French Revolution

In 1789, ninety-seven percent of the population of Europe was poor, starving and treated unequally. The King of the time, King Louis XVI (16th) did not listen to the people and take good care of them; he cared about the other three percent, the nobility. Thus, the poor rebelled and created a turning point in world history. King Louis had a very large role in the French Revolution. King Louis XVI came into power when he was very young. He was ill-prepared to be king and lacked the ability to make good decisions for his country and the determination to pull through with all of the policies. King Louis truly did want to help the people but he based his opinions on uneducated people. The people knew he was not prepared to be king and uneducated, but with every decision and move he made, his people liked him less and less. It started with his marriage. King Louis married Marie Antoinette, the duchess of Austria. Austria was much disliked in France. Not only was Marie from Austria, but she was blamed for not being able to produce and heir, though it was truly Louis’s fault. To celebrate the wedding of the two newlyweds, they held a party with a great deal of food, for a week, which put the country into even worse debt. At the party, were only nobles, the commoners continued on their lives, starving. Another season Louis was disliked was because he fired the finance worked because Louis thought he was paying too much attention to the commoners. For obvious reasons, this enraged the people! Maximillien Robespierre was a lawyer and politician. Robespierre was also in charge of the Public Safety Committee. The Public Safety Committee decided who was to be executed and who was not. When King Louis XVI came upon their discussion they did not know what to do. The people were unsure if a King could even be tried. As of 1791, the constitution said that he could only be dethroned. Louis could not be condemned without a trial, so the only other option was exile.