The French Revolution was the most important political and social upheaval that took place in Europe in the 18th Century, and one of the most important in history. This sudden and violent disruption of the old political order changed the foundations of French society and government. The French Revolution was the triumph of the bourgeoisie over the Nobility and Clergy. Although most historians set either the meeting of the Estates General in May 1789, or the Storming of the Bastille, on July 14, 1789, as the beginning of the French Revolution, this great political turmoil really began on June 10, 1789, when the Third Estate decided to break away from the Estates General and form the National Assembly, which was completed on June 17, because it was the first act of open rebellion against the established order; the second act of rebellion against the King was the Tennis Court Oath, which took place on June 20, 1789, and in which the Third Estate members agreed not to separate until they had given France a constitution. The meeting of the Estates General was not the beginning of the Revolution, since it had been called by the King, following historical precedence. The French Revolution not only overthrew the absolute monarchy, but also put an end to the system of aristocratic, economic, and tax-exemption privileges which enjoyed both the Nobility and the Clergy, as the First Republic was established by the National Convention, led by Maximilien Robespierre. The Revolution ended in 1799, when Napoleon overthrew the Directory and established the Consulate.
Summary of the French Revolution
The economic situation in the winter of 1789 was catastrophic; unemployment and bad crops, aggravated by exceptionally extreme cold weather conditions, which caused the price of bread to rise three times, were undermining the morale of the people, who were already overburdened by an unfair system of tax collection; taxes were only paid by the Third Estate (bourgeoisie, craftmen, and farmers). The debt and the bad econcomic situation forced the King Louis XVI to call the Estates General, which had not met since 1614. It was composed of the First Estate, with 300 deputies representing the Clergy; the Second Estate, which also had 300 deputies that represented the Nobility; and the Third Estate, which had 600 deputies representing the bourgeoisie, the craftmen, and the peasants. After discussing reforms without results, the deputies of the Third Estate separated from the others on June 17, 1789, proclaiming the National Assembly. The King first opposed to it but circumstances forced him to accept it. And on July 9, 1789, with the agreement of Louis XVI, the deputies of the National Assembly formed the Constituent Assembly. For the time being, the monarchy continued to exist but not as an absolute monarchy, for the King’s devine powers had been trimmed by the mundaine lawyers and writers of the bourgeoisie, who in turned had been influenced by the Enlightment philosophers, the American Constitution, and British parliamentary system.
Nevertheless, the King Louis XVI vowed to avenge this humilation; on July 11, 1789, he called his troops back to Paris and dismissed his minister of finance Jacques Necker, who had adviced him to be moderate and who had published the account of the government’s debts, making it available to the public. Then the Parisians lost all patience and the crowd gathered in the Place Royale and marched toward the prison-fortress of the Bastille, which was attacked and stormed by the armed crowd on July 14, 1789. The prisoners were freed and the governor, de Launay, was decapitated. Louis XVI, moved by the violence, took Necker back and accepted the tricolored cockade. In August, the Constituent Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizens. In October, 1789, the Parisian women, armed with knives, forks, and scythes, marched to the palace of Versailles, demanding for bread, as the royal couple, Louis and Marie Antoinette, were forced to move to Paris.
The next few years were dominated by tensions between various left-wing deputies, such as the Jacobins, and a conservative monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms. In june, 1791, Louis and Marie Antoinette attempted unsuccessfully to flee Paris for Varennes. In October 1791, the Legistlative Assembly replaced the National Constituent Assembly, which governed france until September 1792, when, in the face of the advance of the allied armies of Austria, Holland, Prussia, and Sardinia, to crush the French Revolution, it was replaced by the National Convention, which proclaimed the Republic in September 1792. The King was brought to trial in December of 1792, and executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793. In January of 1793 the revolutionary government declared war on Britain.
After the execution of the King, the Committee of Public Safety was created in April 1793, along with the Revolutionary Tribunal. The left-wing Jacobins, led by Maximilien Robespierre, established a dictatorship, and, with the excuse of saving the Revolution from royalists and reactionaries, he and Saint-Just inaugurated the Reign of Terror period that began in September 1793 and lasted until the fall of Robespierre on July 27, 1794. During the Reign of Terror, the ruling faction ruthlessly exterminated all potential enemies, of whatever sex, age, or condition. The National Convention was replaced in October of 1795 with the Directory, which was replaced in turn, in 1799, by the Consulate. Napoleon Buonaparte became Emperor in May of 1804.
[...] Reign of Terror was the period of the French Revolution in which a huge number of people were executed by guillotine, from September 5, 1793, to July 27, [...]