The Importance Of The French Revolution

One of the most pivotal time periods in France took place back in the late eighteenth century. This period was called the French Revolution, a time where France was suffering greatly. With “foreign invasion(s), the civil war in the Vendee, the Federalist uprisings, the grain shortage in Paris, and hyperinflation” , the country was striving desperately for a positive change. However, changes take time and considerable effort, which the French Revolution proved to be true. Citizens from all classes contributed in the events that took place during the revolution, even occasionally women and children. Many documents were written where the citizens would list their complaints hoping that the King would accept them. In addition, there were many

The meeting of these three estates was known as the Estates General. The estate with the most complaints for the King happened to be the Third Estate. Their grievances spanned across three main subcategories being justice, finances, and agriculture. However, at the beginning of the document there were a few grievances focused on gaining rights that should have been naturally in place. The first complaints focused on the delegates of the Third Estate, which are “equal by such status to all other citizens, [to] present themselves before the common father without other distinction which might degrade them” . Meaning the delegates for the Third Estate would be seen and treated just like the members of the First and Second Estates, not of lower class. This grievance was significant to Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès who was a delegate for and “identified with the third estate - that represented the common people of France” . Sieyès is one of the most important clergymen within the French Revolution as he fought intensively for the Third Estate to be finally recognized and treated fairly. In his pamphlet What is the Third Estate the most important quote states “the Third Estate embraces then all that which belongs to the nation; and all

When a group of Parisians “attacked and captured the royal armory known as the Bastille” . The Bastille was known at the time for also being a prison. When they were advancing toward the Bastille, “five to six thousand armed bourgeois penetrated the Bastille 's outer courtyards” . Seeing their advancements the enemy began firing at the bourgeois, while their “cannon fired on the town, and the people took fright; a large number of individuals were killed or wounded” . Yet this did not stop the riled up bourgeois who proceeded in taking over the Bastille. As they went further inside women and children of the town began to help in ways they could. The children would “after the discharge of fire from the fortress, ran here and there picking up the bullets and shot” , showing that they were willing to do anything they could to help win the revolution. After finally reaching the inside of the building, the bourgeois broke out in happiness, knowing that they have now successfully taken over the Bastille. On their march out, the bourgeois “anxious to avenge themselves, allowed neither De Launey nor the other officers to reach the place of trial. They seized them from the hands of their conquerors, and trampled them underfoot one after the other” . The overall purpose of the bourgeois attacking the Bastille was to save the “Third Estate from [King] Louis XVI 's attempted