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Deficit Spending
Deficit SpendingWhen Louis XV started to rule the economy quickly shifted. Louis XV liked to pursue please before serious buisness. After Louis XV came Louis XVI whose thoughts were good but he was weak, and indecisive. He hired Jacques Necker as a financial advisor. Necker advised the King to tax everyone and not just the Third-Estate. However the King and parliament did not like this idea. Finally the King summoned the Estates-General. -
Calling the Estates-General
France was close to becoming bankrupt. Riots over food were becoming huge, and nobles who feared being taxed started denouncing royal tyranny. Finally Louis XVI called the Estates-General to meet. Louis had the three estates prepare a notebook that listed their grievances. -
Estates-General
The Estates-General met. Everybody wanted to talk about the issue of voting. Before each estate would meet and vote seperately, each group had one vote. The First and Second Estates would always overpower the Third estate with their votes. The Third Estate voiced how they wanted the votes to be counted "by heads". -
Tennis Court
The National Assembly was created by the Third Estate. The National Assembly got together in a meeting hall which was locked and gaurded. Since the King did not know about them yet they feared they would be dimissed so they moved into a nearby indoor tennis court. They spoke the Tennis Court Oath swearing they would not seperate, and meet wherever until a just constitution was made. -
Bastille
July 14th, marks the day of Independence for France. On this day Parasians were angered by news that troops were coming to break up the riots about food. This was the only way some people were getting food. 800 Parasians took the matter into their own hands and decided that they were going to break into Bastille a "prison" and get weapons, and gun powder. These Parasians not only captured the weapons and gun powder, but they also killed many gaurds along with the leader of Bastille, and released -
Bastille
releasing prisoners. This was a huge day for France. -
Rights of Man
The Declaration of Rights of Man was written in late August. This was the first step towards a constitution. This Declaration stated how all men were "born and remain free and equal in rights." They stated that their natural rights were liberty, property. security, and resistance to oppression. The Declaration brought about a slogan that would be used throughout the French Revolution, "Liberty, Equality, Faternity". -
March on Versailles
Women were angered with the fact that they were unable to eat, and were starving. Also that they were not given any rights. 6,000 women marched from Paris to Versailles in pouring rain. The women shouted "Bread!" and demanded to see the king. All the women were mostly angered with Marie Antoinette the Queen. They claimed how they were going to kill her. The women demanded that the King and Queen come back to Paris and that they would not leave until they did. -
French Catholic Church
The National Assembly made a bold move and put the French Catholic Church under state control. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy stated that bishops and priests became elected, salaried officials. This ended papal authority, and got rid of convents and monasteries. Many people were angered by this. Most including priest, bishops, clergy, and French peasants that were very conservative with their religion. -
Constitution of 1791
In this year the National Assembly completed their main goal. This goal was forming the Constitution of 1791. This Constitution set up a limited monarch instead of the absolute monarch. A Legislative Assembly had the power to make laws, collect taxes, and decide issues about war and peace. Males over 25 would elect their lawmakers. The Constitution destroyed the old provincial courts, and redid the laws. Some saw this as a complete revolution. -
Threats Come from Abroad
The King of Prussia and the emperor of Austria who happened to be Maria Antoinetts'a brother issued the Declaration of Pilnitz. In this document it stated how these two monarchs would intervene to protect the French monarchy. This document was made mostly as a bluff but the revoutionaries took it very seriously and prepared for a war. -
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French Civil War
Civil WarSoon France formed different groups of people. Each either was a group of moderates, or a group of radicals. The sans-culottes, and Jacobins were two large groups that were formed. The sans-culottes themselves went to prisons that held priests and nobles and murdered them. Many things like this continued to happen.The Radicals will win and send King Louis XVI to trial, and he will be sentenced to the death penalty leading us into the Reign of Terror. -
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Monarchy is Abolished
King Louis XVIRevolutionists thought the king was an enemy and on the 10 of August, Parasians raided the royal palace killing the king's gaurds. Many killings accured where citizens attaked prisons and killed nobles and priests. Radicals soon took control and sentenced the King to his death, 8 months later they also sentenced Maria Antoinette to death. -
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"The Incorruptible", and the Reign of Terror (cont)
the most humane way for the death penalty to be carried out because it was quick, and painless. Robespierre soon began to go over board with terror, and the death penalty. On July 27, 1794, Robespierre was arrested and sentenced to death the next day. After his death radicals fell, and the death sentence dramatically slowed -
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"The Incorruptible" and the Reign of Terror
RobespierreMaximilien Robespierre soon became the leader of the Committee of Public Safety. He became known to the Jacobins as "the incorruptible", and those who saw him as an enemy called him a tyrant. Robespierre wanted to get rid of safety and agreed with religious tolerance. Robespierre led France into the Reign of Terror. In this time revolutionary courts would quickly try people and sentence them to death. The guillotine would be invented which would be nicknamed "the razor". The people saw this as -
The Revolution Enters Its Third Stage
Moderates had been wanting to write a new consitution and in the year of 1795 it finally happened. The Constitutiong would have a fiveman directory with a two-house legislature. These would be elected by males that were citizens of property. They made Peace with Prussia and Spain. Soon Napoleon Bonaparte (a military hero) would become the ruler of France. -
Nationalism Spreads
The French Revolution would affect the world. Not only would France have gained their new government, their countries flag, their national anthem, and many new symbols, but also the world would see this and start their own revolutions.
