The Event That Led to The Start of The French Revolution

There had been significant causes leading to the start of the French Revolution, yet the uneasiness of the people, caused them to finally strike directly against the kingdom. The third estate had stolen guns from the national stores, because King Louis had sent an army to break them up at the tennis courts. Now, people had met up at the tennis court to discuss how the kingdom should be overthrown. This was named the Calling of the Estate General and the Tennis Court Oath. The sole purpose of this was to create a new constitution.

France was tottering on the verge of complete bankruptcy. Bread riots were spreading due to an awful harvest, as well as heavy taxes upon those in poverty. The nobles, who were fearful of taxes, were denouncing real tyranny. King Louis, obviously had no idea what to do in this kind of situation. Baffled, he called the Estates General to Versailles the following year. Meanwhile, the third estate had been working on new rights, thus renaming themselves as the National Assembly, The National Assembly had sworn that they will not stop meeting until a new constitution is formed. They had assembled to solve the financial cris and insist on reform.

Thus, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen were formed. It states that all men were born and remain free and equal in rights. It ensured that everyone had the right to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. That the government exist to protect the natural right of the citizens. Funnily enough, women were not included in this prospect, neither were minorities.

And of course, this was rejected by the king, and thus outrage overbuild within the general populace. As a result, the Storming of the Bastille occurred. The Bastille was used as a prison, it symbolized the abuse of the monarchy. After tearing it brick by brick, they were after the heads of the king and queen. The Fish Ladies of the market, went on the historical March to Versailles. They had marched shouting “bread”, and had demanded to see the king. Although, the anger was mostly directed towards Marie Antoinette. She was under attack for being frivolous and extravagant. The Fish Ladies had killed many guards, yet Marie had escaped with Louis to Paris.

While escaping from Paris to Austria, they were caught in the city of Varennes. A guard had recognized him, and brought him in. King Louis had been convicted of conspiracy from foreign powers. Marie, had been charged with aiding the enemy and inciting civil war. The consequence, was death by guillotine for them both. The death of these rulers was the cause of a brand new society, or so the people had thought. Napoleon comes to power, to take the place of King Louis.

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