Talk:French Revolution
One of the most shocking of events included the decapitation of those who disagreed with the mean kings. one of the kings was king louis 16th — Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.244.50.11 (talk • contribs)
Different version change
I removed the following from the article, as Wikipedia only has one "current" revision of an article; perhaps this can be used to make the other article better?
France in the 1780’s was a rich country, one of the richest in the world at that time and was under the leadership of Louis XVI. The peasants and middle class people had more freedom than those of the same class in other countries but they were starting to feel the pressure of the Ancient Regime and absolute Monarchy which was still in place. This Regime meant that the King (in this case Louis XVI) had full control over the country and it’s people.
In 1789 France and Louis XVI were in trouble. The treasury was bankrupt after helping America in their revolution whilst drought and a harsh winter had created a severe shortage of food for the people. Peasants couldn’t live in the country anymore due to this crisis and so moved to Paris where it was getting overcrowded. Nobles and higher class people began to leave France leaving woman who were in the line of work of servicing these Nobles were out of work. Bread prices soared. Disease and hunger was even worse in the Cities. Louis XVI needed to raise money.
In the past the main way of raising money was to get taxes from the lower classes but Louis knew that this wasn’t possible as they had even less money than he. Louis decided to tax the middle class and the aristocrats but needed support from the states-general (a group which represented all the classes of people in France) because this was not the usual thing to do. The states-general worked by class i.e. the higher class had more weight of votes. However in the 1780’s the middle class were not happy with this as despite having more people they were constantly losing. They formed the idea that Louis XVI was against them.
On July 12th the people of Paris went on demonstrations to illustrate their anger at the finance minister, Jaques Necker’s dismissal. Police set up barriers and the people threw stones. The police began to use firearms and so the soldiers of Paris and the common people lotted all the gun shops. On 14th July 1789 the Middle Class started the French Revolution by storming the Bastille (where weapons and occasionally prisoners were held) for more gun powder. 80 000 people took part in the storm of the Bastille. People left in the country also played part in the start of the Revolution, they attacked tax offices (the source of much of their troubles) The middle class now had control of the entire country. They made the National Assembly which then imposed some changes to the law: • Property owned by the church was seized. • The highest ranks of the military were now open to people of every class. • The people elected judges for short periods of time. Now, the common people of France controlled justice. • Torture and arbitrary imprisonment were abolished.
One year after the fall of the Bastille the people of France gathered in every town to celebrate the fall of the Bastille. The weather had been better in the past year and crops were higher. Celebrations were grand as the people believed the revolution was a good thing. The National Assembly however was struggling to create a constitution and raise money for the country.
In September 1771 the constitution was complete and sent to the king, Louis XVI for approval. It was agreed on by mid September. The constitution stated that all men were said to be born with equal rights, and everyone was said to be free to speak, write or print his opinions provided he did not abuse this privilege. And the amount of taxes that a person paid was to be based on the amount of wealth he possessed. Following this the National Assembly stood down and the country rejoiced. The French Revolution could be over.
However things didn’t stay god for a long time. The new leaders sent troops into other countries believing that with France’s new popularity they could gain more land but this was not the case instead other countries began to fight against France. The Reign of Terror began in France in 1793. It was a period where the everyday people of France were trying to change everyday life. They changed the names of the days of the week and removed anything to do with Christianity. There were many people involved in attempting to become powerful in France and those who lost struggles were usually beheaded. In January, 1793, Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette were beheaded for a "multitude of crimes." People of other countries were worried and tried to help but often came to the same fate. Even normal people were killed if they were considered enemies. More than 15,000 people were killed many of these after Louis XVI had already died.
After Louis XVI was killed a new leader came to power: Maximilien Robespierre, Backed by the newly approved Constitution of 1793, Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety began conscripting French soldiers and implementing laws to stabilize the economy. For a time, it seemed that France’s fortunes might be changing again. The French army successfully removed foreign invaders and the economy finally stabilized. The Reign of Terror continued to go strongly under the leadership of Robespierre. In the last 6 weeks of the Terror 1400 people were killed in Paris alone. The reign of Terror ended in July 27 1794. Robespierre didn’t have any reasons for his extreme actions during the Terror, and he was arrested and killed directly after the end of the Terror in July 1794.
Despite the execution of Robespierre the Revolution and France was in a worse state than ever before. The country now had the entire of Europe as enemies and the country was still in a financial and food crisis, the war had, in fact made this worse. The constitution of 1971 had let the people do whatever they liked during the Reign of Terror and so the new people in charge decided for a change. In October 1795 a new constitution was made. To signify the change in mood and the end of terror, the Place de La Revolution - where around 2800, including Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette had been guillotined - was renamed as Place de La Concorde. Napoleon Bonaparte was named commander-in-chief of all armies inside France.
The war was going well for France. Many of the surrounding countries had signed peace treaties and Napoleon was an expert in winning battles. He was greeted by screaming crowds of people wanting a glimpse of him whenever he was in France. Napoleon was named First Consul in 1799 which is like the king. Under the guide of Napoleon France was finally brought out of it’s revolution.--Eptalon (talk) 13:59, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
- For reference, the text above was added by User:90.29.199.238--Eptalon (talk) 14:01, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
Should we bring this back to the older, longer version of the article? change
https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=French_Revolution&oldid=8620352 @DovahFRD, Angerxiety, and Fehufanga: Cadillacs zoom in America (talk) 01:22, 21 July 2023 (UTC)