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Before the Revolution
Louis XVI was involved in many wars meant to increase the French territory. The wars mostly depleted the treasury of France and did not reach the goal of gaining much territory.
Louis XVI also spent lavishly and built wonderful palaces for himself. All of these actions resulted in Louis XVI digging his own grave. -
Background
Living conditions where terrible for the lower class and some of the middle class.
The upper class had most of the money in France due to unfair taxation and special privileges.
Feudal system was still in place.
Few of the middle class (bourgeoisie) had monopolies on certain goods but for the rest of the bourgeoisie it was difficult to make a profit because of laws and regulations. -
The Estates General
The Estates General was a parliament that was called only on royal command when the country was in serious crisis.
It was consisted of the first, second and third estates. The first represented the clergy, the second represented the bourgeoisie and the third represented the lower class.
It was called in the Palace of Versailles as they tried to figure out how they could deal with the money crisis.
They also had the problem of widespread riots because of living conditions and the price of bread. -
National Assembly
The third estate broke with the other estates after six weeks of almost no progress to deal with the problems at hand, and declared that they would form their own type of government, the National Assembly.
Their intended goal was to write a new constitution for France. -
Tennis Court Oath
The Tennis Court Oath was an oath taken by the members of the newly formed National Assembly. The oath was that they would continue meeting until they had a new type of government.
The king responded by offering to make some democratic changes but he was ignored. With no other choice, the king ordered the two other estates to join the National Assembly. The riots calmed down as the mobs saw that progress was being made. -
The Fall of Bastille
Riots began to break out again over the high price of bread.
As mobs began to free political prisioners, the king responded by sending in foreign mercenary soldiers to quell the mobs which was perceived by the people that the king would use them against the revolution.
A great mob stormed the prision and fortress known as The Bastille. The soldiers sent to stop the riot joined the mob and they captured The Bastille. Only seven prisioners inside were turned loose. Louis recalled his soldiers. -
The Great Fear
The Great Fear was a fear that the king's soldiers and aristocrats could stop the revolution. This happened mostly in rural areas of France as peasants started revolting. Many peasants killed aristocrats and burned feudal certificates that recorded their obligations to their lords. The Great Fear spread to large areas of France. -
Great Changes
The National Assembly abolished all feudal rights and ended serfdom. Then it declared all people equal before the law. -
Declaration of Rights
The National Assembly passed the Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen. This was a bold step in the way of basic human rights that the government could not ignore. Many of the rights were ideas taken from British philosophes. -
The Political Clubs
Now that democracy was first set in France there were many traditions that needed to be set. There were no politcal parties, instead there were politcal clubs. Political clubs held regular meetings and advertised their ideas to the people. The main two political clubs where the Girondists and the Jacobins. The Girondists were originaly a branch of the Jacobins that had more conservative ideas. The Jacobins were more radical and became responsible for the coming Reign of Terror. -
Women's March to Versailles
The people began to feel that the king and the National Assembly were beggining to be out of touch with the city life and should start meeting in Paris, not isolated in Versailles. Crowds of women decided to march 50km to meet the king and they stormed the Versailles. The government then agreed to start meeting in Paris. -
The Revolutionary Wars
The French country was obviously about to be invaded by European emigrés who wanted to restore the king's power. France declared war on Austria in 1792. The French seemed to be losing in the first few battles but the faith in the revolution never ceased. Many political figures like Marat, Danton and Robespierre made patriotric speeches saying that the foreign troops would destroy all the recent work done in for the revolution in France.
Finnaly, at Valmy, the French armies won a victory. -
The End Of Monarchy
The newly elected body, the National Convention, decided that the king should be tried for his crimes against the country and executed. He had already been removed from his palace by the Paris mob. The king was now called "Citizen Louis Capet". He was tried, found guilty and executed, with the queen's execution following in October. -
The Reign of Terror
The new government formed by the Jacobins were power hungry and dangerous, passing harsh laws designed to stop anyone from challenging the government. There was a reorganization of the army, a new legislation was passed to regulate business, food speculators were guillotined and granaries were placed under state control. The metric system was introduced as well as the Revolutionary Calendar. Robespierre ruled France like a dictator. -
The Fall Of Robespierre
People began to fear a dictatorship of Robespierre. After he condemned Danton to the guillotine, his closest friend, the people began to fear a dictatorship by Robespierre. As he condemned other people, he himself was tried, found guilty and executed in 1794. -
The Directory
After Robespierre was executed, a new government called The Directory was formed. The government was controlled by the middle class and gave power to people of property, beggining to return the special rights to people with money. The title citizen and days of equality were over. Many advances made by the poor were taken away.