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Debt
The government in france started struggling with debt due to the problem that King Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette were wasting big amounts of money. He borrowed a lot of money to help the colonists against their war to Britain. In 1786 the bankers stopped lending Louis money which is when he started experiencing bigger problems. -
Parisian Women and bread
Thousands of Parisian women complained over the new price of bread, which was increasing making it harder to buy bread which was a basic food need. They were using many weapons while marching on versailles, and demanded that the National Assembly help them to provide bread. After the women broke in the palace and demanded they left, The king, queen and servants all left Versailles and never came back, which gave a symbol that there was going to be a change in power and overall changes to Fran -
Taxes
First meeting to impose taxes on nobles, since France was staying out of money. Many people could vote and the more privileged estates had more power than the third estate, the lower class. This was the beginning of the revolution. -
National Assembly
The people in the third estate were influenced by the enlightenment ideas and wanted to change how things were made in the government, so they established the National Assembly and ended absolute monarchy, starting representative government where the citizens would also be a part of the decisions made. They were locked out of a meeting and they knocked down the door in order to get in. -
Removal of Old Regime
Many noblemen gave speeches declaring their passion towards liberty and equality, they then joined members of the National Assembly and all the estates removed their privileges, thus removing the Old Regime (estates/classes). -
New Constitution
The National Assembly completed a new constitution, which king Louis didn’t happily agree on. This new constitution consisted of a limited constitutional monarchy and it took away much of the kings authority at the time. This also created a new legislative assembly, they had the power to create laws and approve and reject declarations of war. At this time, the king still had the power to enforce the laws. Problems like food shortages were still present. -
War
National Assembly declares war against Prussia and Austria. -
The Jacobin Club
Many new governmental changes made by a political group called the Jacobin club. One of the most important members of the Jacobins was Jean-Paul Marat. He demanded that everyone who still supported the king had to be killed. Also, Georges Danton, a lawyer, was very devoted to the rights of the poor people in Paris. He was a very powerful speaker. -
Changing France
One of the leaders of the Jacobins, Maximilien Robespierre, slowly gained power. Him and his supporters started wiping out everything about France's past. He even changed the calendar so that it didn’t have any Sundays because they were religious and they closed down all of the churches in Paris, later on all other cities in France did the same. -
Guillotine
The king is beheaded by a machine called the Guillotine, a machine that cuts your head. -
Unfair use of Guillotine
People started getting beheaded for charges, one person even got beheaded for cutting down a tree. About 40,000 people were executed during this period of time. -
End of Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (many executions) phase in the French revolution ended after Robespierre was put in the Guillotine.