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The "Old Regime"
In the 1770´s the Old Regime kept on being France´s social and political system. This regime divided the population into three scoial classes. The first social class had many benefits over the other two which caused inequality. -
France Owed Money
King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, spent their money too much which caused France owe money. They spent a lot of it helping the American Colonists with their revolution against the British. To add on to this, King Louis was known to be an indecisive leader which made matters even worse as the people noticed this in him. -
Lack of Resources
In addition to a bad government, bad weathers caused there to be less food for the people. This happened in the 1780´s and many people faced starvation mainly because the price of crops increased. -
Population of Each Social Class
In 1787 the population of France was divided into three estates. 97% belonged to the third, 2% to the second, and les than 1% to the first estate. This showed hoe very few people can be at the top of social classes when an absolute monarchy is in place. Its clear that this could easily turn into a country protesting about their form of government. -
The Protesting
In 1789 people wanted to change the way the government worked. People from the 3rd estate where the most desperate for change and because they had the same amount of delegates as the other two states, their votes could not be outmatched. They did not want the absolute monarchy to continue -
Olympe de Gouges Execution
In a time where women where women where not equal and most people did not receive liberty, equality, fraternity, Olympe de Gouges wrote protests against the rights of women. She was later executed in 17809 because of this. -
The Attempt of Escape
King Louis XVI attempted an escape from France in 1791 but was stopped in the border. He was trying to escape to Netherlands. This shows how he knew he was destroying France and that his government was a mess. He wanted to stop being part of it and it was now clear to people. -
The Fear
Many other countries (mainly absolute monarchs) watched the disaster that France was and feared their own people would start to rebel like the the people in France. Some took action and demanded that King Louis must return to his position. The Legislative assembly refused to let him and declared war in 1792. -
Deaths and Execution
During the revolution a lot of people where executed mainly from the middle class. This execution came from the upper class since the revolution would not befit them. Executions where mainly with the guillotine. -
The New Plan
In 1795 moderate leaders in the national convention made a new plan for the government. The power was distributed into five men. Some of these men where corrupt but at least they took away the absolute monarchy they had before. This made France return to order.
