Causes
•French Society was based on inequality
•Social Conditions
•Enlightenment ideas
•The near collapse of the French Budget
.
A new order emerged based on: individual rights, representative institutions and a concept of loyalty to the nation
The bourgeoisie (middle class of the 3rd state), shared goals with nobility:
•Upset with a monarchy system
•Drawn to the new political ideas of The Enlightenment.
The French King and his ministers spend enormous sums of money on wars and court luxuries. They spend a lot helping the American colonists against Britain, when the budget got into total crisis.
The National Assembly
Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates- General at Versailles
−1st and 2nd estate .- about 300 representatives
−3rd estate.- almost 600 representatives
3rd estate declared that it was the National Assembly and would draft a Constituion. They moved to a tennis court “The Tennis Court Oath”.
900 Parisians stormed the Bastille. Paris was abandoned to rebels. The king’s authority collapsed in Paris.
Peasant’s rebellions became part of the Great Fear.