Essay On The Cause And Effects Of The Revolutionary War

The Revolutionary war had many causes and effects that led to the French Revolution. The Storming of the Bastille, the Reign of Terror, and the passing of the Declaration of Rights of Man, where all key components of the french revolution the biggest being the execution of the king and queen. These important historical sites, and documents all pushed towards the French Revolution. It caused tensions from the American Revolution, The economic crisis in france pushed towards social injustices towards lower,middle, and higher classes throughout france.
The Storming of the Bastille was on July 14th of 1789. The war General felt like something was going to happen so he prepared before, and ordered his men to bring 250 barrels of gunpowder to the bastille in order to be ready for anything that may happen so that they would be ready for an invasion. In the morning of
July 14th, The war General’s army was armed with swords, muskets, and various other hand made weapons. But as more and more persians, started to invade on the Bastille, The General raised a white flag to surrender the bastille. Him and his men were taken under arrest. All of the bastilles gunpowder and weapons were seized and taken under control by the partisans. The General was tried for his actions by a council and got sentenced with nothing because, he got dragged out into the mob and and got murdered by the partisans. The surrenderment of the bastille resulted in the end of the ancient regime.
The Reign of Terror lasted from 1793 to 1794 and was the most violent era in the revolution.
“Government by terror was imposed in response to two perceived dangers : public panic and popular violence provoked by food shortages and rising prices”(Hanson 1). The law of suspects was passed so committee members could arrest “Suspects” or anyone against the revolution for treasonable activities. It was also a way to get rid of clergymen, nobles, and people who defended the old regime. Across france anyone suspected of fighting against the revolution was charged with treason and executed by the guillotine. In March 1794 Robespierre began ruling france as a dictator, he then striped rights away from people suspected of fighting against the revolution. “Suspects no longer had the right to a lawyer, and death was the only possible penalty for those found guilty”(Robespierre, Maximilien). In only a couple weeks between June 12 and July 28 1794, thirteen hundred people were executed. Robespierre was later suspected of tyranny, he was arrested and him and his twenty one associates were all found guilty and put to
death.
The Declaration of the Rights Of Man was a Preamble to the French Constitution. The Document stated that all men born are free and equal in rights. Which were the rights of one’s Private Property, and the resistance of the oppression of the law. Most of the men that were in the beginning stages of creating the document, they were all French Enlightenment thinkers Like Montesquieu.
King Louis XVI took the throne in 1774, He was ill prepared and faced with a big financial problem left from the previous king. In an attempt to fix the financial problems Louis assembled a national assembly that represented the three estates, the nobles, the clergy, and the commons. The commons declared themselves the National Assembly which started the french revolution. When the hostility towards the king and queen beame to dangerous they decided to escape to Austria. The king and queen dressed up as peasants and tried to make there escape but were caught in Varennes and carried back to Paris. The king and queen were arrested and imprisoned in August 1792. King Louis’s plans with Austria to fight against the revolution were quickly found out and king louis was put on trial for treason and executed by the guillotine. Marie - Antoinette was sent to the guillotine nine months after him.
The Storming of the Bastille, the Reign of Terror, and the passing of the Declaration of Rights of Man, where all key components of the french revolution But the biggest was the execution of the king and queen. Although the storming of the Bastille ignited the revolution and was the start of removing the monarchy, the execution of the royal couple was a symbol of finalizing the decision to build a new government with no money or leader. The Reign of Terror was the most violent and deadly component of the french revolution but not the most important. The Reign of Terror used fear to manipulate people into accepting the revolution rather than letting people express their opinions on the matter, further developing the fear so that terror became the revolution. The execution is a bigger component than the Reign of terror because the people chose a new form of government and were not manipulated into choosing it. King Louis’s execution was also the starting point of Robespierre taking control of the government and ruling as a dictator. The Declaration of Rights of man did grant everyone the same rights and freedom but did not have much of an effect on the views of the upper class. The queen was a heavy alcoholic and had a very bad gambling problem which, really did not correlate to the financial state of france but did upset the people. She was never around for anything and she didn’t try to learn the language of the country she ruled or try to sway the people's views on her. All of the citizens hated her more than anything which caused her death. She also encouraged her husband (the king) to resist against monarchy responsibilities. The more overpowered reason they were condemned to an execution was because they were both not fit to rule a country and they managed to make everyone to hate them. They rejected all thoughts of any form of constitutional monarchies and that truly enraged the citizens. When things got to tough for them to handle they tried to flee to Austria, They Were both truly foolish and very arrogant in there political views, The higher class liked them because they had money and did not have to rely on the king and queen for funds or food, Through all of the things that happened in the French Revolution. The execution of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI blows everything out of the water with coming to what was most important. If they were not executed france would be resembling a starving third-world country because they were both completely foolish leaders. They would have kept France in a Theocracy and would put France straight to the bottom and ruin them. The king and queen already horrible leaders were put in a bad situation because everyone in france was depending on the king to fix the economy and there living standards. If the King and Queen did not get executed then France would be in a much worse state, and it would take the next king and queen a long time to get out of the rut that the royal couple would have put on France if they did not get executed. The Execution of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette saved France, therefore it is the biggest event in the french revolution.