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The French Revolution
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In 1786, after a couple of years, in which King Louis XVI had spent very much money on luxury and expensive wars, he had to assess, that the French government was deeply in dept. Two years later, in 1788 the state was bankrupt and beside the leck of money there was mass hunger, because of the poor harvest in the summer. With the aim to reform the state by suspending the fiscal privileges of the 1st and 2nd Estate, the King called an Estate General, which is an assembly consisting of some deputies from every Estate on the fifth of May 1789. But as the King didn´t agree to the demand of the third Estate, to change the voting system from one vote for each Estate to one man one vote principle, they became very angry and felt humblet because they would never have a chance to prevail. In the wake of that, the third Estate declared itself "The National Assembly" on June 17, 1789 because they made up 97% of France. The deputies of the third Estate swore, not to separate until the France had established a new constitution. King Louis XVI complied and under the his command, the other Estates joined the National Assembly.
Nevertheless Paris hungered. The corn prices rose extremly. And when the people of France found out, that the King planned to return to the old order, they became very angry. They marched to the Bastille, which was a fortress, used as a prison and known as a symbol of the King´s power, on the 14th of July 1789. There attained it started a big fight between the King´s soldiers and the French people. Finally the National Guard yielded. What a success for France´s people! The Storm of the Bastille is seen as the beginning of the Revolution. With its breakdown the King lost his power but on the other side it caused big mass riots.There were fights in France everywhere - a big chaos! Initially rumours were afloat, that bandits would prowl and the peasents, who still suffered from the bad harvest took alarm. The `Great Fear´ broke out. Under its influence the National Assembly abolished the feudal order and freed the peasents. Three weeks later, on August 26th the National Assembly declared the Rights of Man, which were the basis for a new constitution. In June 1791 King Louis XVI tried to flee, but he was recognized and subsequent forced to return to Paris. After that he had lost all political power and was beheaded on the 21st of January 1793. He just got the proclamation of a new constitution, on September the 3rd. Anyway he wouldn´t have liked it, because the new constitution said, that the king had to share his power with the parliament and the Rights on Man and the Civil Rights were established. But with the republic, new problems appeared, like the war with half of Europe or peasants, who joined in a revolt, because nothing had changed for them. Therefore the convention appointed the "Committee of Public Safety". The Jacobins, a radical party dominated the committe, which governed France. After Robespierre, the leader of the Jacobins, entered the Committee which consisted of 12 men, the time, between 1793 and 1795 was called `The Terror`. People were threatened to death. All enemies of the French Revolution were imprisoned or guillotined, because they violated the Law of Suspects. Within one year people disliked Robespierre and the Convention. With the execution of Robespierre and his supporters on the 27th of July 1794 they put paid to the terror! On November the 9th in 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte, a young successful army general forced the preassigned directors, which had not been elected out of office and assumed the government. Napoleon called himself "first consul". The French people loved him, because he made the reform of the Civil Laws of France. In 1802 he made himself emperor. Nominal France kept a republic, but Napoleon ruled like an absolute monarch. Now you´ll ask yourself: Was the whole revolution sensless? - In my opinion not, because with the seperation into the three branches of power and the Rights of Man, there was more democracy and political equality. |
