Short Causes of French Revolution

By Dionysia Balafa

  • France in Dept and New Tax System

    The French Minister of Finances, C.A. Calonne, approaches his King Louis XVI with the request to summon the Assembly of Notables in order to introduce the new tax on land.

  • The Assemblee des Notables commences

  • Calonne's speech

    Calonne's speech at the Assembly of Notables. He is a little bit too cocky, and acts like he already has the go-ahead from the Notables in his pocket. The Notables grow increasingly unenthusiastic during his speech and interrupt frequently with muttering, mumbling, and the crackling of candy wrappers.

  • Deadlock at the Assembly of Notables.

    After Calonne's overconfident speech yesterday, the Archbishop of Narbonne, Arthur Richard Dillon, declares that Calonne has deceived the King, France, and Europe by assuming that his entire reform package has been approved of. In fact, he, the Archbishop of Narbonne, for one is against it.
    Other members of the assembly agree.
    Other than that, the Notables would like to have a better look at the King's accounts, including cash receipts.

  • Submittal of the King

    King Louis XVI's speech before the Assembly. He concedes to nearly all objections of the Notables, even agrees to let them have a peak into his accounts. But he still wants the land tax.

  • The Notables ask for the Estates General.

  • The Notables declare that they will not accept the land tax.

  • Loménie de Brienne (the new finace minister)dissolves the Assemblée des Notables . This assembly had begun on February 22, 1787.

    the Notables declare that they are not willing to pay any new taxes. Moreover, reforms of this caliber should be discussed, not by the Assembly of Notables, but by the Estates-General, which would more adequately represent the French Nation. (The deputies of the Estates-General were elected by the people, whereas the members of the Assembly of Notables were picked by the King.)

  • After the commissioners' report has been read, the parlement says that it cannot be convinced of the necessity for a tax after five years of peace, without first verifying the deficit.

  • The King responds to the parlement's refusal to register His Majesty's edicts and exiles the magistrates of the Paris parlement to Troyes, two car hours southeast of Paris.

  • Cahiers de doléances

    Over 60,000 lists of grievances whose compilation was ordered by King Louis XVI, so as to give each of the Estates – the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobility) and the Third Estate, which consisted of the proletarians (the working class), the urban and country workers – the chance to express their hopes and grievances directly to the King.

  • Day of the Tiles

    Unrest provoked by the King's actions to abolish Parlements in order to enact a new tax

  • In France, the 1788 harvest is a disaster. A long drought and wicked hail storms did great damage.

  • The King yields and summons the Estates-General to assemble on May 1, 1789.

  • The parlement of Paris passes an order that decrees that the Estates-General should assemble the way it had been assembled in 1614,:. each order has one third of representatives, giving the majority to the clergy and nobility.

  • Encouraged by Necker, Louis XVI doubles the number of deputies for the Third Estate, thus overruling the Paris parlement's decision from September 23, 1788.

  • The Estates-General (États généraux) opens session at Versailles,discussing the complaints lists.

  • Proclamation of the National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale), created by the Third Estate. Unofficially, the French Revolution has just begun.

    In response to this proclamation, the king closes the doors of the meeting hall at the Hotel des Menus-Plaisirs, Avenue de Paris, Versailles. The official reason is that the hall needs to be prepared for the scheduled royal session on June 22, 1789.

  • Tennis Coart Oath

    The members of the National Assembly, now without a meeting hall, gather in Louis' indoor tennis court. They declare their goal to switch from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy. Hence, a written constitution is needed. With only one vote against it, the Assembly takes an oath not to separate before they have given France a constitution.

  • Riots in Paris.

    On the night to July 13, 1789, the mob steals arms and ammunitions, robs churches and gunsmiths, and burns 40 tax barriers.

  • The Stroming of the Bastille

    The Hotel des Invalides is plundered for arms and ammunition. The logical next stop on the mob's tour in search of more weapons and symbols of oppression that should be attacked, is the Bastille.