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                      Many years ago in france there lived an unhappy group of people

            led by a bankrupt monarchy.The king was named Louis XVI and his 

            wife was named Marie Antionette. Their people were divided into three 

            groups; The first, Second, and Third estate. The First estate was made 

            up of the members of the church. The Second estate were the rich 

            nobles. The third estate was made up of the working middle class and 

            the peasants. The third estate was angry with the monarchy because 

            they had to pay taxes and the other estates did not. The third estate 

            was fascinated by the impact of enlightenment in other countries and   

            wanted the same for theirs. It planted the idea that there was more 

            than just the church and that they could grow into something greater. 

            They were inspired by the Americans fighting for what they wanted 

            and decided to do the same. That was just the beginning of the french 

            revolution.

          King Louis and Marie Antionette lavished in their spending 

    having no care that they were running out of money. When he 

    finally came to the realization that he was completely broke he 

    wanted to start making the nobles pay taxes. They were enraged

    and forced him to call a meeting of the estates general to have a 

    vote on this new tax. The 1st and 2nd estate always dominated 

    the vote even though the 3rd estate made up most of the    

    population. Knowing that the other estates would take the vote 

    the 3rd estate insisted on voting by delegates. This would give 

    them the advantage because delegates are determined based on 

    the number of people in that estate. The king sided with the 

    nobles and refused to make the change. The third estate delegates 

   decided to call themselves the national assembly. They met in a 

   meeting room, but one day found that they had been locked out. 

   They knocked down the door to a tennis court and in that court they 

   formed and oath that they would stay until a new conststution was 

   drawn. 

   Rumors were floating around france that king louis was going 

to use military force to get rid of the national assembly. The 

people were scared and began to gather weapons in case they 

would have to defend their city. On July 14 a mob in search of 

weaponry stormed the bastille, a prison is paris, to get what they 

came for. That successful rebellious act inspired the people of 

france who began to join in on the rebellion. Panic started to roll 

throughout france called th great fear. There were rumors that 

the nobles were hiring outlaws to terrorize the peasants. The 

peasants in panic began raiding nobles homes and destroyed 

their ties to feudal dues. In some effort to raise money the price 

of bread rose to a ridiculous amout causing what is known as the 

bread riot. People stole bread from bakeries and the homes of 

others. Many angered women stormed the palace of versailles 

and demanded that the king and queen return to paris. 

      The national assembly met and made the   

  constitution of 1791. The constitution called for a 

  limited monarchy. The national assembly took  

  over the church lands stripping the catholic church 

  of their political independence and land. Nearby 

  countries were enraged by the revolution because 

  they feared that that would spark a courage in their 

  people to abolish the monarchy. They insisted that 

  france go back to giving Louis his power as king.  

  The Legislative assembly responded by declaring  

  war against Austria and Prussia.Many of the nobles 

  became emigres because of the uproar against 

  them.  

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