The French RevolutionBy: Keona Hughes and Romanov Saint

Fort

The Three Estates The people of France were divided into three groups: The clergy, had around 130,000 people that were immune from tax and

frequently drawn from noble families. People of The First Estate were all part of the Catholic Church, the only official religion in France.

The nobility, was made up of around 120,000 people. This estate formed from people born into noble families. Certain highly sought after government offices also conferred noble status. Nobles were privileged, didn't work, had special courts and tax exemptions, owned the leading positions in court and society and were even allowed a different, quicker, method of execution. Although some were enormously rich many were no better off than the lowest of the French middle classes.

Everyone not in the first or second estate were in the third; over 99% of France formed the bourgeois. This includes doctors and lawyers, shopkeepers, the urban poor, wealthy merchants whose wealth rivaled that of the nobility, and peasants who worked the land.

http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/thefrenchrevolution/a/hfr1.htm http://www.historywiz.com/oldregime.htm

Tennis Court Oath

The Tennis Court Oath was a result of the growing discontent of the Third Estate in France in the face of King Louis XVI's desire to hold on to the country's history of absolute government. This oath was an assertion that sovereignty of the people did not reside in the King, but in the people themselves and their representatives. It was the first assertion of revolutionary authority by the Third Estate and it united virtually all its members to common action. It's success can be seen in the fact that a week later Louis XVI called for a meeting of the Estates General for the purpose of writing a constitution.

http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/WestEurope/TennisCourt.html

The Storming of the Bastille

The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, the capital and largest city in France, on the 14th of July, 1789.

The Bastille was a fortress-prison in Paris, known formally as Bastille Saint-Antoine—Number 232, Rue Saint-Antoine—best known today because of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, which along with the Tennis Court Oath is considered the beginning of the French Revolution. Its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution.

In international relations, a flashpoint is an area or dispute that has a strong possibility of developing into a war. The French Revolution was a period of radical social and political upheaval in French and European history. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years.

The Fête de la Fédération of the 14 July 1790 was a huge feast and official event to celebrate the establishment of the short-lived constitutional monarchy in France and what people of the time considered to be the happy conclusion of the French Revolution.

Bastille Day is the French national holiday which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet in English.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Storming_of_the_Bastille

The Great Fear

Great Fear, French Grande Peur, (1789) in the French Revolution, was a period of panic and riot by peasants and other people who had heard of an “aristocratic conspiracy” by the king and the plan to overthrow the Third Estate. The gathering of troops around Paris provoked insurrection, and on July 14 the Parisian rabble seized the Bastille. In the provinces the peasants rose against their lords, attacking and destroying feudal documents. To put the peasants in order, the National Constituent Assembly introduced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/243266/Great-Fear

King and Queen

In 1789 a mob descended on the palace at Versailles and demanded the royal family move to the Tuilerie palace inside Paris. The King and Queen became virtual prisoners. Antoinette sought aid from other European rulers including her brother, the Austrian Emperor, and her sister, Queen of Naples. After a failed attempt to flee Paris in 1791 Antoinette continued to seek aid from abroad. When Austria and Prussia declared war on France, she was accused of passing military secrets to the enemy. On August 10, 1792 the royal family was arrested on suspicion of treason and imprisoned. On January 21, 1793 King Louis XVI was convicted and executed on the guillotine. Antoinette followed her husband to the guillotine on October 16, 1793. Antoinette was executed without proof of the crimes for which she was accused. She was only 37 years old.

http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/95nov/antoinette.html

Napoleon’s Downfall