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In the 1780's France was a very poor country.

Many of the people were starving and the King

and Queen could have helped, but they didn't.

Instead they threw lots of parties for their friends

and ate tons of food but none of the common

people were ever invited.   It made them angry

 that the king and queen didn't care about the people.  

This   is part of the reason that they started the 

French Revolution.

Introduction

Whenever France was in trouble they would have a big meeting 

called the meeting of the Estates General.    The Estates General 

was made of three different groups or estates.   The First Estate 

was the people of the church, or the clergy.   The Second Estate 

was the nobles and the Third Estate was the common people.  

This time the Estates General met because France was in a 

financial crisis.   Whenever the Estates General got together they 

would talk about the problem and vote by order.   The Third 

Estates vote counted a lot less than the vote of the First and 

Second Estates.   This is another situation that made the people 

angry

Meeting of the Estates General

The Third Estate got so angry that they decided to gather in the 

meeting hall and write a constitution.THey called themselves the 

national assembly. They met the first time and talked but when 

they came back for their second meeting they found out that the 

King had locked the door to the meeting hall.   They needed to 

find a place where they could all gather so they went to a big 

indoor tennis court.   When they were there they wrote and 

signed an pledge that said they would keep meeting until they 

wrote the Constitution of 1791.   They called this The Tennis 

Court Oath.

 The Tennis Court Oath 

Storming of The Bastille 

On July 14, 1789, shortly after the Tennis Court 

Oath was made, a large group of peasants who 

were infuriated with the nobles attacked a 

prison known as the Bastille and tore it apart.  

Their goal was not to release the seven 

prisoners held there but to take their weapons 

and gunpowder.   Because people were starting 

to hate all the landowners many attacks broke 

out all over the countryside. These events were 

the unofficial beginning of the revolution.

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