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=**Revolution Remembered**=

Causes and Effects of the French Revolution Analyzed by Christopher Brown
France in the 1780's and before was a terrible time for anyone of the lower class mostly making up France's 3rd Estate. King Louis XIV, the absolute ruler at the time got his countries in many costly wars, which called for extremely high taxes and incredibly high bread prices. The king also was infatuated with himself and his power so he built had on of the most enormous, lavish and costly palaces the world had ever seen, the Palace of Versailles, not for defense, but to show off to the rest of the world. The conceited ruler even went as far as to name himself the "Sun King" because he believed all revolved around and that he was hand selected by God to rule France.

Louis the XIV wasn't the only one who angered the 3rd Estate, the clergymen of the 1rst Estate and the nobility of the 2nd Estate equally annoyed the common man. The first two Estates were biased in their decision making as they, like the king, lived well of tax money. The Estates General in which all three Estates passed laws was extremely unfair in its voting process. Even though the 3rd Estate made up about 90% of France's population, they only had one vote, like the other two Estates. Since the first two Estates supported more taxes on the commoners for their own lifestyles, the commoners could do nothing about, this built tension leading to the Revolution.

Leaders of the 3rd Estate used the emotions of their non-violent members against the other Estates by convincing them that violence was the only way to avenge dead loved ones who died of starvation from high prices. They also used the one kind of person who would kill without reason, criminals. Criminals were allowed by the 3rd Estate leaders to go after members of the other two Estates by promising that they won't be punished for their crimes, this was the perfect way to get experienced murders that needed no convincing to kill the rich. They also used ideas of Enlightenment figures that revolution is sometimes necessary for beneficial change and that it is the duty of the citizens to overthrow a government that isn't fair and that isn't satisfying their needs. The commoners definitely felt that this government was not working for them.

The real beginning of the Revolution started when the commoners overtook the Bastille Prison. Not only were the guards ill-prepared, but the massive mob showed King Louis XIV that he wasn't all powerful and released more criminals onto the streets to aid the Revolution's causes. The Revolution consisted of a mass killing by guillotine, The Reign of Terror. Started by Maximilien Robespierre, many wealthy and powerful figures died in public executions. One of the first, was the Queen of France herself, Marie Antoinette, she uttered the famous words "Let them eat cake", which the commoners took as offensive and sliced her head off when she most likely meant that she actually wanted to help them. Even members of the 3rd Estate were killed, if they were suspected of counterrevolution or otherwise didn't support the killings, the Committee of Public Safety, designed to keep the public safe and defend the Revolution, killed them as well. The killings proved to be be getting out of hand when Robespierre, the starter of the Reign of Terror was killed by it himself.

The Reign of Terror killed so many people, that the drainage system was clogged with blood.

Looking back, the French Revolution was started by King Louis the XIV's lavish lifestyle, getting France involved in too many costly wars, bankrupting France, raises taxes and food prices and the 1rst and 2nd Estates' constant outvoting of the 3rd. The commoners were also influenced by their Estate's leaders to take revenge, criminals were used against the rich and Enlightenment ideas like overthrowing a failure government also helped cause the Revolution. The event that really started it though, was the fall of the Bastille. It signified that the commoners had the real power, not King Louis XIV. After Queen Antoinette uttered the controversial "Let them eat cake", Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety went to town on the Revolution's enemies, including "disloyal" commoners with the Reign of Terror public executions that eventually killed him as well. So if the commoners learned anything, it' that it is okay to rebel against a government that isn't working for them, but don't get carried away and especially don't become what it is you were fighting like Robespierre did.

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media type="custom" key="7137551" Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrtVyBDvJNU

media type="custom" key="7201263" (Sorry Mr. H, I couldn't get the Wordle bigger, but i think if you click on it it takes you to the link!)