The French Revolution 1.The Three Estates 2.National Assembly 3.Reign of Terror 4.Napoleon

 French society divided into 3 classes (Estates)  First Estate- Clergy+Priests (0.5% of population)  Second Estate- Nobles (1.5% of population)  Third Estate- Everyone else (98% of population, but only owned 40% of the land)  Third Estate paid high taxes, had few rights, and had no wealth

 France was in massive debt  King Louis XVI ordered leaders from the Three Estates to meet and come up with a plan to get out of debt  Called the Estates General  Met in Versailles in June, 1789

 Third Estate considers limiting the power of the king and pushes for reform and more equality  Rename themselves National Assembly, plan to make decisions for France with/without First and Second Estates  Louis XVI locks the doors of the Salle de Etats to prevent the Estates from meeting

 June 20, National Assembly (and some from the First and Second Estates) are locked out of the Salle de Etats  Meet at an indoor tennis court and pledge to continue meeting till they come up with a new constitution for France  Military begins to arrive in Paris and National Assembly gains support throughout France.

 July 14, Storming of the Bastille  Represented the evils of the king’s rule  August 26, Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen  Violence in the countryside led to massive food shortages  7000 armed women marched on Versailles in October, 1789 to protest poverty

 Louis XVI and family try to flee France in 1791  Arrested and forced to accept the new Constitution and France becomes a republic and the king’s power is limited  Other European leaders promise to support Louis XVI militarily if he want to take destroy the National Assembly—this infuriates and scares the French people  Executed King Louis XVI in 1793

 New government was not strong enough to deliver on its promises  Political rivalries prevented decisions from being made  Poverty was widespread and violence plagued the countryside  Other European nations declared war on France to destroy or contain the Revolution

 Counter-revolutionists became stronger because of the weak government  Government founded Committee of Public Safety to prevent counter-revolutionary actions and imprison critics of the government  Led by Maximillien Robespierre  Over 16,000 people executed by the guillotine and 25,000 killed or die in prisons  Lasts from late  Robespierre became most powerful man in France, so he was also killed on July 27, 1793

 In 1795, the constitution established the Directory  It was a two house legislature (like the US) and led by 5 directors  The Directory became the ruling body of France  The Directory pushed warfare to keep in power and prevent strong military leaders from coming home  Violence in France came to an end, but the national debt remained high and poverty still hurt the common people

 November 9, Napoleon Bonaparte performs a coup d'état and overthrows the Directory  Coup d'état- overthrow of a ruling government  Napoleon puts France under the control of the Consulate  The Consulate was a centralized 3-man ruling party that controlled the country  Napoleon makes himself Head Consulate  This is the official end of the French Revolution