French Revolution Dbq

Carson Riley

History 7th period

Carsten Franklin

Country Paper Le mont de Saint Michel

Le mont de st Michel is located in France. It is it's own city because it is an island on the northwestern coast. Richard 1 of Normandy ruled from 942-966 A.D. When his rule ended that is when Le mont de Saint Michel was ordered to be constructed, he was the man who ordered the church to be constructed. Twelve Benedictine monks came to Le mont in 966 and lead the city. The monks were attacked by Vikings and run out but the local people stayed and the mont was never abandoned. In 927 A.D. William 1 of Normandy took over his father’s title and supported the mont until his assassination in 942 A.D. He left his wealth to the mont and was used to keep the church going. Then the Dukes of Brittany supported the mont until 1008 when they died but were buried as benefactors to the church.

The French Revolution was a major event in modern European history. The causes of the French Revolution were many: the monarchy's severe debt

problems, high taxes, poor harvests, and the influence of new political ideas and the American Revolution, to mention only a few. Starting as a movement for government reforms, the French Revolution rapidly turned radical and violent, leading to the abolition of the monarchy and execution of King Louis XVI. Though the monarchy was eventually restored, the French Revolution changed France and the rest of Europe forever. It inspired a number of revolutionary movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that made the final end to institutions such as absolutism, feudalism, class privilege and legal inequality, and spread the principles of natural right, equality and freedom throughout the world. Another major event was the fall of Bastille. On July 14, 1789, an angry crowd marched on the Bastille, a medieval fortress in east Paris that was mostly housing political prisoners. To many people in France, it was considered as a symbol of the much hated Louis’ regime. Angry, unemployed and hungry Parisians saw it as a place to vent their frustrations. The commander of the Bastille, Marquis de Launay and his troops resisted for a few hours before they surrendered to the mob. After learning about the fall of the Bastille, King Louis XVI withdrew the royal troops from the French capital and recalled finance minister Jacques Necker whom he dismissed just three days earlier. However, he could no longer reverse the Revolution, while the National Assembly (from July 9 formally called the National Constituent Assembly) became de facto the French government.

France started as Gaul, the people who lived in Gaul were called the celts. Celts in the area approximating modern France would come to be known as Gauls by the Romans, who would conquer the region by 51 BC, naming it “Gaul” by 51 BC. Gaul was renamed France later on in the empire and the people were called Franks. France bounds the bay of Biscay, Spain, The gulf of lion, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the English Channel. They conquered all of the states within France today.

In 1789, the year of the outbreak of the French Revolution, Catholicism was the official religion of the French state.

The French Catholic Church, known as the Gallican Church, recognised the authority of the pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church but had negotiated certain liberties that privileged the authority of the French monarch, giving it a distinct national identity characterised by considerable autonomy. France’s population of 28 million was almost entirely Catholic, with full membership of the state denied to Protestant and Jewish minorities. Being French effectively meant being Catholic. Yet, by 1794, France’s churches and religious orders were closed down and religious worship suppressed. Today less than half the population of France is Catholic. In the 16th century the Protestant religion broke out in France and was adopted by many. Today 45 percent of people are Christians most are Catholic and 35 percent claim no

religion.

France has a council of ministers, in the state there is a republic their leader is a prime minister. France has two main branches of law which are private law and civil law. Each branch of their government is separate. They have an executive branch: The head of state and head of the executive is the President, elected by universal suffrage. Since May 2012, France's president is François Hollande. Originally, a president of the Fifth Republic was elected for a 7-year term (le septennat), renewable any number of times. Since 2002 the President has been elected for a 5-year term (le quinquennat). Since the passing of the 2008 Constitutional reform, the maximum number of terms a president can serve has been limited to two. 
The President, who is also supreme commander of the military, determines policy with the aid of his Council of Ministers (Conseil des ministres). The residence of the President of the French Republic is the Elysée Palace (le palais de l'Elysée) in Paris. There is a legislative branch: The French parliament is made up of two houses or chambers. The lower and principal house of parliament is the Assemblée nationale, or national assembly; the second chamber is the Sénat or Senate. Members of Parliament, called Députés, are elected by universal suffrage, in general elections (élections législatives) that take place every five years. Senators are elected by "grand electors", who are mostly other local elected representatives. The electoral system for parliamentary elections involves two rounds; a candidate can be elected on the first round by obtaining an absolute majority of votes cast. The second round is a runoff between two or more candidates, usually two. There is a judicial branch: While the Minister of Justice, le Garde des Sceaux, has powers over the running of the justice system and public prosecutors, the judiciary is strongly independent of the executive and legislative branches. The official handbook of French civil law is the Code Civil. The majority of people in France are Christian. 45 percent are Christian and most of these people are Catholic less than 10 percent of these people attend mass regularly. 35 percent of people proclaim they have no religion. There are about 5 percent of people that are Muslim. This says that many of the people in France are not very religious.