p. 1

2011 dark night herald editor and chief emely vázquez bw news media division 11/1/2011

[close]

p. 2

the french revolution by emely vázquez t he french revolution had two main causes that started the revolution social inequality and economic distress king louis the xvi ran his country with three estates the first estate which was the church or clergy of the roman catholic church the second estate which was the nobles and lastly the third estate which was the middle class and the peasants the revolution was mainly the third estate and a little bit of the other three classes against their king king louis xvi was the caused for the social injustice the people had and the economic distress the country had the extravagant spending of louis xvi and his queen marie antoinette caused the country to go deeper in debt on top of that the country was all ready in debt because of the kings before louis xvi then louis also barrows a lot of money to go into war to help the americans in the american revolution because they was fighting against great britain this nearly doubled the debt of the french government this is the economic distress part of problem the third estate had 98 of the country s population they paid mostly all the taxes for the french government with the little money they earned the third estate had mainly no political power some of the people were starving because of the spending the queen was doing this is some of the social injustice evidence that was part of the problem in result of these events when the country was at the point of having no money the king decides to charge the nobles taxes the nobles make the king call the estate general to approve of these new taxes each estate was to send a representative to this meeting/estate general the nobles had thought by doing this they will be able to reject this new law they even required that members of the third estate use a separate entrance to enter the assembly room the third estate was angered by this treatment and realized that their voices would not be listened to at the meeting the third estate on june 17 1789 found them-selves locked out of their door/room they go into an indoor tennis court and protested that they will not leave until a new constitution is made the king hired some foreign troops to take care of the problem because he did not trust his french

[close]

p. 3

troops so the people of france started to gather weapons to defend the city some people gathering weapons came across the bastille prison in paris they stormed in there overwhelming the guards they people took over bastille killing some of the guards in the process this happened on the 14th of july the date is celebrated in france just like july 4th is celebrated in the united states the surrounding cites was inspired by this and started to rebel as well one in particular was versailles in october 1789 thousands of parisian women rebelled over the price rising of bread waving knives axes and other weapons the women marched on versailles first they commanded that the national assembly take action to provide bread then they turned their anger on the king and queen they broke into the palace killing some of the guards the women commanded that louis and marie antoinette return to paris after some time louis agreed a few hours later the king his family and servants left versailles never again to see the outstanding palace their exit signaled the change of power and radical reforms about to overtake france this was the being of the revolution.

[close]

p. 4

from a monarchy to a democracy a by emely vázquez country should stay as a monarchy if it is a theocracy any other form of a monarchy should not exist if the monarchy is not a theocracy or if the king s rule falls in any of these categories unpopular method of rule economic distress social injustice religious intolerance nationalism or if the people/group is inspired by enlightenment ideas they have the right to form a democracy and/or have a revolution in france s case i am happy that they were able to change their government but some of the actions that were taken upon i strongly disagree with them the king of france in my opinion didn t know how to govern a country like most people don t it seemed the king was in his own little world and he didn t know how to treat his people king louis xvi didn t seem to think of his country or his people the 2nd estate did whatever they wanted and the 3rd estate was treated as animals and slaves even with the middle class and the 1st the church basically ruled over the people mr angel vázquez a common man who is very familiar with history when i asked him about the french revolution told me when louis xvi was king of france he fed the nobles 2nd estate good food and gave the middle class and peasants 3rd estate their scraps to eat this is the social injustice part of the problem from my research i gained the knowledge that louis had the 3rd estate with the little money they earned paid mostly all the taxes for the country louis had also gone into war joined forces with the americans to aid them in defeating great britain in the american revolution just so my opinion he can defeat one of france s greatest enemies king louis xvi would allow his wife queen marie-antoinette to go on wild shopping sprees and he did nothing about it as well the king did not pay any attention to the country s financial problem until the banks stopped lending the government any more money and to solve this great financial problem you know what he did he tried to charge the 2nd estate to pay taxes after they got so comfortable doing nothing this is the economic distress part of the problem the 2nd estate said to the king we don t think so and then called an estate general to approve of this new tax law this hasn t been done in about 175 years before this each estate had met individually,

[close]

p. 5

but the 3rd estate argued that this time all the estates should get together and send delegates to represent their estate the king just commanded that the estates general follow the old rules the mr emmanuel ­ joseph who agreed with the 3rd estate s causes said hey why not we call ourselves the national assembly and make laws and reforms in the name of the french people the 3rd estate thought it over and on june 17 1789 the 3rd estates delegates voted to launch the national assembly this was the beginning of a representative government and the end to french monarchy later on in the revolution the delegates get locked out so then they storm into an indoor tennis court and stay there until a new constitution was made then the king the ordered the clergy and nobles to join the national assembly the king didn t trust his french officials so he brings in a mercenary army of swiss guards to paris some people thought that he hired them to massacre the french citizens people started to panic and they started to search for weapons to protect the city on july 14 1789 they came across the bastille prison stormed in there this overwhelmed the guards and the attackers killed some of the guards in the prison this date is known as an independence day like the 4th of july for the united states some of the other nearby villages started to rebel against the king as well this was really the beginning of something much more bigger the french revolution in my opinion none of this would have happened if the king paid more attention to his people and country instead of doing his own little thing if your country is experiencing this type of government then talk to your king or someone higher in the food chain and if that doesn t work start getting ideas for a revolution because it is coming soon so pick your side today!

[close]

p. 6

[close]

p. 7

the watchers important people of the french revolution king louis xvi 1754­1793 the french king from 1774 to 1792 who was deposed during the french revolution and executed in 1793 louis xvi inherited the debt problem left by his grandfather louis xv and added to the crisis himself through heavy spending during france s involvement in the american revolution from 1775 to 1783 because this massive debt overwhelmed all of his financial consultants louis xvi was forced to give in to the demands of the parliament of paris and convene the estates-general an action that led directly to the outbreak of the revolution louis xvi was deposed in 1792 and executed a year later louis xvi s tutors made little effort to prepare him for his role as king and it showed he was easily bored with affairs of state and much preferred to spend his time in physical activities particularly hunting he also loved to work with his hands and was skilled in several trades including lockmaking metalworking and bricklaying despite these shortcomings louis was well intentioned and sincerely wanted to improve the lives of the common people however he lacked the ability to make decisions and the determination to see policies through when he did take action it often was based on poor advice from ill-informed members of his court as one politician of the time noted his reign was a succession of feeble attempts at doing good shows of weakness and clear evidence of his inadequacy as a leader.

[close]

p. 8

emmanuel-joseph sieyès 1748­1836 sieyès emmanuel joseph was a french revolutionary and statesman he was a clergyman before the revolution and was known as abbé sieyès his pamphlet qu est-ce que le tiers état [what is the third estate 1789 attacking noble and clerical privileges was popular throughout france and he was elected deputy from the third estate to the statesgeneral of 1789 he advocated the formation of the national assembly and participated in the writing of the declaration of the rights of man and citizen and the constitution of 1791 he made his chief contributions in 1789­91 with the theory of national sovereignty and representation and the distinction between active and passive citizens which restricted the vote to men of property as a member of the convention he voted for the execution of king louis xvi his prudent silence enabled him to live through the reign of terror and after the overthrow of maximilien robespierre on 9 thermidor 1794 sieyès again became active in the government in 1799 he entered the directory later that year he conspired with napoleon bonaparte in the overthrow of the directory by the coup of 18 brumaire sieyès became with bonaparte and roger ducos one of the three provisional consuls his sketch for the constitution of the year viii was however changed in decisive points by bonaparte and sieyès and ducos were replaced dec 1799 as consuls he became senator and senator of the empire and after the bourbon restoration lived in exile 1816­30 in brussels.

[close]

p. 9

jacques necker 30 september 1732 ­ 9 april 1804 swiss-born jacques necker had amassed a considerable personal fortune as a banker before going down in history as louis xvi s minister of finance his economic policy focused on rigour reducing expenses and overhauling the structures of financial administration the king dismissed and recalled him several times and he left the government for good in 1790 louis xvi appointed necker director of the royal treasury after turgot s disgrace in 1776 by then he had already won the académie française prize for eloquence for his eulogy of colbert necker stepped up measures to cut government spending but he resigned in 1781 and retired to his château in saintouen after boasting about his policy in a report to the king that was made public and criticized in 1788 louis xvi called necker out of retirement appointing him directorgeneral of finance a minister and a member of the king s council his activities extended into the political arena he reconvened the parliament of paris whose members had been exiled and advanced the date of the estates-general necker implemented protectionist measures to cope with the severe financial crisis rocking france grain exports and the purchase of grain outside markets were banned but unable to decide on a solution to the estates general crisis and meeting with objections to his projects necker refused to attend the royal council of 23 june 1789 and was dismissed by louis xvi the king called him back to power for the third time in july 1789 but was displeased by his political decisions he resigned in september 1790 and retired to switzerland where he devoted himself to writing and his family he died in 1804.

[close]

p. 10

[close]