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The Estates General meeting had not been called-or really even considered-in the 175 years leading up to the whole fiasco with King Louis XVI. With France in big financial trouble due to previous monarchs and their bad spending habits, Louis is left with little choice other than to call the Estates General meeting to order. This should have worked fine, had it not been for the peasantry getting out voted by the nobles and clergy, while they themselves just want to continue spending Frances money -
After the Estates General meeting and the disastrous effects it had on the peasantry, the commoners were understandably upset. In their anger they founded the National Assembly: a group of revolutionary people from the third estate, and a few from the first and second estate. The goal of the National Assembly was equal representation for the third estate/peasantry. -
The Tennis Court Oath is a pledge made by the National Assembly to never back down from their goals until they have proper representation in society. The name of the oath came about when King Louis XVI locked them out of the building they were supposed to meet in, in efforts to make them disband or slow down their progress. In response to this, they simply went to an empty tennis court in the area to hold their meeting and discuss what the King had just tried to pull on them. -
This event is widely considered to be the spark of the revolution. -
France becoming a constitutional monarchy proved that the National Assembly was making progress. It also showed that King Louis XVI was rather unfit to rule as he had to have a group to help make decisions. That, combined with the age of enlightenment and the failing economy meant that the power was slowly drifting from the king to his inferiors (the clergy, the nobles, the peasantry), thus turning france into a constitutional monarchy. -
Due to the over-taxation of peasants, rising grain and bread prices, and all the high ranking members of the constitutional monarchy being unaffected by the issues, members of the peasantry storm the meeting hall and, through the process of a hostile takeover, they take control of France and turn it into a republic. -
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Robespierre's reign of terror is defined by his willingness to send anyone- and I mean anyone- to the guillotine. committed a petty crime? Guillotined. Show sympathy for the King in any way? Guillotined. Robespierre had no chill. He even at one point started to send those closest to him to the guillotine out of what I suspect to be fear of them overthrowing him. -
After her escape from Versailles, Marie Antoinette was on the run for some time before being caught during the reign of terror. There isn't much that is very notable about her execution other that her apology to her executioner for stepping on his toe. "Monsieur, I beg your pardon, I did not do it on purpose" -
I like to think of Robespierre's reign of terror like fireworks: quick to start, spectacular while it lasts, and it all ends very suddenly. The reign of terror as it is called began when Robespierre let power go to his head. It is said that as many as 17,000 people were executed via guillotine, and another 10,000 died in prison or without trial. However, it all came to a head when Robespierre told the National Convention that he was going to send many of them to the guillotine. they said "no u". -