French Revolution

Jake Griggs
10/28/16
Ch. Johnson
3rd Period

The French Revolution was called the revolution of 1789. It reached its climax in
1789. This is how it got its name revolution of 1789. Stating the end of the
ancien Regime. In france and serving to distinguish that event form the
revolutions in 1830 and 1848

The conditions of france in the late 1780s were horrible, prices of food
were higher than ever and so were the taxes. Taxes were so high mainly
because of Louis XVI and antoinette's spending got the country far into debt .
This made poor people more poor they were spending all their money on taxes
because they were so high The king's abused their power and showed no
concern about their people. The french monarchy began to fall it was unable to
adapt to the political and societal pressures that were being forced on to it.

The estate system was based off of three estates the first one was the
clergy he had the most power They owned ten percent of france's land they
were not required to pay taxes the second estate was the nobles were
considered the most noble they held top job in the army and in the government
court. They were also not required to pay taxes . The last estate was called the
third estate they made up 98% of france's population they were the middle and
bottom class they were overworked and underpaid they supported the french
revolution they did not like this system because the first two estates had all the
power and did not have to pay taxes but they did have to pay taxes and were at
the mercy of the clergy and nobles. Many believe that this system was the cause
of the french revolutionary war

The climax of the French Revolution was On may Fifth in 1789 on that day
the estate generals meet at versailles. They were torn apart over fundamental

issues. if the voted by head that would give the advantage to the first estate in
which case the two higher orders of french would have out voted the third estate
the third estate declared himself the national assembly on june 17 do to the bitter
struggle over this legal issue. They then threatened to proceed if necessary
without the other two orders. The parish priest supported them. They
outnumbered the 2 higher orders along with the churchs deputies the royal
officials locked the deputies of the third order out of the meeting hall on june 20
they then went to the king's indoor tennis court and swore a oath not to leave
until they had given france a new constitution the king finally gave in pushed the
nobles and the remaining clergy to join them which took the official title of
national constituent assembly on july 9 at the same time he was gathering troops
to dissolve it
The town and provinces were infuriated after these two months of
prevarictaion because of the problem they had maintaining food. Rumours had
spread that the king and the privileged had planned to overthrow the third estate
this led to the great fear of July 1789 the peasants were panic stricken. The
gathering of troops throughout paris and the dismissal of necker provoked
insurrection in the capital the parisian crowd seized the bastille on July 14, 1789.
The king visiting paris showed his recognition of the sovereignty of the people by
wearing the tricolor cockade so the king had to yield.
The king refused to sanction the declaration and decrees of August 4
because they were such big innovations. The Parisians marched to versailles

after they rose again on October 5. The next day the royal family traveled back to
paris. The national constituent Assembly continued to work on the new
constitution in paris
That was the climax to the revolution it began it was also the first physical
acts of the revolution not long after this king louis was killed and maximilien
Robespierre took control and killed more than 40,000 people and started the
reign of terror this was the time where he was in rule
In july 1794 some members of the national convention turned on
robespierre because they were fearing for their safety this ended the radical
phase of the french revolution when they sent robespierre to the guillotine.

Works Cited
"French Revolution." Britannica School, Encyclopdia Britannica, 22 Jul.
2016.http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/35357. Accessed 20 Oct. 2016.
Modern world history Holt mcdougal