What is the term for the social classes in France before the Revolution?

• A. Estates
• B. Estates-General
• C. Old Regime
• D. French Revolution

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is understanding how French society was organized before the Revolution. The social classes were grouped into three estates—the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the common people (Third Estate). These estates were formal social orders with different rights, duties, and privileges that structured life in the Ancien Régime. The Estates-General, by contrast, was the assembly that brought representatives from those groups together, not the groups themselves. The Old Regime describes the entire pre-revolutionary system, while the French Revolution refers to the upheaval that ended it. So, the term for those social classes is Estates.