What Is The Tennis Court Oath And The Storming Of The Bastille?

“A leading cause of social stress in France during the Revolution was its large population… 90 percent of the peasants lived at or below the subsistence level, earning only enough to feed their families… Many impoverished peasants blamed the tensions between the rich and poor on the country’s vast social differences” (Exploring the Revolution, 2001). To understand the difference between the importance of the Tennis Court Oath and the storming of the Bastille for the course of the Revolution, the proceedings beforehand prior to these events must be understood. Unrest was building between the rich and poor in the late 17th century and something needed to be done to help the poor peasants in the countryside. The importance key events: The Tennis

The Oath was a pledge signed on 20 June 1789 by members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates General by King Louis XVI. They created a makeshift courtroom and signed the oath in a tennis court in Versailles. They renamed themselves as the National Assembly pledged not to leave until a new constitution was written for France. The naming of the National Assembly was significant in several ways. The unrest people of the Third Estate of the Estates-General created it. Although the Third Estate had been granted double representation in the voting process because of the population. They were informed that voting would be by power instead of by head in turn making their double representation meaningless. This angered them and decided to meet separately to create the National Assembly. “The National Assembly, regarding itself as called upon to establish the constitution of the kingdom, effect a regeneration of the state (P 'ordre public) and maintain the true principles of monarchy, may not be prevented from continuing its deliberations in whatever place it may be forced to take up its sittings. Maintaining further, that wherever its members are assembled, there is the National Assembly, the assembly decrees that all its members shall immediately take a solemn oath never to separate and to come together wherever circumstances may dictate until the constitution of the kingdom shall be established and

Contract theory is the study of how individuals, groups and businesses construct and develop legal arrangements. It analyzes how parties develop decisions under certain circumstances. Constitutional government is when a country or society is defined by a constitution that helps control political power. This is important because it ensures that political authority derives from the people not the monarch. In the French Revolution, the National Assembly wanted to take power away from the king who was very resistant to change. After seeing the success taking off in America, the French wanted to see progressive changes where they lived as well. “Enlightenment writers praised the legal and constitutional guarantees established by the English and the Americans, but they wanted to see them applied everywhere” (Exploring the Revolution, 2001). The Tennis Court Oath was influenced by the Enlightenment contract theory. Written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, it suggested the most efficient and effectual way to establish a political economy. “The goal of the Enlightenment 's proponents was to apply the methods learned from the scientific revolution to the problems of society. Further, its advocates committed themselves to "reason" and "liberty."… liberty meant freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom from unreasonable government (torture, censorship, and so on).” (Exploring the