French Revolution Essays (1499 words) - Knights Of The Golden Fleece

French Revolution The French Revolution changed the face of France and all who were associated with it so drastically that it was almost the exact opposite of what it used to be. Most of the people in France at the time were very upset by the way the government had been being run for so long. Many historians believe that the period of increased knowledge and ideas, or The Enlightenment, was the cause of the revolution. In any case, the people wanted change. King Louis XVI ruled France under an absolute monarchy in 1789, but the government also consisted of three estates, or classes, of people who helped govern France. The first estate was made up of the clergy and Church officials who held much of the power, however they only made up a small percentage of Frances population. The second estate consisted of Frances nobles. The nobles only made up 2% of Frances population, but they owned more than 20% of Frances land. The third estate actually has three separate classes within itself. The first group, the bourgeois, were just as wealthy as the nobles, but had very little power at all. The nobles didnt have to pay taxes, so the bourgeois were angry that they had the wealth, but no political stature to go with it. The farmers and lower-class workers were always subject to huge taxes on literally every thing they owned to help pay for wars, and other political money problems. The poor people of France were outraged at the tremendous prices of bread and could no longer afford to feed their families. The third estate made up 98% of Frances population but had less power than the other two estates. The third estate began screaming revolt and Louis XVI was forced to call the first Estates-General since 1614. The Estates-General met at the Palace of Versailles and each of the three estates presented their problems with the way things were being run. The conference was supposed to be run based on the rules of Frances Old Regime. The Old Regime is a set of governing laws that were established in favor of the nobles and the clergy. For every problem, each estate would vote and then count and then their overall vote would count as one vote. Each estate had one vote, therefore, the third estate would always lose in a vote that the nobles and the clergy didnt like. The third estate had more members than the first two combined, so the third estate demanded a vote where everyone in the each estate counted as a vote. The third estate basically took over the entire Estates-General, changed their name to the National Assembly, and forced them to vote in this way. The National Assembly won a lmost every vote and completely demolished the Old Regime, and almost every taxing law in France. On July 14, 1789, the citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille Fortress. The people were armed with a few guns and some tools, but the soldiers in the fortress had cannons. The citizens were being slaughtered, but then many of Paris soldiers felt sympathy for the people and went to help. They took over Bastille, and gained artillery and ammunition. King Louis XVI was planning on hiring Swedish mercenaries to regain his power and bring peace back to France, but now that the people controlled Bastille, this was impossible. Since King Louis XVI could no longer trust the loyalty of his troops, he fled to the border. He was almost there, when he was recognized by a soldier and brought back to Versailles. He was thrown in jail. The National Assembly stepped down from power now that peace had been achieved. A new group, The National Convention took power and attempted to establish a democracy. This time in history, between September of 1793 and July of 1794, is known as the Reign of Terror. T he National Convention was basically ruled by two men, Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre. Robespierre slowly gained more control than Danton. Thousands of suspects against the revolution were executed, by means of the newly invented guillotine, including the kings wife, Marie Antoinette. In the early months of 1794, other leaders were