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Growing Discontent of France
This discontent in France started off with it's growing population. Because more children were coming up, their became a higher need for food and money. This resulted in some economic issues like the nobles, clergy and bourgeoisie with higher rents for land. In cities, many laborers found that food prices were very high and was hard to get with the little wages they got. These people blamed all these problems on the king for making these prices become so high. -
France's Financial Crisis
At the time, France was enjoying their 20 years of peace with their king, Louis XV. However the debt that was inherited from Louis XIV started to build up. King Louis XV's own people started to go against him when they found out about his expensive habits which caused him to have to borrow more money from bankers. King Louis XVI stepped up in 1774 and the debt continued to grow larger due to France's assistance in the American Revolution. To raise money, he proposed to tax the upper estates. -
Governmental Changes
After these reforms, the Declaration of the Rights of Men was made and stated all men remained equal, granted the freedom of speech, freedom of the press and of religion. This document also gave men the right to a fair trial and to hold public office. From 1789 to 1791, the National Assembly passed many different reforms that aimed to help correct past abuse and to set up a new government. One of the reforms was where the country was divided into 83 equal districts which were called departments. -
General Estates Meeting
With hopes that their problems would be fixed, France went to the meeting of the estates general. There, Emmanuel- Joseph Sieyés expressed the problems of the third estate. The third estate proposed to be able vote separately but had their idea shut down by Louis XVI who said that all delegates must follow the old custom of voting as a whole. The third estate disagreed with this and argued with the Estates General. They then formed the National Assembly and invited the two estates to join. -
Bastille Prison Storming
When King Louis moved his troops to Versailles and Paris, the National Assembly feared that he was to attack them and decided to take action. On July 14, 1789 they captured the Bastille prison which was a symbol of royal oppression. This violence led to the forming of a new government inside Paris. The old French flag was replaced with one with red, white and blue stripes. The peasants became angry with the nobles because of the food shortages and feared they were going to crush the revolution. -
Ending of Old Regime
A lot of the people in the National Assembly thought that they were able to stop all the violence through reforms or changes. This assembly was able to do this by outlawing the tithe, canceling all feudal dues or services peasants owned and by finally removing many of the privileges the upper two estates had had before. By August 4, 1789, they had gotten rid of all feudalism that was inside France. -
New Constitution for France
By 1791, the National Assembly had also finished making a new constitution for France that limited the king's power and also divided the government into three branches named executive, legislative and judicial. This constitution made the king no longer able to make or block any laws. While King Louis XIV finally agreed to these conditions, he secretly was plotting with émigrés to overthrow this government and bring back the Old Regime again. The king tried to escape but was caught and arrested. -
Breakdown of new Government
This government began to break down less than a year later due to the revolutionaries creating a government that was not sound. First of all, the executive branch was too weak and the legislative had too much power. Also, not all of the French people agreed with this revolution especially priests, nobles and poor people. The legislative branch then became broken into three different types of attitudes; the conservatives, radicals and moderates. They all frequently had issues only meeting once. -
Suspension of the office of King
Upon hearing the Prussians vows, the Commune accused King Louis XVI rightly of plotting to overthrow the 1791 Constitution with foreign power. On August 10, 1792 the Legislative Assembly "suspended the office of the king" and Louis was sent to jail with is family in the Temple. Now, the Commune was ruling over Paris and were beginning to think up a new revised constitution. With foreign wars and political problems going on, France was up against a very different change of government
