The French Revolution
In France in the 1780s, revolutionary ideals took on their own spin, summarized in the slogan liberté, égalité, et fraternité (liberty, equality, and fraternity). These ideas, which struck many people as radical, were popularized throughout Europe in the writings of the philosophes.
Economic Woes However, additional causes led to the French Revolution. France had long spent more than it was taking in, partly to finance a series of wars. Among this spending was the economic aid that France supplied the Americans in their revolution. To address its financial situation, the French government called a meeting of the Estates-General in spring 1789. Three sectors of society, or estates, made up the Estates-General: the clergy (religious officials), the nobility, and the commoners. However, inequality in voting caused the commoners (who made up 97 percent of French society) to break away and form a new body, the National Assembly.
The Revolution Begins In the early days of the French Revolution, moderates such as Marquis de Lafayette seemed to be on the point of establishing a constitutional monarchy. The National Assembly began meeting in Paris, but then the King threatened to arrest the leaders. Angry crowds rioted in Paris and elsewhere in France. On July 14, 1789, a crowd in Paris stormed the Bastille, a former prison that symbolized the abuses of the monarchy and the corrupt aristocracy. In the French countryside, peasants rose up against nobles, even burning some manor houses. Some royal officials fled France. The king was forced to accept a new government with a National Assembly in charge.
The date July 14, 1789, became French Independence Day. The most permanent changes were enacted early in the Revolution—the abolition of feudalism and the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, a statement declaring basic human rights. Louis XVI and the nobility refused to accept the limited monarchy, which led to dissatisfaction among radical groups such as the Jacobins and inspired the establishment of the First French Republic in 1792. The Reign of Terror, a period during which the government executed thousands of opponents of the revolution, including the king and queen, sprang from the Jacobins. After a period of turmoil and war, the brilliant general Napoleon Bonaparte became emperor of France in 1804.