French revolution

• Formation of the National Assembly

  Representatives of the Third Estate abandoned the Estates-General and formed the National Assembly after being outvoted by the privileged estates
• The discontent of the commoners in France


  1789
• Groups in France during the French Revolution

  • Third Estate (non-privileged estate, 95% of the population)
  • Nobles and clergy (5% of the population)
• Approval of tax reform

  Third Estate wanted to eliminate feudal dues and introduce national sovereignty, while nobles and clergy wanted to maintain their privileges and opposed the reforms and new taxes
• In 18th century France, most people were peasants who farmed other people's land, paid taxes and rents to the king, nobles, or the Church, making subsistence difficult
• The French Revolution signifies the beginning of the end of the Ancient Régime
• Peasants protesting in France

  1. Against feudal rents

  2. Demanding ownership of the land
• Storming of the Bastille


  An angry mob stormed the Bastille in Paris on 14 July, a symbol of absolutism, and took the weapons of the fortress
• Napoleon's seizure of power

  General Napoleon Bonaparte led a coup in 1799 (Brumaire coup) that ended the Directory and the Revolution, consolidating Moderate liberalism