French Revolution

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The National Assembly

As most who represented the Third Estate in parliament was educated citizens, they decided that they would no longer be ruled by king and nobility. They wanted that voting would take place in an equitable manner, that it would change the voting rules. But the king could not really agree with. It was he who decided, and it would not even come to ask to change or waive the order in which the rulers of society had followed for several hundred years. But then, in June 1789, decided solstice to form their own parliament. They refused any longer to be part of the king's parliament and together with some nobles and priests who had chosen to change sides, they went their own way. Hence the name "National Assembly" as they called themselves. But when they would gather for the first time June 27, 1789 in polling premises as they noticed his annoyance that the gates were locked. Instead got it together in an old local who had been an institution for racquet game called Bollhuset. Where everyone swore an oath pledging that it would not be separated until the king agreed to the new basic laws and rules to them was fair and would govern France. This oath was later checked "Oath" and has become a famous event in history.

The country was at that time very worried and so did the National Assembly wanted to accomplish as much work as possible in a short time. Some out of the things that they managed to change was that the class privileges were abolished (the nobility lost their rights and were forced to pay taxes), all noble titles disappeared (all were called citizens), the church became the state's ownership, the army was dissolved and replaced by the National Guard (which was the country's military strength) and a new constitution written.

People Rebellion

The rumors began to spread that the Third Estate had rebelled in the parliament and the people of Paris cheered. But one weighty yet not quite believe that the king would only relinquish all power to the people so easily. It was indeed so, the king had already sent troops to Paris to keep track of the people and ensure that there was no more rebellion. But it did not succeed so well for the people did everything in their power to support the National Assembly. Workers, peasants and craftsmen gathered in the streets and resisted. But they needed weapons, so they gathered a crowd and stormed the Bastille, an old royal fortress that was in the center of Paris. They killed the commander of the fortress, and cut off his head, which they then impaled on a spear and proudly carried through the streets. King was after this scared and withdrew their troops. He began to realize that the people had taken over power. This incident is now called "Storming of the Bastille 'and is also a very famous event. But it's really a bit strange, because it was not really important for the course of the revolution or success.

The women reverses the

Now the new constitutions written and for the first time in a European country said that all people were equal and had the same rights. But with that said one male. That all men were equal and had the same rights. Women were not included, although even they had been with during the uprisings. The men did not even think to give women the right to eg vote, elected politicians, to decide over their own money and property or cause to educate themselves. But for the women's struggle for equality, the revolution was important. Women participated in the uprisings and revolutions, formed congregations and associations for women's rights, and wrote and said what they thought. They were fighting for their own right to vote. But after a few years, when they began to be seen and heard more banned the forming clubs and their suffrage disappeared altogether.

More wars and uprisings

The king had finally shed most of its power and the middle class had written new constitutions. The king and his family lived is now the center of Paris after the women train in Versailles had marched there and picked them up. They believed that the king could see everything from a different perspective and understand better if he got to see firsthand how people really lived and starved. While the middle class got more and more power was the difference for ordinary poor people before the revolution and after getting smaller. It was still only the rich, though now the MPs who got to vote. Now, most people thought that the revolution came to an end. But it was not, because there were still people who wanted King to regain power. In 1792 France was attacked by Austria who wanted to crush the revolution. Because there was not much left of the French armies, they could not defend themselves and fear spread. What would they do? Rebellious mobs began attacking and accusing people of being revolutionized opponent. They killed people here and there, and king imprisoned. One had to introduce universal suffrage. All men now had to vote, whether you were rich or poor. Eventually, it also had to overthrow the king and it was more than anyone had even dreamed of when the whole revolution began.

Reign of Terror

Reign of Terror began with an attempt to defeat the foreign troops that had begun to attack the country. Power had been taken over by men who once again wanted to change society, and the more this time. But first they had to get more soldiers. The solution to this was to introduce conscription, which meant that all the men were forced to serve in the army. In this way, it swiftly large forces could defeat foreign enemies. The motto of the new regime was that there would be no difference between rich and poor. Everything would be equal. The leader of the rulers was a man to Robespierre, who later turned out to be a dictator. He felt that he had the right to execute people who were not of the same opinion as him. He thought, for example, that the king, Louis XVI tried to overthrow the revolution and was therefore executed immediately. 40,000 other people suffered the same fate during this period called the Terror. But after a while, with much blood and executions people began to disagree and Robespierre was finally killed by his own followers.

The power taken back

After the reign of terror was over, the middle class took power back. Only those who were rich had to be involved and decide to create a rule. Many of the rules and laws that had been started using removed and went back to the old customs with injustice. Universal suffrage had been introduced for example, took away and again it was