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The constant shortage of food, mainly bread, was a leading factor at the start of the revolution. In 1788, the poor third estate had to spend more than half of their income simply to eat. Cold winters impacted this even more, leaving farmers with a small harvest. The food crisis, and the lack of action on the king's part, led to anger within the people of France.
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The National Assembly was created by the Third Estate from a need of representation which was not granted by the king. Consisting of about 96% of all people in France, the Third Estate started to propose their own ideas, which included many laws restricting the power of the king and granting it into the hands of the people. However, king Louis would not be fond of their ideas.
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The third estate was locked out of their typical meeting place by Louis XVI and went to a local tennis court to meet. They vowed to make a written constitution for France. This solidified the revolt of the third estate. The pledge itself was that they would meet everyday to change the authority of France, stemming from the people instead of the monarchy.
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The Storming of the Bastille signaled the start of the revolution. The Bastille, which was then used as a prison, was stormed and destroyed by revolutionaries with the goal of both gaining weapons and gunpowder, as well as showing the king that they would not put up with the state of France. The revolutionaries freed many political prisoners held in the Bastille.
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The Declaration of the Rights of Man was a document made by the deputies of the National Assembly. Similar to our Declaration of Independence, it included many ideas such as freedom of speech, religion, and limiting the king's power.
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The Women's March on Versailles was one of the first events of the revolution and gave people confidence. They marched on the palace of Versailles, violently ravaging it and demanding to meet with the king. Marie Antoinette was a key target, many of the people having blamed her spending habits on their financial instability. After meeting with the king, they demanded he move to Paris, to which he agreed.
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Also known as "The Friend of the People" in English, Jean-Paul Marat's newspaper was filled with radical ideas. His ideas were spread rapidly, and his firm beliefs on the execution of counterrevolutionaries earned him many enemies, including one Charlotte Cordet.
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Louis XVI, a frankly incompetent king, had his execution coming to him since the start of the revolution. The portrait of all the revolutionaries were against, Louis did nothing to help France, and couldn't care less for the people of France. Executing him led to the complete instability of the French government.
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Charlotte Corday stabs Marat in his own home, after having enough of his fervor-ish demandings of execution to anyone who even might be against the revolution. However, his death did not have the impact that Corday planned, instead, Marat was thought of as a martyr and worshiped as a saint.
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The Reign of Terror was started by Robespierre, stating that terror would be "the order of the day". The governmental condition of the revolution meant that taking over the government was easier than you may have thought. The main ideas of the Reign of Terror is that anyone suspected of being opposed to the revolution (or any revolutionary ideas) would be arrested and most likely executed. This terror would only continue with time, as Robespierre got more intense in his ideals.
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After her husband was executed, Marie was imprisoned shortly after. She was put on trial, of course being deemed guilty for conspiring with the enemy and giving away money and military intelligence. The people largely blamed her for the country's financial problems, as she often spent money like it was nothing.
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The Cult of the Supreme Being, created by a feverish Robespierre, was an attempt to make an artificial religion by establishing ideas of "reason". The creation of the cult is associated with Robespierre's declining state, and his goal to win public appeal.
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Robespierre gives a famous speech on the nature and inherent connection of Virtue and Terror. He says that "virtue, without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible..."
By this, he proposes that counterrevolution is a return to tyranny, and terror, in the form of rampant execution, is the only way to stop it. This starts a spree of executions. -
Robespierre gives his final speech, one riddled with appeals and threats. Having had enough with his Reign of Terror, the deputies of the National Assembly decree his arrest.
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After being arrested, Robespierre and his colleagues (who were also arrested) commit suicide in prison. Thus, Robespierre's ideals are put to a stop, with 104 people who believed in the same terror executed in the next three days, enacting what is known as a brief "White Terror"