Why do I have to suffer while the First and Second Estate live in luxury and stay tax-free.
The Tennis Court Oath
Let us decide, not to separate and to reassemble wherever necessary, until the Constitution of the kingdom is established
How do we deal with the First and Second Estates?
Storming of the Bastille
The Third Estate is raiding the Bastille for gunpowder
The King's army is protecting the Bastille.
Before the French Revolution, France was governed by an absolute monarchy(Louis XVI) that didn't care about the people. Society was structured around feudalism. They were spilt into 3 estates known as the First Estate(clergy), the Second Estate(nobles), and the Third Estate(townspeople/commoners). The majority of the population in France were peasants who worked on farms owned by nobles. The peasants paid high taxes and had minimal rights.
Reign of Terror
The Third Estate had asked for equal rights of the Second and First Estate. But they were locked out of their usual meeting hall at Versailles on June 20, which made them think that the king was forcing them to disband so they moved to a nearby tennis court. There they took an oath never to separate until a written constitution had been established for France. King Louis XVI relented and on June 27 ordered the clergy and the nobility to join with the Third Estate in the National Assembly. The Tennis Court Oath was a declaration that authority came from the nation’s people and not from the monarchy.
Napoleon's Conquests
On July 14th, 1789, about 1000 men of the Third Estate headed toward the Bastille Prison. After tension started to arise in Paris, it was rumored that King Louis sent troops to Paris, and people feared that there would be a conflict. Bernard-René Jordan de Launay (the military governor of the Bastille) feared that his fortress would be a target for the revolutionaries and he was sent 250 barrels of gunpowder. This was 2 days before the mob arrived. The mob stormed the Bastille, in search of large quantities of arms and ammunition that were stored in the fortress. They also hoped to free prisoners at the Bastille, as it was a fortress where prisoners were held. This marked the first day of the French Revolution.
The Reign of Terror is when the public started becoming violent. The Storming of the Bastille helped influence the start of the Reign of Terror. The Reign of Terror started when King Louis XVI was executed by radicals. The leader Robespierre thought it was his job to continue the Revolution. The Jacobins started killing innocent people and the terror that the Jacobins caused was getting worse and innocent blood was shed. The people grew tired of getting killed and they decided to execute Robespierre.
That's what you get for disagreeing with me!
In 1799, he began fighting a series of battles. One of the most significant battles was the great battle of Jena in 1805. Napoleon and his army took control of Italy, Poland, Prussia, Belgium, and Holland. He brought order to France and introduced many ideas of the French revolution to the government.