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The Old Regime
For more than 100 years France was the largest and most powerful nation in Europe. France was ruled by a monarch who claimed absolute power. Despite having 100 years of absolute power, the king lost all of its power within months. People referred to the time before 1789 as The Old Regime. The Old Regime society was divided into three estates. -
Growing Discontent
In the mid 1700's the discontent in France started to grow faster and faster. There were many reasons why this discontent was happening but one of the main ones where the fact that the families were growing. Another reason is that the nobles, clergy, and bourgeoisie who owned land raised the rent prices but the wages for the peasants didn't rise making it harder for them to pay rent. This caused there to be discontent all over France. -
The Financial Crisis
Louis XV reign lasted for a very long time in France. Many people liked him but one of the main reasons why some people didn't like him was because the amount of money he would waste. Louis XV caused France to be in debt and he started to borrow more and more money from the bankers. This caused there to be a severe financial crisis because Louis XV was taking the money and wasn't repaying the banks. -
The Meeting of the Estates General
The Meeting of the Estates General was very important because the third estate were able to meet with the first and second estate. Even though the third estate had more people then the first and second estate the estates would all get 1 vote causing the first and second estate to always outvote the third estate. The meeting of the Estates General occured but it wasn't fair since everything counted as 1 vote. -
The Spread of the French Revolution
Although king Louis xvi allowed the estates general to meet together, he put troops in Paris and Versailles. Since that happened people feared that king Louis xvi was going to drive out the national assembly and so they captured the Bastille prison, releasing prisoners, and looting it for weapons in case of an attack. This caused there to be a new government in Paris known as the National Guard. The violence caused the french revolution to spread more and more. -
The End of The Old Regime
Despite all of the violence, many members of the national assembly believed that they could stop all of the violence through reforms. The National Assembly canceled all of the services owed by peasants and remove the privileges that the first and second estates had previously enjoyed. These reforms helped stop the violence and end The Old Regime because the peasants were happier since the privileges were more equal. -
The Constitution of 1791
In 1791 the National Assembly finished writing a constitution for France. This Constitution limited the authority of the king and divided the government into three branches. The Constitution also mentioned the fact that the king had many limits with his power. This Constitution helped end the monarchy. -
The end of the Monarchy
The French did not do good well with the fighting with the Austrian and Prussian armies. This caused the french citizens to grow alarm and because of that they searched some to be be blamed for the defeats. Since they lost the government suspended the office of king.
