Introduction

Hello dear readers,

My name is Jean Baguette and today we are going to learn about an amazing series of events that brought France to stop being a Monarchy and becoming a Republic. For a while, anyways...

If you do not know what a Monarchy or a Republic mean, check the last page of this book. I promise, everything is explained there!

Let us begin in the beginning in a country named France in the 1770s. During that time, the King was the ruler of France and everyone had to obey his laws. 

It was the time of the Old Regime - all people were divided into 3 large classes, called Estates.

The 1st Estate consisted of the Church's people - priests, officials and so on - Cleregy. 

The 2nd Estate included nobles.

The 3rd Estate was all the other people. 

The first two Estates were the privileged ones - they owned lots of land in France (see the drawing I made for you) and paid little taxes (money to the king of France).

The third estate payed a lot of taxes and also payed money to the other 2 estates. Unfair, right? Sometimes, people from this estate didn't even have what to eat because the other estates took everything from them...

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The King Louis XVI still needed money. So he decided to take more taxes from the second Estate. But why would they want to pay? So they asked for a Meeting of the Estates-General, a meeting of leaders of all three estates to discuss his proposition.  The meeting had taken place in May 5th, 1789 at Versailles. 

Versailles is a royal (king's) estate a few hours ride from Paris.

Each Estate was supposed to get only 1 voice, so the largest 3rd Estate was not getting the fair vote. Think that a class of 97 kids would get only one movie ticket.

The 3rd Estate delegates/leaders didn't want to put up with this. Why would they? 

Instead, they wanted to make changes to government so that each delegate (leader) would have a vote. They named themselves The National Assembly and tried to pass laws that made them pay less and have more rights. 

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The king did not like the idea of giving more voice to the common people (3rd Estate). And they were in his home (Versailles). The other Estates did not like it either. 

So, by the 3rd day of the meetings of the Assembly, the king locked them out of the meeting room.

Angry, the delegates of the 3rd Estate broke into one of the indoor tennis courts. And pledged to stay there until they write a new set of laws (a constitution) for France. This became known as The Tennis Court Oath!

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The oath made King Louis angry and scared and he put Swiss guards around Versaille. 

People of Paris heard about it and rumors said that foreign army is to invade Paris or that the King wanted to dismiss the Assembly. People were afraid and angry and decided to fight. They looked for weapons and invaded a big Parisian prison in search for arms and gunpowder. The Storming of The Bastile was an important event because it was a well guarded prison. It symbolized Revolution. The day it happened, July 14th, is still celebrated as the French independence day.

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In 1700-1800, there was no telephone. News were confusing and rumors ruled. The Great fear was in France - people were told that nobles were hiring armies to outrun simple people (peasants). So simple people fought back and raided houses of nobles (Manors). There was little food and bread and the prices for bread skyrose. In October 1789, thousands of angery armed women marched from Paris to Versailles (The March on Versallies) and demanded from the National Assmebly to provide bread and from the King to return to Paris. They even killed some guards. King agreed and his family returned to Paris. 

People from all Estates were afraid, not just the 3rd one. Bands of peasants were raiding nobles and clergy (Church's people). People from the 1st and the 2nd Estates joined the National Assembly. 

In 1789, the Assembly declared that there are no more Estates and that all people are equal in rights and are born free and remain free. Except for women, who did not have the same rights as men. 

The Old Regime was dead and France moved towards Democracy and created Republic (check the glossary!!!)

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The time of The Little Monarchy came: The National Assembly argued a lot and then came up with a set of new rules approved by the King. The King still had some power but there was another ruling body, called Legislative Assembly.

But it was still not Democracy. Some people, called Conservatives, wanted to keep the King with limited rights. Others wanted some more changes, but not too many. These were called Moderates. Finally, there were people who wanted to change everything and did not want King at all, called Radicals.

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War on France and in France

Other Kings didn't want whatever happened to France will happen to them. Two and then more countries declared war on France. Inside France some people were not happy with what was happening. Nobles and other people who escaped France wanted the old France back. And the Radicals feared to loose the Republic. Jacobins who were Radicals took control and trailed and executed the king and other less radical people. 

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