French Revolution

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Introduction
The French Revolution began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790’s (staff). Just like the American Revolution the French Revolution started with new ideas of enlightenment. French citizens started to uproot everything that was considered normal, things such as absolute monarchy and the feudal system, they wanted to redesign everything (staff). Although a lot of the attempts failed people continued to try to make the change.
The Beginning to a Highly Bloody Battle

In 1786, Louis’s general, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, came up with the idea of a financial reform that included a universal land tax. The privileged classes would not be exempt any longer. In order to gain support for the process and hold of a growing aristocratic revolt, the king called upon the Estates-General, which was an assembly that represented France’s clergy, nobility and middle class people, it was the first time since 1614 that they had been called upon (Staff). The meeting would be held on May 5, 1789, in the meantime, the delegates of all three estates compiled lists of grievances to present to the king.

The population of France had changed quite a bit since 1614. The people that were not aristocratic members of the Third Estate represented ninety-eight percent of the people, but still were able to be outvoted by the other two bodies. Leading up to the meeting on May 5th, the Third Estate started to mobilize for support for equal representation and the abolishment of the noble veto, in other words, they wanted voting by head not by the status. All the orders shared common desires for fiscal and judicial reform as well as more representation in the form of government, the nobles started to get upset that they would be giv...

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...er 3, 1791 France adopted its first written constitution. The compromise that was made did not sit well with the influential radicals like Maximilien de Robespierrse, Camille Desmoulins and Georges Danton. They began stirring up popular support for a more republican form of government and the trial of Louis.
Terror and Revolt
April of 1792, the newly elected Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia, because it was believed that the French emigres were building counterrevolutionary alliances; it was also said to spread its revolutionary ideals across Europe through warfare.

Works Cited

Staff, H. (n.d.). French Revolution. History.com. Retrieved March 15, 2014, from http://www.history.com/topics/french-revolution
Cody, D. (n.d.). French Revolution. French Revolution. Retrieved March 16, 2014, from http://www.victorianweb.org/history/hist7.html

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