The French Revolution

 The French revolution lasted from 1789-1815. Since the french helped the US colonists and were boosted with republicanism. Thomas Jefferson was the person who said that the french were awakened by "our" revolution. The king Lousi XVI called a meeting. The meeting consisted of three "estates"; the  clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. The first 2 estates made up only two percent of the population  leaving the commoners as the majority. Since they were the majority of population  they began to make decisions for the country. A couple of weeks later, the commoners and a few other from the estates came up with the "Declaration of Rights", which stated that men are born free and equal in rights. This is what set off the French Revolution. Slavery was abolished, church lands were sold to raise revenue and priests were under government authority. An effort to have a monarch caused a ear that the revolution would be overturned and caused some peasants to attack the castles of their lords, hoping to burn the documents that had their dues and payments they still owed. The National Assembly also abolished feudalism.  In 1793 Kind Louis and the queen, Marie Antoinette were execute. This was an act of regicide that shocked all of Europe which lead to more violence. Then came the leader Maximilien Robespierre and his committee killed tens of thousands of people by the guillotine. Maximilien was later arrested and killed by the guillotine also because he was accused of leading france into tyranny and dictatorship. Afterwards, the French wanted to start a new and only look into the future as starting from"scratch". The country became a republic and passed universal male suffrage. France prepared for war with the worlds largest army, concluding with 800,000 men, against their neighbors. They were all citizens representing the nation. After the revolution things changed. Streets got new names, royal family monuments were destroyed, and were referred to as citizens. People began to join political clubs, too part in marches and political clubs. The Catholic church was the place to report births, deaths, marriages and even church holidays. this reminds me of today, since catholic people make these same reports to the church as well. A successful general who took over france in 1799 and he is claimed to be the one that tamed the revolution with civil equality, religious freedom and more. He kept the revolution focused on equality and mostly liberty. National resistance from Russia and Britain brought down Napoleon and his followers, and finally ended the French Revolution, but not the ideas that were brought up during the revolution.