The Beginning of The Great French Revolution and The Main Stages

The start of the revolution

• During the Estates General, every Estate created a list of their grievances, known as cahiers.

• All the Estates believed that there needing to be liberty of the press, a constitution, and a removal of internal trade barriers.

• The groups disagreed on many more topics, though, as the First and Second Estates were not willing pay the same amount of taxes (if any) as the Third Estate.

• Louis XVI did not do much during the assembly, and as a result the Estates General got almost nowhere and was considered a failure.

The National Assembly and the Tennis Court Oath

• After the failure that occurred during the Estates General, the Third Estate was greatly upset and believed making their own assembly was the way to get their problems solved. Along with some members of the First and Second Estates who were for reform, the members of the Third Estate created the National Constituent Assembly.

• King Louis XVI showed much discontent to this new group, and therefore, he locked the doors to the assembly room in his palace, so the National Constituent Assembly could not convene and create their reforms.

• The Assembly members found an indoor tennis court to meet and discuss their reforms. Here, the Tennis Court Oath was created, where 576 people made a promise to not leave until they had created a new French constitution.

• This oath was a big moment for the French Revolution, as it was really the first time the people had directly gone against the king. A prime example of this is nobleman, Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Count of Mirabeau. He left the Second Estate to join the National Constituent Assembly, and was known for saying, “We shall not stir from our places save at the point of a bayonet.”

The storming of the Bastille

• The storming of the Bastille (a fortress in Paris which held prisoners and munitions) occurred on July 14, 1789, when violence arose from a gathering in Paris for the new movement for the middle class.

• There were rumors going around that the king was planning something to stop the National Constituent Assembly, and thus began the first major step in the French Revolution.

• The revolutionists took the weapons in the prison and killed all the guards defending it. Some of the guards had their heads taken off and put on pikes for display.

• From the events in Paris came the radial group known as the sans-culottes. They were part of the middle-class and violently believed in both democracy and equality, which France was lacking.

• People started to hear rumors that King Louis XVI was going to put an end to the revolution, so the radicals stole food, records, and property with whatever means necessary.

• Once the French Revolution was underway, there were some of the nobility who tried to get other countries in Europe, specifically monarchies, to help France in preventing a rebellion and revolution.

The August Decrees and the Declaration of the Right of Man

• A month after the events in Paris, the National Constituent Assembly ended feudalism (a system where people were given land and in return had to serve the landowner) when they created a set of laws known as the August Decrees. The decrees also gave the middle and lower class more rights, ended the nobility run courts, and forced the Church to stop forcible payments onto the French people.

• Based after the American Declaration of Independence, another important document that was created was the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which helped to spread equality among all citizens with its laws:

o Every man has the rights to equality, liberty, property, and security, and is born a free man.

o Being imprisoned without a trial would be outlawed.

o Every member of society would have to pay a fair and proportionate amount of tax.

o Every citizen has a say, and no specific group is allowed to make any rules if they do not benefit the majority of the people.

• While King Louis was able to accept the laws as temporary, things got bad for the royal family when a mob of women forced them to retreat to Paris, where they had to officially introduce the declaration.

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