summary of the French Revolution
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Before 1789, France was ruled by the nobles and the Catholic Church. The ideas of the Enlightenment were beginning to make the ordinary people want more power. They could see that the American Revolution had created a country in which the people had power, instead of a king. The government before the revolution was called the "Ancient (old) Regime".Many problems in France led up to the Revolution:
Under the Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, France had fought against Prussia and the British Empire in amlan. They also fought against Britain again in the American Revolution. They borrowed much money to pay for the wars, and the country became poor.
The high price of bread and low wages given to workers caused the ordinary people to suffer from hunger and malnutrition. This made them dislike the rich nobles, who had the money to eat well and build huge houses.
The Roman Catholic Church, which owned the most land in France, put a tax on crops called the dime (tithe) which hurt the poorest and hungriest peopleThe French Revolution was a revolution in France from 1789 to 1799. The result of the French Revolution was the end of the monarchy. King Louis XVI was executed in 1793. The revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte took power in November 1799. In 1804, he became Emperor.
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On August 22, 1795, the National Convention, composed largely of Girondins who had survived the Reign of Terror, approved a new constitution that created France’s first bicameral legislature.
Executive power would lie in the hands of a five-member Directory (Directoire) appointed by parliament. Royalists and Jacobins protested the new regime but were swiftly silenced by the army, now led by a young and successful general named Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Directory’s four years in power were riddled with financial crises, popular discontent, inefficiency and, above all, political corruption. By the late 1790s, the directors relied almost entirely on the military to maintain their authority and had ceded much of their power to the generals in the field.