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King Louis XVI
King Louis paid little attention to his advisers and was very poor in making decisions, he had very little patience for governing details. The queen interfered with the government and gave poor advice to the king making his decisions even harder. He was a weak leader, he showed his weaknesses and he made feeble attempts to making things good. -
Marie Antoniette
Marie was Austrian born. She was the queen of France, married to King Louis the XVI. She was very unpopular with the French because of her huge spendings on jewels, gowns and gifts and because she was a member of the Royal Family of Austria that was their enemy. She reached a point were she spend all their money and they went into huge problems. -
The Old Order
During the 1770s the social system of France, the Old Regime was still taking place. With this system people in France where divided into three major social classes. Two of this groups had privileges in their civilization including exemption to paying taxes and more the third class didn't have. Only three percent of the population where in this class and owned 30% of lands. The other 97% where in the other class, they needed to pay higher taxes and couldn't go up into the higher classes. -
French Economy Decline
During the 1780s France's economy started to decline, this made everyone be alarmed. It was very hard keeping a profitable business which such a heavy load of taxes. The cost of living was rising. Bad weather made the made crop failures and by 1989 bread now cost the double. Many faces starvation and now the government was in huge debt part because of huge spending the king made. -
Population of France
The Third Estate had 97% of all the French Population. Included the Bourgeoisie, urban low class and peasant farmers. This people had no power to influence the country. The Second Estate had 2% of the French Population but owned 20% of the land. This estate was made up of rich nobles and held the highest offices in government. The First Estate had less than 1% of the population but owned 10% of the land. This estate was made up by the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. -
National Assembly
The third estate each time was more determined to gain power in the government. They wanted to name themselves the National Assembly and pass laws and reforms for the French. They agreed to that idea and they voted to establish the National Assembly. They proclaimed the end to absolute monarchy and the beginning of representative government. This was the first act of their revolution -
Bastille Storming
Rumors that the Government wanted to dismantle the National Assembly made the start taking action. They stormed the Bastille, a prison a little after they established the National Assembly. They let prisoners out of the Jail. This act meant the beginning of the revolution for the government. -
Assembly Reforms France
This day the National Assembly made speeches, declared their love for liberty and equality. They motivated more by fear than by idealism, they were able to sweep away privileges of the first and second estates, making everyone the same. By the next morning the Old Regime was over. -
Rights of Man
The National Assembly now had many revolutionary ideas regarding the rights of the people. This was somewhat influenced but the Declaration of Independence. This rights included liberty, property, security, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and more. Still woman were not completely the same, rights of woman were still lower than of men, they didn't accept Olympe de Gouges ideas and she was executed. -
Constitution of France
The National Assembly completed a new constitution and by now had changed a lot in the French government. The National Assembly created a constitutional Monarchy instead of the Absolute Monarchy from before. Also they introduced the legislative Assembly which had the power to make laws and reject them.
