![]() ![]() French historian Georges Lefebvre would describe this as "the death certificate of the old order." The Great Fear is estimated to have ended about three weeks after the Storming of the Bastille on August 4, when the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism, a 10% church tithe, and other special privileges. The Great Fear expedited the emigration of nobles leaving the country for fear of their lives. Known as "The Great Fear," peasants mobilized themselves in both self-defense against the bourgeois and for outright raids against their châteaux and other upper-class holdings. Prise de la Bastile (Storming of the Bastile) by Jean-Pierre Houël, 1789 The Great Fear and The Rights of Manĭespite efforts by King Louis XVI to appeal to the rioters and acknowledge their sovereignty, civil authority rapidly fell apart. The Bastille's storming is considered the start of the French Revolution and is now considered a public holiday. Similarly, the prévôt des marchands (roughly a term for the city's mayor) was butchered by the rioters. On July 14, 1789, the rioters raided the Bastille fortress, which was perceived as a symbol of royal power, and Governor Marquis Bernard-René de Launay, despite a mutual ceasefire, was beaten, stabbed, and decapitated, with his head impaled on a pike and paraded around the city. When Necker, who was disliked by the French court for manipulating public opinion, was fired on July 11 for publishing an inaccurate and publicized account of the government's debts, the citizens went into open rebellion. Meanwhile, the military gathered around Paris and Versailles with plans to forcefully disassemble the Assembly if necessary.Īs the Assembly continued their debates, the citizens of Paris grew worried about an "aristocratic coup" facilitated by the encroaching military, which was primarily made up of foreign mercenaries. Louis XVI grudgingly acknowledged the National Assembly on June 27. Over the next week, a good amount of clergy and some nobles would join into the Assembly. There, they swore the Tennis Court Oath, where they would not separate until they got France a new constitution. Three days later, when royal officials locked the Assembly deputies out of their meeting hall, the Assembly instead met at the king's indoor tennis court. On June 17, with talks at the Estates-General stalling, the Third Estate declared itself the National Constituent Assembly, an assembly of "the People." They invited the other Estates to join them but made it apparent that they would proceed without them if necessary. The National Assembly and the Storming of the Bastille By the time the Estates-General met in Versailles, the voting issue completely eclipsed the meeting's original purpose. Pamphlets were handed out that argued the importance of the Third Estate and demanding that voting be based by head, not status. Because the clergy was primarily made of nobles, the two Estates could easily band together on issues. The ~600 men of the Third Estate represented about 95% of the country's population, yet the other two Estates could outvote them. This meeting of the three estates (clergy, nobility, and lower/middle class respectively) marked the first meeting of the estates since 1614.Ī lot had changed since 1614, including France's demographics. ![]() In an attempt to stall an aristocratic revolt, Louis XVI reappointed finance minister Jacques Necker and announced that the Estates-General would meet May 5, 1789. Among the changes was a consistent land tax that included the nobility and clergy. In the fall of 1786, controller general of finances Charles Alexandre de Calonne proposed a financial reform package. On a more local front, the people of France were dealing with increased bread prices and two decades of droughts, bad harvests, and cattle diseases. This aggravated a financial crisis primarily started by costly involvements in the Seven Years War. ![]() King Louis XVI spent a good amount of the country's money on aiding America in the American Revolution. However, some of the biggest reasons were financial and economic ones. When it comes to exactly what caused the Revolution, a wide variety of causes are still debated. ![]()
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