TRANSFORMATION
I.- The Ancien Régime: definition and elements
1.- What is the Ancien Régime?
The Ancient Regime is the social, political and economic system that existed in Europe before the
French Revolution during the Early Modern Age (16th-18th centuries).
2.- The elements of the Ancien Régime
2.1.- Low growth of the population
During the Early Modern Age there was a low natural growth because high birth rates were
counteracted by high death rates. It depended on human and natural disasters which caused
famines and epidemics.
2.2.- Agrarian-based economy
The 75% of the population belonged to the Primary sector based on a subsistence economy. In
the country, the feudal system still survived:
○ Lords owned the biggest lands or large estates.
○ Landowners rented plots of lands to the peasants.
○ Lords received a significant amount of incomes from the rent of lands.
The secondary sector was based on Craft Industry. This means that craftsmen made their
products by hand. They worked in small workshops, which were located in the owner´s house,
where they sold their products. Moreover, they controlled the whole production process, from the
beginning to the end. In addition, they used very little machinery, and the sources of energy were
human, animal or the one given by water or wind.
According to commercial activities, the most important one was the triangular trade, which
consisted on:
○ capturing slaves in Africa and taking them to America in order to work in mines and
plantations,
○ exporting the raw materials produced by slaves to Europe and making manufactured
products in Europe,
○ exchanging those products in Africa for slaves, repiting the cicle.
Trade was controlled by the bourgeoise, who became very rich.

2. 2.3.- The economy
 The 16th century: Commercial capitalism (page 42)
 The 17th century: Mercantilism (page 42)
2.4.- Society
 The estates of the realm: page 44
2.5.- Politics
In this period there were three types of monarchy. Some monarchies were authoritarian, while
others were absolute. In England, a parliamentary monarchy was established in the 17th century.
 Authoritarian monarchy
page 40 (without Spain)
 Absolute monarchy
page 41 (without Spain)
 Parliamentary monarchy
page 41
 The importance of the English model of Parliamentary monarchy.
In the late 17th century, the English philosopher John Locke:
o Criticised absolutism.
o Defended the principles and values of the English model of parliamentary
monarchy.
o He enunciated the doctrine of the political liberalism based on the following
principles:
o Freedom: every person has rights.
o Equality before the law: the opposite to the privileges.
o The property as criteria for social differentiation.
His reflections became the origin of the Enlightenment in France.
In the 18th century, French philosophers such as Montesquieu, Voltaire and
Rousseau spread Locke´s political ideas, which brought into question the Ancient
Regime. Many of these ideas formed the ideological basis of the French Revolution and
the liberal revolutions in Europe and the rest of the world.
II.- The transformation of the Ancien Régime
 The 18th century: the Early Modern and Modern Ages: page 52
 The Enlightenment: a change in thinking: pages 53-54 (without Spain)
 Enlightenment politics in Europe and America: pages 56-57
 Social changes in the estates of the realm: page 62
 Art during the Enlightenment