| The
French Revolution |
The French Revolution is one of the truly great stories in history. It is a story of the little people (David) rising up and taking power from the wealthy few (Goliath). At the time of the revolution (the 1780's) France was considered the most advanced country in Europe. It was the center of the Enlightenment and had a large population and a successful trade network. But France was still ruled by a system of government left over from the days of feudalism. It was called the Old Regime. Under the system of the Old Regime the people of France were divided into three social classes, or estates. These are the estates:
As you can see, things were hardly fair in France during the Old Regime. The wealthiest people, the first and second estates, were hardly paying any taxes. And the first and second estates had more political power. When all the estates held a meeting, called the Estates-General, each estate got one vote. That way the two wealthy states could always outvote the third. Things started to come together to make a revolution possible: -First, the people of the third estate were listening to the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers. They were hearing how government is supposed to work. They were hearing about equality, liberty, and democracy. And they heard about the American Revolution, where the little guy (the 13 colonies), revolted against the big guy (England). -Secondly, France was having economic problems. There were widespread crop failures resulting in a shortage of grain. In 1789, the year of the revolution, the price of bread doubled. People were starving. When people are hungry they are more apt to revolt. Also the government of France was falling deep into debt. King Louis the XVI (that's Louis the 16th - not Louis the 14th) borrowed heavily so he could lend money to the Americans so they could defeat England in their revolution (England was France's enemy). -Thirdly, King Louis XVI was a weak king. He let things get out of control without taking decisive action. He and his family lived an extravagant life in the palace at Versailles. The palace was 10 miles from Paris - so Louis XVI was disconnected from the goings on of the French people. His wife, Marie Antoinette was a notorious spender. She spent so much money she became known as Madame Deficit. Yes, things were going pretty badly in France. So badly that Louis XVI called for a meeting of the Estates-General. The Estates-General was an assembly that only met in emergencies - things must have been going pretty well in France for quite a while because the assembly had not met in 175 years! The Estates-General worked like this: each estate got one vote. So the first and second estates (the clergy and the nobles) could easily outvote the third estate (remember the third estate was 98% of the population). So things were hardly fair here. Two percent of the population could outvote 98% of the population. The third estate cried foul and insisted the voting be changed. The king and the first two estates would have nothing of that - so delegates from the third estate got together and created the National Assembly. They hoped that the National Assembly could pass new laws and reforms in the name of the French people. Things looked better for the people of France. But then three days after it was created, the National Assembly showed up for a meeting and was locked out of the meeting hall! (The King still had some control here - after all he did have an army). The National Assembly members were mad. They broke down the door to a nearby tennis court and pledged to stay there until they set up a new constitution. This famous incident is called The Tennis Court Oath. King Louis XVI smelled trouble here. He tried to make peace with the third estate now. He ordered the nobles and the clergy to join the newly formed National Assembly. But Louis also stationed his mercenary army made up of Swiss guards in Paris. Louis had to pay for a Swiss army because he no longer trusted the French soldiers. The people of Paris thought that the Swiss soldiers were coming to massacre French citizens, so they gathered weapons to defend themselves. A mob of French people gathered around The Bastille (a French prison and weapons stockade) to get gunpowder. They eventually seized the Bastille from the kings troops. The taking of the Bastille, on July 14, 1789, has come to symbolize the French Revolution. That day, Bastille day, is celebrated similar to the way Americans celebrate the 4th of July. The Revolution in Paris soon spread outward throughout the French countryside. Peasants thought the nobles were hiring outlaws to terrorize them. So the peasants formed armed mobs, broke in to the manor houses of the nobles, tearing up the old legal documents that bound them to feudalism. This wave of violence was known as The Great Fear. Then in October of 1789, about 6,000 Parisian women rioted because of the high price of bread. Accompanied by some men, they armed themselves and marched 10 miles down the street to the palace of Versailles. They wanted to take out their anger on the king and queen. They broke into the palace, killing a couple of guards. They demanded that king Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette come back to Paris with them. The king eventually agreed. A few hours later the king and his family went to Paris, never to return to the great palace of Versailles again. A few years later, King Louis XVI and his wife were executed by the guillotine - a machine with a weighted blade that cuts peoples head off. |