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France 1789
Lavish lifestyle, clothes, and building. No money from the American Revolution, and the Seven Years War. People are starving from droughts and bad farming seasons. No one could afford bread and people saw the nobility and the royal family who were partying in Versailles every night not paying taxes and spending tax money. The Enlightenment started to spread through the working class who got some ideas. The American Revolution was proof to the people that the Enlightenment was true43er -
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The Estates General
Meeting of the 3 estates of France 1st was clergy 2nd was nobility 3rd was everyone else. Was designed to keep the working class out of power for most of it was a 2 to 1 against the 3rd estate. Even though they consist of 98% of the population they got 1 vote like everybody else. Taxes were raised on 3rd of the estate, and were outraged and went to a tennis court to establish that they were the National Assembly of France. French troops are converging on Paris and people are getting paranoid. -
Storming of Bastile
Desperate to get guns to counter the French troops, the revolutionaries raided the Bastile. The Bastile is a prison with only 7 prisoners but a lot of firepower. This marks the beginning of the chaos that unfolds in France. Once the governor called for a cease-fire to the guards, the citizens took him and put his head on a pike. They eventually went and shot the Mayor of Paris. This is now a French holiday celebrated on July 14th. -
The march on Versailles
Rumors spread that Marie Antoinette was hoarding grain in the palace of Versailles. A group of women who were armed started to march toward the palace and on the way picked up so many people. Once they got to the palace they demanded that the King move back into Paris where they couldn't be private and away. More rumors were floating that Louis was being disrespectful to the Revolutionaries symbol and that he was not into the Revolution. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
This is when the people of France declared themselves equals to the American Revolution. They declare that they need their own declaration. -
Escape Attempt
The nobility is leaving France to seek refuge from the 3rd estate. This got King Louis thinking if he can do the same. There was a general sympathetic to the King and told them to sneak out to where he was on the frontier and slip through the border. They attempt to escape dressed as workers and the workers as nobility. Everything was going fine until they were stopped at the border where King Louis was identified and sent back to Paris. -
Massacre of Champs de Mars
The most radical revolutionaries are the Jacobins. They have been mostly in control of the revolution thus far. After the King was caught and sent back to Paris they went to the Tuileries Garden outside of where the royal family was staying to sign petitions that state that they don't need a monarchy and that they can self govern and become a republic. Eventually, there were a couple of arguments and push comes to shove and the National Assembly Troops opened fire on the crowd of people. -
War on Austria and Prussia
King Louis went to war to win back the people. If he won he thought that they would trust him and spread the revolution. If he lost he hoped the monarchies would kill the revolution and make him king again. The French tried to attack the Austrian Netherlands and actually has some success. This causes Prussia to side with Austria. On of Prussia's generals, the Duke of Brunswick makes a manifesto. He intends to overthrow the revolution and reinstate King Louis XVI -
Storming of Tuileries
The Jacobins have invaded even deeper into the new French government. The Paris branch is now the Commune of Paris. They believe that he has done a deal with the Austrians or Prussians. They now declare France a Republic which means they need no kings. While this was going on people were being executed for the smallest amount of disbelief and even just appearing to think about counter-revolution, they would be killed and up to 1,400 people executed. The royal family will be imprisoned shortly. -
Stalemate of Valmy
The French managed to hold the Prussian army and there was no clear winner. This ended the external pressure on France for a while. -
More Wars
National Assembly declares wars on Duch Repub. and Britain. Spain and Portugal joins the side of Austria. National Assembly declares the Levee Eu Masse. Every able-bodied single French male is now a soldier to fight for France. Quickly amassed the biggest army in the world. -
Execution of Louis XVI
France is paranoid and is at war with multiple nations who want to reinstate the king so they decided to execute the king. King Louis was sent to the Guillotine on Jan 21, 1793. -
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Committee of Public Safety
Established to handle internal problems. They put Maximilien Robespierre as the head. This branch was political and paranoid. Anyone who was not radical enough, too radical, could depose Maximilien, or just didn't like was executed by the Guillotine. This is the start of the Reign of Terror. 16,000 are Guillotined and an estimated 40,000 are executed total. Most of this was occurring around Paris. Eventually, people got paranoid about Maximilian and stated that he was hurting the Revolution. -
Revolt at Toulon
A counter Revolution was happening at the Port of Toulon. The troops stopped the revolution and hinged on the Cannons. In charge of those cannons was an Artillery Captian name, Napoleon Bonaparte. -
The Execution of Marie Antoinette
Marie was the most hated woman in France because of her lavish lifestyle. People gave her the nickname "Madame Deficit". She was executed on Oct 16, 1793. -
Maximilian Robspiere
People are paranoid and are sick of Maximilian. They finally decided to execute him. This ended the Reign of Terror which was, most waste of human life the French people have seen.
