How Do People's Rights Change During The French Revolution

King Louis XVI was the absolute king of France, and his wife Marie Antoinette lived in luxury in their palace of Versailles, while the people of France lived in extreme poverty. In 1789 he decided to call the Estates-General, a gathering which includes three different estates, the clergy, the nobility and the third estate which consisted of poor people and the middle class. The King locked the Third Estate out of the Estates-General, so its members created the Tennis Court Oath, swearing that they would not stop until a new constitution had been agreed upon, in which caused a revolution. Shortly thereafter, the assembly released the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which established a limited, constitutional monarchy. However, peace soon ended and they established a new government known as the National Convention it first focused on declaring France a Republic. The convention tried and executed Louis XVI by beheading him, but this only made France’s enemies more angry. Therefore, Maximilien Robespierre and his followers took control. After, Robespierre was killed it then changed into a military dictatorship. During this revolution, people’s rights increased as the government changed to a constitutional
monarchy and then to a republic but finally declined again with a military dictatorship.
First off, there was a constitutional monarchy; a constitutional monarchy is when people have some more power and rights.
An example of this is in the Declaration of the Rights of Man were it states, “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights; social distinctions can be established only for the common benefit” (Source 1). This quote exemplifies the first stage of the French Revolution and illustrates the rights of people, in which the National Assembly wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Constitution of 1791. The main goal of the Declaration of the Rights of Man is that it gave men the right to vote for all other public offices. This relates back to the quote because it illustrates how men are free and have equal
rights.
Furthermore, a republic formed; a republic is when the supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, in other words, the people have most power. The first acts of the newly named National Convention were the abolition of the monarchy and the declaration of France as a republic in which resulted in the beheading of the King, which made France's enemies angry. Robespierre was growing increasingly paranoid about counterrevolutionary influences. Therefore, he embarked upon a Reign of Terror. For example, “The protection of government is only owed to peaceable citizens; and all citizens in the republic are republicans. The followers of the king are strangers, or rather enemies” (Source 2). This quote exemplifies Robespierre's views on how the republic government should be. The Reign of Terror was the second stage of the French Revolution in which the Committee killed many people in the name of defending the Revolution. After the French army finally won against foreign invaders, Robespierre was then executed while he no longer had an excuse of killing so many people as the republic came to an end.
After Robespierre was beheaded and the republic came to an end, a new form of government emerged known as the military dictatorship. A military dictatorship is where people rights fell into the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte. Although, Napoleon brought an end to France's financial problems, he was also very power hungry, this is displayed in the image “Sketch of Emperor Napoleon Crowning Himself” (Source 3). This image illustrates Napoleon being crowned Emperor by the Pope, but since Napoleon was so power hungry he took the crown and crowned himself Emperor. This is significant because it illustrates how France went back to having a power hungry ruler as they once had in the beginning, prior to the revolution.