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Monarchy in Crisis
King Louis XVI and his predecessor spent a lot of money in the American Revolution. This left the country in a bit of bankruptcy in the late 18th century. Two decades of poor harvests, drought, cattle disease and very high bread prices had started unrest among peasants and the poor. -
Rise of the Third Estate
Non aristocratic members of the Third Estate now represented 98 percent of the people but could still be outvoted by the other 2 bodies. By May 5th there was a meeting, the Third estate began to mobilize support for equal representation and the abolishment of the noble veto. they wanted voting by head and not by status. -
Tennis Court Oath
When the Estates-General convened at Versailles, the highly public debate dealing with its voting process had exploded into unkindness between 3 orders. The Third Estate met alone and formally adopted the title of National Assembly: 3 days later, they met in a close indoor tennis court and took the Tennis Court Oath, promising not to spread until constitutional reform had been achieved. -
Bastille and the Great Fear
Fear and violence overwhelmed the capital as the National Assembly continued to meet at Versailles. A popular uprising climaxed when rioters stormed the Bastille fortress in an attempt to take gunpowder and weapons. This is now a holiday known as the start of the French Revolution. -
Declaration of the rights of Man and of the Citizen
The Assembly made the declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This was a statement of democratic principles grounded in the philosophical and political ideas of Enlightenment thinkers like Jean- Jacques Rousseau. The document proclaimed the Assembly's commitment to replace ancien régime with a system based on equal opportunity, freedom of speech, popular sovereignty and representative government. -
French Revolution Turns Radical
Newly elected Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia, where it believed that French people that left to be in another country were building counterrevolutionary alliances. They hoped to to spread its revolutionary ideals across Europe through warfare. On the domestic front, meanwhile, the political crisis took a radical turn when a group of insurgents led by the extremist Jacobins attacked the royal residence in Paris and arrested the king on August 10, 1792.
