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Causes of the French revoultion: The age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment: This was a time marked by lots of social change. Breakthroughs in science and mathematics let philosphers approach the government in a new way. -
Causes of the French Revolution: Government
At the time, France was still a Absolute Monarchy, and all power laid with the king. Also, the American Revolution proved democracy could suceed -
Causes of the Revolution: Money Issues
Serious money issues: The king of France had borrowed too much money to fight the British in the American Revolution, so the treasury was empty. There was also many food shortages. -
The Eststes General
on May 5th, Louis XIV called a meeting of the three groups of people, the clergy, nobles and the commoners. Each group was called an estate and the meeting was called the Estates General. This meeting was held at Verisailles to disscus a new tax policy. -
The Tennis Court Oath
After the meeting at Verisailles, the commoners or the third estate, decided that they wern't going to follow the king's rules and laws anymore so they declared themselves a National Assembly. Afterwards the members of the other estates started joing in. On June 20th 1789, all the members of the National Assembly swore that they would stay together. This was called the Tennis Court Oath -
Riots and storming of the Bastille
In the streets of Paris, there were many riots, lootings and demonstrations. They were so bad Louis XIV had to call in the French millitary to keep down the crowds. Then on July 14th 1789, as retalliation to the king's troops, the French stormed the Bastille, a fortress and prison that served as a great symbol of the monarchy. -
Louis XIV steps down and all power lays with National Assembly
On August 4th the National Assembly declared the end of fedualisim and serfdom in France when Louis XIV declared he had no power over his subjects and pulled back his troops. -
Louis XIV was sentcenced and executed by guilotine
On January 21st Louis XIV, the king of France was sentenced to guilotine and executed for his crimes against the French people. -
Period: to
The Reign of Terror
In 1793 a group of extremests started exucuting whomever disagreed with them. One of the 20,000 to 40,000 people executed during that period was Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, who got exucuted by a device called a guilotine. -
Napoleon Bonaparte becomes emperor
The French Revolution drew to a close when Napoleon Bonaparte, a skilled military stratiegist, crowned himself emperor in 1804. Althrough the 19th century, he waged war to expand his empire. He went through 2 exiles in his life and died at the age if 51.
