A Review & The Beginning The French Revolution A Review & The Beginning

Review Started in 1789 By the people of France Brought down the king & made France a republic- a country ruled by the people Republic did not last, but France never returned to its old, unequal form of society The ideas of the FR spread to many other countries

Background People were pushing for change in society Who remembers the names of the social classes? Bourgeoisie- new class of wealthy city people; wanted more power Farm workers & other common people were tired of working for the nobles They were tired of paying taxes that nobles didn’t have to pay Philosophers called for new forms of society & gov

What Else? French gov was weak Spent too much on wars (most recently, the American Revolution) King Louis XVI & Queen Marie Antoinette spent a lot of money on themselves while the bourgeoisie & common people suffered

Revolution Begins To solve the probs, Louis 16 called the Estates-General together (May 1789) EG(^^^)- reps from the 3 classes Most of the commoners broke away & declared that they were now a National Assembly that represented the whole country (June) Storming of the Bastille- a crowd in Paris stormed an old prison called the Bastille & released the prisoners (July); this is considered to be the start of the FR