The French Revolution

Audrey Davison                                                                                                                   February 27, 2012
AP European History                                                                                                                           Period 2
French Revolution Essay
During the reigns of several French monarchs such as Louis XIV, France’s government had become an absolute monarchy. The Estates General, France’s legislative body, had little real power. The Third Estate bore the vast majority of the tax burden and wanted more political and social power. When the French Revolution began in 1789, the Third Estate swore to give France a constitution. Ten years and thousands of lives (including Louis XVI’s) later, France was a republic and had its own constitution. Several groups of people had different goals they wanted to achieve during the French Revolution. Some of them did, and some did not. A few of these groups were the monarchy, clergy, aristocracy, bourgeoisie, urban working class, peasantry, and women.
It is easy to see that the monarchy did not reach its goals. The current monarch at the time, Louis XVI, was a weak and indecisive ruler, and did not have the power to control an absolute monarchy. Louis’ attempts and controlling the rebellious Third Estate had failed and after the Women’s March to Versailles in October of 1789, the King and Queen Marie Antoinette were forced to move to Paris and his power was reduced to temporary veto in lawmaking. The monarch’s power was reduced even further after the creation of a constitution, where France became a constitutional monarchy with a unicameral Legislative Assembly. Louis XVI tried to avoid having to approve the Constitution of 1791 by attempting to escape in June of that year in what is known as the Flight to Varennes. The escape failed, and he was captured and the King and Queen became prisoners of the Parisian mobs. The King was also forced to accept the... [continues]

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