businessmen, professionals, and artisans, who all had
demands for greater power, saw these developments as
evidence of their increasing clout. In the National Assembly,
they therefore demanded even more say in the
proceedings and greater rights in general. Their support in
the streets all over the country by citizens emboldened by
these developments led to the reconstitution of the
Assembly as the National Constituent Assembly on July 9.
Meanwhile, the mood in the country, and especially in
Paris, was becoming more radical. In reaction, the
conservative circles around Louis XVI persuaded him to
sack Necker, the reformist finance minister. This led to
further radicalization in the streets. The outcome was the
famous storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. From this
point onward, the revolution started in earnest. Necker was
reinstated, and the revolutionary Marquis de Lafayette was
put in charge of the National Guard of Paris.
Even more remarkable than the storming of the Bastille
were the dynamics of the National Constituent Assembly,
which on August 4, 1789, with its newfound confidence,
passed the new constitution, abolishing feudalism and the
special privileges of the First and Second Estates. But this
radicalization led to fractionalization within the Assembly,
since there were many conflicting views about the shape
that society should take. The first step was the formation of
local clubs, most notably the radical Jacobin Club, which
would later take control of the revolution. At the same time,
the nobles were fleeing the country in great numbers—the
so-called émigrés. Many were also encouraging the king to
break with the Assembly and take action, either by himself
or with the help of foreign powers, such as Austria, the
native country of Queen Marie Antoinette and where most
of the émigrés had fled. As many in the streets started to
see an imminent threat against the achievements of the
revolution over the past two years, radicalization gathered
pace. The National Constituent Assembly passed the final
version of the constitution on September 29, 1791, turning
France into a constitutional monarchy, with equality of rights
for all men, no feudal obligations or dues, and an end to all
trading restrictions imposed by guilds. France was still a
monarchy, but the king now had little role and, in fact, not
even his freedom.