French Revolution by Noah Metz

Before the Revolution France was in debt because of both funding the American civil war, and because of it’s poorly structured taxing methods. France’s debt was so large that King Louis XVI was spending half of the national budget to repay their debt. The debt before the revolution was around 12 billion livres At the same time hailstorms destroyed a lot of the years harvest, driving food prices up and causing the 3 rd estate to starve.

Meeting of the Estates General An assembly of representatives from the first second and third estates. 3 rd estate had around 600 representatives and the 2 nd and 1 st had around 300 Hadn’t met since 1614 The 3 rd separated from the assembly and created a new assembly, the National Assembly

The Tennis Court Oath On the 20 th of June 1789, the national assembly was disallowed from using the room they usually used for assembly. Because of this, they moved their proceedings to the kings tennis court. At the tennis court they made an oath that they would not separate until they had created a constitution of France. Two days later, they were kicked out of the tennis court and moved to the Church of Saint Louis

The Storming of the Bastille Only one soldier of the French government was killed during the battle, whereas 98 militants were killed on the revolutionists side. Before the storm on the Bastille, insurgents had already stormed the Hotel des Invalides and gained 29,000 to 32,000 muskets, but without powder. The storm on the Bastille was mainly to acquire large amounts of arms and ammunition. There were over 13,600 kilograms of gunpowder stored in the Bastille Bastille was a prison that only held 7 prisoners at the time. All of which were upset at the disturbances caused by the insurgents. Shortly before the storm on the bastille, the Bastille was chosen to be closed because it cost too much to mantins

Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen Adopted on 26 th of August 1789 Stated that all men are equal, no individual can exert authority, the law can only forbid actions harmful to society, and the law is created and maintained by the citizens. Everyone had rights to liberty, property, and security

The Women’s March Began because of a rumor that Marie Antoinette was hoarding grain inside the Palace du Versailles The women were already angry because of the price and scarcity of bread, and aided by the revolutionaries, began to take a more ambitious goal. They ransacked the city armory for weapons to march to the Palace of Versailles They besieged the castle for one day before the King was compelled to take himself, his family, and most of the French Assembly to Paris

The Jacobins The Jacobins were a group of people who believed that France would be better off without a monarchy, as a republic. The Jacobins were on a petition drive when things got out of hand and guards of the national assembly fired on the crowd, killing 50 people.

The Reign of Terror The first act of the new National Convention was to abolish the monarchy and declare France as a republic. On January 1973, the convention tried and executed Louis XVI on the grounds of treason. After, enraged citizens destroyed the national convention and the Jacobins, led by Robespierre, took over Robespierre and the Commitie of Public Safety started conscripting French soldiers and attempting to stabilize the economy. Robespierre became paranoid of counter revolutionists and embarked upon a reign of terror, in which he had more than 15,000 people executed by guillotine. In July 1794, his reign of terror ended when he was arrested and executed

Thermidorian Reaction After the reign of terror, a period of governmental restructure began, leading the new constitution of 1795.