The French Revolution
From 1789 to 1794,lots of upheavals had occurred and changed French institutions of monarchy,aristocracy,church power and social structure thoroughly.
In 1789,China was prosperous under the government of Qianlong,while French was facing a great challenge in revolution.But unlike the Russian or Chinese revolutions of the 20th century,the French Revolution appeared when it was a most advanced country.French works and science were popular around the world,even almost every citizen in European countries could read French. Why did France need a revolution at that time?There were five major reasons.The first reason is economic issues. France faced a crisis though it seemed prosperous,for the drought in1788 and poor grain harvest aroused anger in Frenchmen.Not only did the quantity of food fall down quickly,but the price of bread rose frociously.The second one is politics,Louis XVI changed major officers frequently,endowed people more extra rights and frustrated citizens with his corruption and ignorance of politics,so it brought anarchy.The third reason is society.There was no equality in social class then.At that time ric
h bourgeoisie excluded from the power system.As an amorphous social category,bourgeoisie was the upper crust of the Third Estate.( There were three estates then:Church Power,Aristocrats and the third class who had to pay most taxes)And they resented the distinctions enjoyed by nobles and obtained exemption with more effort.Fourth,the Enlightenment brought the idea of democracy and equality.Writers in 18th century created a culture that encouraged political and social criticism,and people were provided with a language they could describe their dissatisfactions and the critical spirit developed. The fifth reason is Frances support for the War of American Independence.Its costs overburdened the government,causing the financial crisis.In 1788,the French government devoted too much on the war,bringing itself a lot of debt.All the reasons above were the trigger of the French Revolution.
monarchy
Then the king Louis XVI held the Estates General which included three groups in 1789.The first estate wanted to vote on raising taxes,the second wanted to change while the third estate didnt accept the division of the orders into three separate chambers and wanted to change everything.Then a few priests left the First Estate and sat with the Third,which decl
ared itself to be the National Assembly. Louis XVI closed the hall they met,so the members found an indoor tennis court,they swore and signed the Oath of the Tennis Court on June 20,1789.Then on July 9th,it declared itself to be Constituent Assembly,the king realised it had threatened his reign,so he tried to use army to put the Assembly to an end.But great resentment was aroused among people.
The revolution can be divided into five periods.First,it truly began with Parisons demonstration,and they stormed the Bastille,which used to have been a firm fortification for 200 years.Peasants attacked the manors of their feudal lords and burned land.The capture of the Bastille,though not so intended,saved the Assembly at Versailles.Since then,the signal of revolution had spread to other cities and the Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.It declared that men are born and remain free and equal in rights,and mans natural rights were held to be liberty, property, security,and resistance to oppression.It first brought freedom of thought and human rights to the first place,which was a significant step in history. Another revolutionary idea occurred that women should have the same rights as men,first in the book The Rights of Women in 1791.
The second period is the constitutional changes.Actually, Constituent Assembly had come to the first place with most power.The constitutional monarchy played a crucial role in the Assembly,it abolished autocratic monarchy and cancled prerogative of the Church and nobility.After the king failed to overturn the Assembly,royal family had to move from Versailles to Paris.After Louis XVIs wife Mary divulged secrets to the coalition of Prussia and Austria,France got into great trouble.Then Robespierre,one of  the leaders of the campaign of opposition to the monarchy,overturned its reign and captured the king and the queen.On August 10,1792,Girodins came upon the stage and the Prussian was finally defeated,then the France Republic of the first was founded.Meanwhile,Louis XVI was beheaded.
The third is the Girondins’ period.After the Girondins came into power,it suppressed the campain of restricting the prices of daily needs,and it irritated people.At the same time,it couldt defeat foreign army,Parisons staged a new insurrection and established Jacobins dictatorship.Then France was under rule of Jacobin,it suppressed many rebellions incited by the Girondins,enacted three Land Acts and the first republic democratic constitution.Jac
obins beheaded some Girondins and put down most revolts.But later violent internal contradictions appeared,people who were against Robespierre’s dictatorship came together as Thermidoreans to launch the Thermidorean Reaction on July 27,1794 and behead Robespierre.
The fourth period is Thermidoreans reign.The National Convention was dissolved and the Directory was established,but the society was still unstable.So it dispatched Napoleon Bonaparte to Italy and won the battle.Then the army under Napoleon became more powerful.Gradually, people rioted against the Directory,but it used army to stop them.Later,on November 9,1799, Napoleon took the power,and the event was called 18 Brumaire,his government was called Consulate.He was Emperor from1804 to 1815.The Brumaire Reaction marks the end of the Republican part of the French Revolution.
Finally,it comes to the end of the French Revolution.During the period of Anti-France Alliance,Napoleon I was totally defeated in the seventh battle——Waterloo.Then it comes to the Bourbon Restoration.Parisons launched July Revolution and Charles X fled to Britain to establish July Monarchy.Till then,the French Rebolution totally ended.
The French Revolution,as the largest,thoroughest revolution in history,has left the world advanced ideas,military strategies and Napoleons Civil code,which is highly valued.So the French Revolution is an important lesson for us to know about.

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