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Louis XVI and the calling of the estates general
King Louis attempted to procure money from the French people which angered them which forced the calling of the estates general. He was trying to get this in order to make up from all of his expenses which angered the third estate and lead to the Tennis Court Oath and the National Assembly. -
The Third Estate Declares Itself the National Assembly
France was divided into three estates depending on birth. The Third Estate, which consisted of everyone from peasants to wealthy merchants, was upset with the way the upper classes were running the government so the Third Estate revolted. The formed their own assembly which was known as the National Assembly. This escalated further into the revolution and the Great Fear. -
Tennis Court Oaths
Members of the French Estates-General for the Third Estate did not like the current constitution and demanded it to be changed. When it was taking longer than they were hoping, The National Assembly took the Tennis Court Oath, vowing "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established." This took the power away from the king and gave it back to the people. -
Storming on the Bastille
On July 14 of 1789, the National Assembly stormed Bastille due to rumors of the king hiding weapons and ammunition inside. They did this to ensure that the king was not going to attempt to abolish the National Assembly. Bastille was destroyed, and in a turn of events, it turned out that the rumor was false and nothing was ever being hidden there. -
The "Great Fear"
With the spread of rumors and political unrest, panic broke out across France. Violence and rioting broke out amongst the estates and the National Assembly setting forth the “Great Fear” in 1789. This event showed how the peasants of the National Assembly felt about France and how they were being governed. This lead further into the revolution and was the beginning of many new changes to come. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
There was belief that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man were the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments all over France so a declaration was written by the National Assembly. The Declaration of the Rights of Man proclaimed freedom and equality to all men before the law, stated that being appointment to public office was to be based off of talent, that no group should be exempt from taxation, and freedom of speech and the press were affirmed. -
The Constitution of 1791
As the monarchy collapsed, the National Assembly began to look for a new way of governing France so, the Constitution of 1791 was written by the assembly. It was a document created by the national Assembly that retained the monarchy, but sovereignty effectively resided in the Legislative Assembly, which was elected by a system of indirect voting. This was able to gain control of the control of the failing government and some of the chaos that wrecked havoc among the French citizens -
Legislative Assembly Takes Control
The Assembly saw the deteriorating monarchy and took the steps necessary to abolish its powers. It was created to hopefully establish a strong government body that would carry France to becoming a republic. This was quite successful and had many positive effects including the following: -The Church was no longer independent from the state.
-They reached the "end of feudalism".
-The people of France gained rights and liberties, along with legal equality.
-France incorporated a democracy -
The National Convention
The National Convention was an assembly who governed france for 3 years and made huge strides in abolishing the monarchy and creating a stable government. War and internal rebellion broke out among the french people which lead the rise of a dictator brought on by the Public Safety Committee. Because of this the constitution that was approved by the National Convention wasn’t ever put into effect and the Conventions role was left to approving the Committee's ideas. -
The Reign of Terror (September, 1793 to July, 1794)
In order to defend France from domestic threats, The Public Safety Committee, lead by Robespierre, adopted outrageous policies that became known as the Reign of Terror. During this, nearly 40,000 people were murdered, France was de-Christianized. It came to an end when Robespierre was killed and provoked the movement of the National Convention into a more conservative direction with power restrictions and churches being reopened -
The Directory
The government of France had begun to shift and it had been decided that it should be changed by adding a Directory that consisted of five directors who ran the people of France. Government during this time was operating under the Committee of Public Safety and was eventually overthrown by Napoleon. -
Napoleon's coup d’etat
The Directory wasn't working as everyone hoped it would so it was overthrown and replaced by a Council. Napoleon Bonaparte was the one to establish this after taking over the military of france and working his way into the government. Napoleon was brought to power and proclaimed himself as the First Consul of France. In his establishment of power, essentially the French Revolution came to an end.
