What is Estates-General?

The Estates-General was like a big group meeting where people from different parts of society came together to talk about important things.

Imagine you're in a classroom with your friends. Some of them are the teachers, some are the students, and others are the parents who help run the school. Now imagine they all sit down at a long table to decide how the school should work, that’s kind of like the Estates-General!

There were three main groups in the Estates-General, just like there are different people in your classroom:

• The First Estate was like the teachers and priests, they had special powers and didn’t have to do much work.
• The Second Estate was like the parents, they were rich and helped run things, but not as powerful as the teachers.
• The Third Estate was like the students, there were a lot of them, and they did most of the work.

Sometimes the Third Estate felt left out because their voices weren’t heard as much. This made them want to change how things worked, just like you might want to have more say in what games you play at recess!