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Deficit Spending by the governemnt
In the year 1787 the French governemnt became bancrupt. This happned for manny reasons. They spent more than they had. The king and government were not sharing the tax expenses equally amoung all the people. They had 3 years of poor harvest which is what the 3rd estate lived off of so they were all starving. They also owed money to people. They were not looking at their finances and spending wisely, which led to bankrupsy. -
The Estates-General
Encoraged by Necker the king agreed to have a meeting with all the Estates. The meeting did not go so well. The meetig was full of people complaining about everything. When they were voting only the "Smart" perople could contribute from the 3rd estate. It was not fair at all. Necker came up with the idea that everyone could pay the same amount of taxes and then he was fired by the king. -
The Tennis Court Oath
The delegates of the 3rd Estate formed a meeting place and called themselves the National Assembly. On June 5th they went to their meeting place. They then found that it was locked and gaurded. Fearing that the king was going to kill them they all ran next door to a tennis court. That is where they took the oath to stick together and keep meeting until a new constitution was made. -
Parisians Storm the Bastile
Rumors were being spread that there were guns and supplies at the Bastile. The Comander of thr Bastille refused to open the gates to the Parisians and open fired on the crowd. Finally the angry mob broke out and killed the comander and his men. This battle represented the abuse of the monarchy. They still celebrate this day as a start of their independence from the monarchy. -
National Assembly acts
The National Assembly creates the Decaration of the Rights of Man. This states that all Men are created equal. However this didn't apply to the women. To show their anger towards the king, they marched to Versailles on October 5. They all crowded outside, afraid the king signed the Decleration. The women demaded that the king and royal family move to Paris. The National Assembly also forced the church under state control and established a new government abolishing absolute Monarchy. -
Threats from abroad
The King of Prussia and the emperor of Austria issued the Declaration of Pilnitz This document presented threats to protect the French monarchy. The revloutionaries of France took this very seriously and prepared for war. Times were getting more radical. -
Civil War
In October the newly elected Legislative Assembly took action. However it only lasted a year and the working class in Paris were the ones that really pushed the war forward. The National Assembly declared war on European monarchs. Europe thought it would be easy to beat France but the war weny on and off from 1792-1815. -
Monarchy is abolished
Tensions are building up, there are a lot of riots. There was a big disaster at a jail called the Septeber Massacres. The Radicals then take control and put Louis XIV on trial. He is found guilty and excuted by gilloutine. Eight moths later the queen is also excuted and charged with many things. Some people began to question the killing of the queen but a little to late. After the excution the convention makes a new committee called Public Saftey and Monarchy is abolished in France. -
Robespierre and the reign of terror
Robspirre believed that the best way to conduct the reveloution was to use the terror method. Then the guillotine was then created as a more humaine way of exicution. However it turned into quite a blood bath. People were excuted for the simple reason of not being happy enough about the reveloution. As this time went on there were about 800 excutions per month. It kept getting worse until the person who created the terror was excuted himself. After the radicals were killed excutions slowed down. -
Third State of the revolution
After the terror the moderates produced another constitution. The constitution of 1795 had a five man directory and a two house legislature elected by the citizens. The Directory faced many problems, although Prussia and Spain signed a peace agreement, the war with Austria and Britain was still going on. The food prices were rising again and the citizens were getting angry. Politicians turned to Napoleon Bonaparte, a famous war hero, for help. -
Spread of Nationalism
The reveloution changed France. The war gave the people of France great pide and a sense of national identity. The french people attended civic festivals and celebrated the reveloution with songs and dance. They came up with a song to march to called "La Marseillaise", this would become the French National Anthem.
