The 

French Revolution (French: Révolution française [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛːz]) was a period of

radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and
ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are
considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy,[1] while phrases like liberté, égalité,
fraternité reappeared in other revolts, such as the 1917 Russian Revolution,[2] and inspired
campaigns for the abolition of slavery and universal suffrage.[3] The values and institutions it
created dominate French politics to this day.[4]
Its causes are generally agreed to be a combination of social, political and economic factors,
which the existing regime proved unable to manage. In May 1789, widespread social distress led
to the convocation of the Estates General, which was converted into a National Assembly in
June. Continuing unrest culminated in the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July, which led to a
series of radical measures by the Assembly, including the abolition of feudalism, the imposition of
state control over the Catholic Church in France, and extension of the right to vote.
The next three years were dominated by the struggle for political control, exacerbated
by economic depression and Civil disorder. Opposition from external powers like Austria, Britain,
and Prussia resulted in the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in April 1792.
Disillusionment with Louis XVI led to the establishment of the French First Republic on 22
September 1792, followed by his execution in January 1793. In June, an uprising in
Paris replaced the Girondins who dominated the National Assembly with the Committee of Public
Safety, headed by Maximilien Robespierre.
This sparked the Reign of Terror, an attempt to eradicate alleged "counter-revolutionaries"; by
the time it ended in July 1794, over 16,600 had been executed in Paris and the provinces. As
well as its external enemies, the Republic faced internal opposition from both Royalists
and Jacobins and in order to deal with these threats, the French Directory took power in
November 1795. Despite a series of military victories, many won by Napoleon Bonaparte,
political divisions and economic stagnation resulted in the Directory being replaced by the
Consulate in November 1799. This is generally seen as marking the end of the Revolutionary
period.

The Estates-General was divided into three parts: the First for members of the clergy; Second for
the nobility; and Third for the "commons".[29] Each sat separately, enabling the First and Second
Estates to outvote the Third, despite representing less than 5% of the population, while both
were largely exempt from tax.[30]
In the 1789 elections, the First Estate returned 303 deputies, representing 100,000 Catholic
clergy; nearly 10% of French lands were owned directly by individual bishops and monasteries,
in addition to tithes paid by peasants.[31] More than two-thirds of the clergy lived on less than 500
livres per year, and were often closer to the urban and rural poor than those elected for the Third
Estate, where voting was restricted to male French taxpayers, aged 25 or over.[32] As a result, half
of the 610 deputies elected to the Third Estate in 1789 were lawyers or local officials, nearly a
third businessmen, while fifty-one were wealthy land owners.[33]
The Second Estate elected 291 deputies, representing about 400,000 men and women, who
owned about 25% of the land and collected seigneurial dues and rents from their tenants. Like
the clergy, this was not a uniform body, and was divided into the noblesse d'épée, or traditional
aristocracy, and the noblesse de robe. The latter derived rank from judicial or administrative
posts and tended to be hard-working professionals, who dominated the regional parlements and
were often intensely socially conservative.[34]
To assist delegates, each region completed a list of grievances, known as Cahiers de doléances.
[35]
 Although they contained ideas that would have seemed radical only months before, most
supported the monarchy, and assumed the Estates-General would agree to financial reforms,
rather than fundamental constitutional change.[36] The lifting of press censorship allowed
widespread distribution of political writings, mostly written by liberal members of the aristocracy
and upper middle-class.[37] Abbé Sieyès, a political theorist and priest elected to the Third Estate,
argued it should take precedence over the other two as it represented 95% of the population.[38]
The Estates-General convened in the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi on 5 May 1789, near the Palace of
Versailles rather than in Paris; the choice of location was interpreted as an attempt to control
their debates. As was customary, each Estate assembled in separate rooms, whose furnishings
and opening ceremonies deliberately emphasised the superiority of the First and Second
Estates. They also insisted on enforcing the rule that only those who owned land could sit as
deputies for the Second Estate, and thus excluded the immensely popular Comte de Mirabeau.[39]