1789: The French Revolution And The American Revolution

Pre-phase In 1789, France was in a huge trouble with the lack of money. The government spend more money than it takes in; it is also known as deficit spending. The king of France, Louis XIV’s deficit spending left France in dept. Then, the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution came in, caused France in an even bigger trouble. Finally, Louis XVI rose in throne, and he chose Jacques Necker as his advisor. Necker had made some good advice for Louis XVI, until he enforced taxation on the First and the Second Estates, which made the nobles mad and forced the king to get rid of him. In 1789, France was still using the old social system called the ancien regime. In this system, the France was divided into three social sections. The highest
The second section or the Second Estates was made of rich people. The lowest, or the Third Estates was made of the middle class, bourgeoisie, and rest of the people. The financial troubles forced Louis XVI to summon the Estates-General. The Estates-General was a group formed by representatives from all three estates. The three estates listed the problems that they were hoping to fix in the notebooks called cahiers. Later in May 1789, the representatives from the Third Estates were mad because the voting system was not fair and they were always outvoted by the First and Second Estates. So, in June 1789, the Third Estates formed the National Assembly and took the Tennis Court Oath, which declared to never separate and to do anything to get a fair constitution. On July 14, 1789, more than 800 Parisians marched in outside of the Bastille, a prison at Paris, and requested weapon. The commander opened fire which triggered a battle that led to many
Rumors about soldiers attacking villages and taking their crops created the “Great Fear.” As France struggles with chaos, many different groups of protesters, called factions, emerged and fought for power. Ordinary people followed Marquis de Lafayette, a hero who allied with George Washington in the American Revolution. Lafayette was in charged of the National Guard formed by middle-class soldiers. Paris Commune, a revolutionary group, replaced the royal government and prompted protests to end the monarchy. To solve the problems, the National Assembly held an all night meeting on August 4. As a result of the meeting, feudalism was abolished and the Assembly announced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which stated all man born equal. However, Olympe de Gouges, a journalist, argued that the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen did not protect women’s rights. Therefore, in her Declaration of Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, she argued for the right for women to express their ideas in the public. Marie Antoinette, an Austrian-born queen angered many people because she spend too much money for her own luxuries instead helping to feed people who were dying of hunger. As a result, Antoinette triggered a crowd of women marching from Parish to Versailles and forced the king and his family to return to Parish. To pay of the debt in the government