Peyton Rihn

French 1

December 11, 2017

The French Revolution began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s. One of the biggest reasons

behind the beginning of the French Revolution was that lack of effort in the government

representing its people. King Louis XVI played a big part in this seeing in how he spent the

peoples’ money on high fashion for his wife. Things like this eventually led the people to be

furious with their government and their King. The Government had a hard time hiding the Kings

mistakes, and keeping the King in line and advising him. Because at the end of the day the King

oversaw everyone. But Louis had a lot of other problems with the public and hiding his personal

issue with his wife Marie as in the first seven years of marriage they had not had any kids or

more importantly a son. But the King had a deformity that would later be fixed, and later after 19

years Louis would have 4 kids. On top of that their marriage signified something very important

which was a bond between France and Austria. The King was 15 and the Queen to be was 14 at

the time of the marriage.

But this was probably a marriage that should have never happened. This will later be

shown when the Queen cashes some big spending checks she cannot afford. Down the road you

see just how bad the spending gets when they take the people’s money and doesn’t put it toward

things like churches. They were three main social classes at the time and the same ones we have

today. Those being the rich, middle class, and poor. But because of money loss for the people the

price of flour raised so high no one could afford it. So now everyone developed a hatred for the

King and how much the King was eating. Bread costed as much as one whole month of work.

During this time the Estates General was the clergy, nobles and citizens. Eventually, a lawyer
would come to fight for the people’s rights, his name was Donton. The people loved Donton. So

the people eventually decided to rebel, 30,000 troops take position to fight off the people. People

try to get as many rifles as they possibly can. The people declare that they take side of the

revolution. People decide to start chaos so they break into the prison and kill the man in charge,

basically to suggest that they are done watching and ready to take action. So after the death of

the warden of the prison the people destroyed the prison.

Then came the ‘’ Declaration of the Rights of Men’’ this gave all men the same rights,

plus increased freedom of the press. As the Revolution continues, it is seen that Jean Paul is out

for blood. Jean Paul led the people against the King. This led to 20,000 people camping outside

the palace to show that they wanted no more of the royal family and wanted them to go to Paris.

But it seemed that the King had no response to show his people so now, the people wanted the

Queen dead. All men and women were furious with the King and the fact that he was supposed

to be living in Paris to govern the people but instead the family moved to where no one lives, so

basically getting rid of any responsibilities. On top of this the King and Queen were spending the

peoples money. Eventually they would move to Paris but unfortunately for the King and Queen

they became the prisoners of Paris and would never go back to Versailles. Now that the King and

Queen were out of the picture, Pierre said the King and Queen would die, and asserted himself as

King. Even though the people were fighting to get rid of the system.

It would soon be known that the people and Pierre had very different perspectives on

many different things, such as going to war with Austria. At this point the people were fearless

after overthrowing their King, but Pierre warned the people that they could not beat Austria. But

the people did not listen and declared war. Austria warned that if they hurt the King they would

unleash on the people. During this time King Louis got away during the war, but the war would
later end with a treaty. During this time the guillotine was used on all the solders of the King,

and later the King and his wife would endure the same fate on January 13, 1793.

During the period of the French Revolution their were many important people that played

big parts in the Revolution, and Napoleon Bonaparte was definitely without a doubt one of those

people. Bonaparte was born in the island of Corsica and lived from 1769-1821 so he died when

he was 51 years old. Napoleon was military leader and emperor during the French Revolution

who conquered much of Europe during his time. He was able to climb the ladder in ranks in the

military after seizing political power in France and making himself emperor in 1804, which was

five years after he originally seized power France. He would then lead France through many

battles but that would come to an end after the invasion of Russia in the year 1812. Two years

later he found himself in the island of Elba, where he briefly found himself in power for 100

days, until again being defeated but this time in the Battle of Waterloo. Then he would be sent to

the island of Saint Helena, where his legacy would end after his death.

Looking back on his early life, Napoleon was born on August 15 in the year 1769, to

Carlo and Letizia Bonaparte. His parents would both out live him. Napoleon was the second of

eight children in his big family, who was not wealthy. Napoleon would spend his later years in

France in school, then becoming a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment of the French army.

Napoleon was in charge of an army French soldiers that would defeat huge Austria armies, but

only a year later , in 1797 a treaty would be signed between France and Austria that stopped the

war and gave the French a lot of land.

He would later be the soldier that would lead the France in the battle of Egypt and find success.

Later it would be known that Napoleon was a big part of the group that overthrew the French

Directory. They later replaced the Directory with a three new members’, and Napoleon became
first consul, making him France’s leading political figure at the time. In 1803, to raise money for

future wars, Napoleon sold France’s Louisiana Territory in North America to the newly

independent United States for $15 million, a transaction that later became known as the

Louisiana Purchase . Later he would start giving ‘’ titles of nobility’’ to his friends and family as

his empire and legacy continued to live on much of the western and central continental parts of

Europe.

Napoleon was not only successful in battle but also with one of his sons Napoleon

François Joseph Charles Bonaparte (1811-1832), who became known as Napoleon II and was

given the title King of Rome.

 Work Cited

1. www.history.com/topics.french-revolution

2. http://www.britannica.com/event/French-Revolution

3. https://www.ducksters.com/history/french_revoltion/

4. http://www.history.com/topics/napoleon