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Nobility forces King Louis XVI to call the Estates General into session
-king was in trouble
-nobility was not happy with king's attempt to tax their estate
-nobility wanted to pass the cost once again on the Third Estate -
Estate-General meets in Paris
-King Louis XVI calls body into session to approve a new tax on the Third Estate
-had not met in 175 years -
Third Estate refused to abide by the kings one vote for each estate order
-refused to follow the old custom of three representative bodies casting one vote
-the Third Estate was inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment
-they declared themselves the National Assembly to obtain the right to make the laws of France -
Tennis Court Oath
-pledge taken by revolutionaries that they would meet until a stable constitutional government was established
-made by the Third Estate who were locked out of Estates-General meeting -
The Storming of the Bastille
-revolutionaries stormed into the Bastille to get weapons and gunpowder
-symbol of the fall of tyranny
-started revolution -
Great Fear Begins
-period of paranoia
-peasants heard that nobles hired people to set a close eye on the villages to protect the new harvest from them
-fear that the king would punish the Third Estate and try to end the Revolution -
National Assembly abolished Feudalism with August Decrees
-Article I of the Decrees states that feudal system is abolished
-brought more peace and harmony to outraged peasants
-First Estates's privileges were eliminated
-led to creation of new rights -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
-defined the individual and collective rights of all estates in a document
-influenced by doctrine of natural rights
-didn't address status of women nor slavery -
Women of the Paris March to Versailles for Bread
-women demanded bread from Louis XVI
-effort to obtain bread and force the high prices of bread down
-the king agreed that all of the bread in Versailles be delivered for the people to Paris -
Royal Family's Flight from Varennes
- king and queen suspected they were not safe -they disguised themselves and fled to Paris where they were recognized and brought back to the Tuileries Palace
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New Constitution Adopted
-tried to copy the US constitution and set up a government that called the King the chief executive and the National Assembly would be the legislative
-citizens gained voting rights
-monarchy with limited power of the king -
Beginning of the Legislative Assembly
-created by the new constitution
-short lived due to inexperience of members
-favored abolition of Monarchy and the Establishment of a Republic -
Brunswick Manifesto warns that Royal family must not be harmed or else
-Austria sent 50.00 troops to the French border
-the legislative assembly declared war where France's army was defeated
-Unrest due to financial strain, food shortages, and high prices -
Storming of the Tuileries Palace
-crowd demanded that the king end his veto powers and follow a more radical revolutionary party
-refused and crowd dispersed -
French Monarchy is officially abolished
-Revolutionary Gov't votes to abolish monarchy and establish the first Republic
-Royal family imprisoned -
French defeat foreign invaders (Austria and Prussia) who are attempting to preserve the monarchy
-France turns the tide of the war and takes the offensive against the invaders -
The execution of King Louis XVI in Paris
-executed at the guillotine
-everyone know about his death because the news spread across Europe
-people outside of France reacted with horror - newspapers reporting back with all kinds of information and opinions -
Committee of Public Safety Established
- controlled country's military defense against the foreign intervention on France's borders -responsible for thousands of executions at the guillotine -created by National Convention
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Law of Suspects passes - Beginning of the reign of Terror in France
-allowed for the creation of revolutionary tribunals to try those who were suspected of treason against the Republic and punish those convicted with death -
End of the Reign of Terror - execution of Robespierre
-Robspierre leader of Committee of Public Saftey
-he started the Reign of Terror by scaring and threatening the people from following through with counter revolution
-more people were executed = more people hated him
-his execution put the Reign of Terror and the French Revolution to an end -
National Convention is dissolved and the creation of the Dictorate
-Directory shared many characteristics of the old order
-Result --> Power Vaccum: no one in control of the nation
-Weak, corrupt, inefficient
-Ended in 1799 when Napoleon seized power which leads to his rule -
Napoleon named First Consul
-he was a dictator and had promised order and stability in the nation
-built France's infrastructure, opened public lycees, civil code, trained army, rebuilt economy etc. -
Coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of France
-crowned himself during his coronation instead of the pope
-he showed that he was a unique and powerful man
