Summary Of The Radical Phase

The French Revolution began with the Moderate Phase, which occurred from 1789-1792. This phase got its name because it was considered a more moderate time compared to what came later. The members from the Third Estate were barred from the hotel in Versailles where talks were taking place. This led to the members meeting on the tennis court where they took an oath to stay until they got a new constitution. This group eventually formed themselves into the National Constitution Assembly. They capitalized on the unrest that was taking place in Paris (the storming of the Bastille) to obtain a new constitution, limit the monarchy, and create the Declaration of the Rights of Man. This was modeled after the American Declaration of Independence. It stated all men were born and remain free and equal in rights, all men equal before law, men have natural rights to liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression, and freedom of religion and taxes. The Assembly still could not solve the country’s economic problems, and conditions continued to get worse. An elected Legislative Assembly took over in 1791. This group couldn’t do any better than the group before it. The situation was about to get worse.
In 1792 radicals took control of the Assembly and created a second constitution. This extends voting rights to all male citizens, not just property owners. In 1793 King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette are both put and trial and executed by guillotine. The National Convention puts a 12 person called committee called The Committee of Public Safety in control of the republic. Through this group Maximilien Robespierre rises to power. He decided to start executing people that disagree with the war. This ended up being called the The Reign of Terror as over 17,000 people were killed by guillotine during a one year period. In July of 1794 Robespierre is executed because of