The Beginning of the French Revolution

King calls for the Estates-General to meet in 1789.
First and Second Estate refuse to pay taxes.
* Each Estate had one vote. The first and second estate would always vote together and create a 2-1 vote over the third estate. The third estate wants for every male citizen to have the right to vote.
Third Estate gets locked out of the meeting – meet on a nearby Tennis Court:
* Tennis Court Oath – promise to make a new constitution
* Third Estate became the National Assembly

King Louis XVI began gathering troops.
Revolution began – people stormed the Bastille (French prison) to get gunpowder.
Riots break out around the countryside and peasants began attacking the homes of the nobles.
National Assembly adopts the “Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen.” (Written by Marquis de Lafayette)
  * Stated basic freedoms
  * Government gets power from the people not the king
  * Made France a Constitutional Monarchy (1791)

National Assembly declares war on Austria and Prussia (hoping to unify the French people).
France loses – radicals take over the government and named it the National Convention
The radicals (Mountain) put the king on trial and behead him in January 1793.
Another war in 1793 – all the European countries declare war on France to stop the spread of revolution.