The French Revolution
Storyboard Text
- The Third Estate
- King Louis XVI
- Versailles
- The societal classes in French society were split up into three estates. The First, also known as the clergy, the Second, known as the Nobles, and the Third which was made up of mostly peasants. People in the third estate were very poor; they had low wage jobs and were heavily taxed, many didn't have a place to live or even enough food for themselves.
- Inflation and Starvation
- King Louis XVI (also known as the Sun King) was not a good leader for France. He thought the world revolved around him, and he was unfair to even the people of the First Estate. He greatly raised the taxes for the people of France without thinking of the lives of the people or the consequences this would cause. His unfair ruling was cause for the inequality in France, which eventually started the Revolution.
- The Tennis Court Oath
- Louis decided to move to an isolated and beautiful palace called Versailles. He lived there with his wife Marie Antoinette, the rest of the royal family, and many nobles. Essentially, him living away from Paris made him completely unaware of what was really going on with the French people, and how they were slowly starting to get fed up with the government.
- The March at Versailles
- Inflation was the increase in prices for food, especially bread. Bread was the main kind of food for the people, and with the new prices people simply couldn't afford to feed themselves or their families. This caused riots, fights, and stealing from businesses. The people of the third estate then formed the National Assembly to stand up to the king.
- After The National Assembly was formed, they were eventually kicked out of their meeting room by King Louis for disagreeing with him. They decided to meet in the royal tennis courts, and made an oath to keep meeting there until there was a change in government.
- Started by women from the marketplaces, a huge crowd of people decided to walk to Versailles to show the king that things were not ok with the way he was ruling France. They protested outside of the palace and demanded to speak with the King. A group of them spoke to the King privately, and Louis and his family had no choice but to return to Paris.
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