French Revolution

Throughout history there are significant events that define a century. In the 18th century that event was the French Revolution. “The French Revolution was the most important event in western civilization” said many university professors. The French Revolution sparked a power for the common person to obtain.

The French Revolution started basically when the French people got a king as a ruler. People were always wanting to change society through political action. Louis Cape was next in line for the thrown. Louis Cape marries Marie Antoinette to unite Austria and France. Louis was fifteen years old and Marie was fourteen years old when they got married. The young and beautiful Marie could not get the attention of her new husband Louis Cape.

Louis XV involved France into the Seven Years War. With war came great poverty to the French people. Louis XV dies of smallpox making Louis Cape, King Louis XVI. When the new king went to Paris for his coronation, he was meet by a young college student reading Latin to him named Maximillian Robespierre.

The problem France had was that there were the rich and the poor in France no middle class. Marie Antoinette lived lavishly as the country was in prosperity. This angered the people of France especially when France had to endure the great famine. On top of the taxes that only the poor people had to pay, winter came early to end the harvest. The boiling point for the people of France was when bread prices rose. The French eventually rebel against the government.

Jacques Necker was hired by King Louis XVI to finance the money in France. The French government is represented by estates. The first and second estate was made up of clergy and the nobility, but that consist of only three percent of the country’s population. The third estate consist of everyone else in the government, but that estate takes up ninety-seven percent of the country’s population. Naturally the first and second estate would vote together to out vote the third estate two to one. Maximillian Robespierre wants to make the estates’ power based on the population the estate represents. Louis XVI locks the third estate out of the estates general. The Tennis Court Oath was devised by the third estate vowing to oppose the king and form the National Assembly.

The king of France, Louis XVI, tries to over throw the National Assembly by sending an army to