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Preludes to the French Revolution -

Revolutions don't happen in a vacuum, and the French Revolution of 1789 was no exception. Long before the storming of the Bastille or the beheading of King Louis XVI, numerous factors were pushing the lower classes closer and closer to revolt.

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Overfunding of American independence -

Finances, for a multitude of reasons, were extremely strained during the last years of the French monarchy. One unpopular expense was France's financial and military support of the American War of Independence. While the peasant class of France was starving, the crown sent 1.3 billion livres and 12,000 French troops to support the American war effort against England.

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Unrestrained spending by the ruling class -

As if that weren't enough, what little money the noble classes did have left after their contributions to the war in the Americas was spent on the lavish and luxurious lifestyles of the crown and the nobility, who were seen by the peasant class as growing rapidly out of touch with the reality of the country.

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Food shortages -

In stark contrast to the decadent parties and opulent feasts enjoyed by the nobility, the peasant class, which made up 80% of France's population, was in the midst of a string of poor harvest seasons, leaving almost every essential food product in a severe shortage.

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A broken social system -

As was obvious to the lower classes of France and many of its neighbors, the "estate system" on which the French government was based on, and had been since the Middle Ages, was broken, outdated, and long overdue for an upheaval. The Ancien Régime, as it's referred to, consisted of only three main classes: the massive peasant class on the bottom, the nobility in the middle, and the clergy at the spiritual top of the pyramid. What's more, only the peasant class was subject to taxation. The absolute monarchs were considered to exist outside of the class system entirely.

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The Enlightenment -

By the end of the 19th century, the ideas of thinkers like Rousseau, Voltaire, and other icons of the Age of Enlightenment had permeated the collective consciousness of French society. The merchants and artisans of the peasant classes were quickly growing hungry for these newfound principles of personal happiness and civil liberties.

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Marie Antoinette -

The Austrian-born Marie Antoinette had married into French royalty through her marriage to Louis XVI. As her husband was a soft-spoken king with no great social presence, it was Marie Antoinette who became the face of the enemy for the revolutionaries.

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Marie Antoinette -

Stories of Marie Antoinette's frequent and decadent parties spread like wildfire throughout France, and many blamed her for the country's dire economic situation. She was viewed as greedy, vapid, and out of touch, earning her the nickname "Madame Deficit."

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The storming of the Bastille -

Finally, all of the resentment and unrest that had been fomenting in the lower classes came to a boiling point on July 14, 1789, when hordes of revolutionaries stormed the massive stone Bastille prison in hopes of raiding its reserves of gunpowder. The revolutionaries easily overtook the prison, freed the prisoners, and rang in the revolution.

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The storming of Versailles -

Now properly armed, the people began their march to the Palace of Versailles, the residence of the royal family, who were at this time still ignorant of the extent to which their kingdom had fallen. The revolutionaries took the royal family back to Paris to be put on trial.

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The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen -

With the monarchy effectively overthrown, it was time for the revolutionaries to put in place the republic they had dreamt of. Following in the footsteps of the Americans, the leaders of the revolution wrote the new law of the land, called the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. The clauses of the revolutionary declaration were heavily influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the American Bill of Rights.

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Nobility in exile -

As word of the king and queen's arrest spread, members of the nobility all around France began to flee the country in droves. Those who stayed had their lands expropriated and their titles removed. Even after being rebranded as average citizens, many members of the former nobility were killed by resentful rioters.

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The infamous guillotine -

The guillotine that has become a timeless symbol of the French Revolution was quickly put to use. Most famously used to behead both Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the guillotine became the standard tool of capital punishment during the revolution and beyond.

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The trials of the king and queen -

It took some time for the new revolutionary courts to decide what to do with the former king and queen, but after some deliberation, they were both charged with high treason and sentenced to death.

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Off with their heads! -

Louis XVI was beheaded in January 1793, and Marie Antoinette met the same fate in October of the same year. Both executions were public events held in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

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Pont de la Concorde -

After the Bastille was reduced to rubble in 1789, many of its stones were used to build the Pont de la Concorde bridge in 1791 that led to the National Assembly.

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The Terror -

With the former monarchs dead, a new phase of the revolution started, known in history books as le Terreur, or the Reign of Terror. During this time, which arguably lasted from 1791 to 1794, numerous warring factions of royalists and revolutionaries laid waste to France. An estimated 25,000 people were killed during the Reign of Terror.

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Notable players: Marquis de Lafayette -

While in the newly formed United States Marquis de Lafayette was considered a revolutionary hero, he played a much different role in his home country of France. During the French Revolution, Lafayette was a staunch royalist, and became leader of the Royal National Guard.

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Notable players: Jean-Paul Marat -

Even within the revolutionary camp, disagreements and rivalries ran rampant. One of the most prominent voices of the revolution, Jean-Paul Marat, who was seen by many as an extremist for his seemingly unconditional support for the street killings and massacres that occurred during the Reign of Terror, was murdered in his bath in 1793 by fellow revolutionary Charlotte Corday, who believed Marat had taken the violence too far.

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Notable players: Maximilien Robespierre -

Another primary leader of the revolution and ally of Jean-Paul Marat, Maximilien Robespierre also began to be seen as too extreme for his fellow revolutionaries. Robespierre voted for the execution of more than 17,000 individuals during the revolution, causing him to become widely disdained and untrusted. Finally, in 1794, he himself was deemed an enemy of the revolution, and was sent to the guillotine.

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Who is Marianne? -

A new symbol of France also developed out of the revolution, after the royal fleur-de-lis naturally went out of style. What arose was Marianne, the goddess of liberty, a symbol of resistance against the monarchy, who can be found in the faces of countless statues around France and on old franc coins.

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The new colors of France -

The blue, white, and red flag that we know today was also a product of the revolution. The National Guard in Paris, known as the Paris militia, many of whom stormed the Bastille along with the revolutionaries, wore badges of blue and red, representing the traditional saints of France, Saint Denis and Saint Martin. The color white was added because it was seen as the ancient color of France.

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A short-lived victory -

The revolution was shaky from the start, but seemed to be moving in the right direction. However, the First Republic of France would fall to totalitarianism once more only 10 years after the storming of the Bastille.

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The rise of Napoleon -

Napoleon Bonaparte was, for a large portion of his career, a champion of the revolution. He quickly climbed the ranks of the revolutionary army after quelling numerous royalist uprisings and proving his loyalty to the revolution.

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Napoleon's coup d'état -

By the time Napoleon became commander of the French army, however, it seems his loyalties had shifted. In 1799, Napoleon successfully staged a coup d'état to seize total power over France, and crowned himself the first Emperor of France five years later.

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The Napoleonic Wars -

As the premier military and political leader of what was now called the French Empire, Napoleon embarked on a number of campaigns against Britain, Russia, and others, which changed the balances of power in Europe in ways that are still felt in the 21st century.

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Napoleon's exile -

After more than a decade of fighting, Napoleon finally realized he had been bested by the numerous foreign coalitions that had formed to put a stop to his imperial ambitions. Fleeing back to Paris after the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon realized the people of France had once again turned against their absolute leader.

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Napoleon's exile -

Once again Napoleon attempted to flee, but was caught by the British, who exiled him to the isolated island of Saint Helena, where he would spend the rest of his days in obscurity until his death in 1821.

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Revolution after revolution -

After Napoleon's defeat, the victorious foreign coalitions reinstated the French monarchy in 1815. In 1830, the people would revolt again, in the July Revolution. A vicious, destructive cycle of revolutions, coups, and invasions would continue to occur throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, until the republic model finally stuck in the wake of World War II.

Sources: (Snippets of Paris) (History)

See also: Revolutions and rebellions that shaped world history

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