although many accounts of the french revolution focus on the actions of the girondins and jacobins, nearly every major step of the revolution was incited by the sans culottes. A recurring theme throughout the french revolution was the idea that there is power in numbers, and the sans culottes represented without doubt the best example of the power of the masses. Although the national assembly was the governing body during the early stages of the revolution, it had little control over the symbolic events that incited revolutionary fervor, such as the storming of the bastille, the great fear, and the women rsquo s march on versailles. In fact, it was only in response to these spontaneous, unplanned events that concrete policy changes such as the august decrees were passed. Later in the revolution, the sans culottes continued to prove influential, as they were involved in the storming of tuileries, which led to king louis xvi rsquo s deposition, and stormed the national convention, which gave robespierre and the jacobins the opportunity to take control. Although the reign of terror and subsequent thermidorian reaction suppressed sansculotte activity later in the revolution, the decline was also due in part to diminished revolutionary spirit and apathy on the part of the government of the directory.

Nevertheless, in the crucial early and middle stages of the revolution, the sans culottes proved to be remarkably effective at forcing change mdash change that otherwise might not have occurred. Although the financial crisis of the ancien r gime was the immediate spark that set off the french revolution, which broader factors within france contributed to the revolution? in adhering to an outdated and essentially baseless feudal system, the aristocracy and monarchy of france provided the true impetus for the french revolution. In the years leading up to the revolution, france was riddled with unsustainable economic and cultural disparities: it showed a decadent facade to the world while actually facing catastrophic debt, and boasted some of the greatest minds of the enlightenment, though its populace was overwhelmingly illiterate and poor. Perhaps most destabilizing factor was the growing class disparity between the emerging wealthy bourgeoisie and the old nobility.

Despite the fact that the nobility were titled and the bourgeoisie were not, many of the bourgeoisie were far wealthier than the ldquo blue blooded rdquo but financially strapped aristocrats. As the nobility continued to try to claim special privileges over their hardworking bourgeoisie counterparts, it was inevitable that the bourgeoisie would grow angry and resentful. At the same time, discontent grew among the lower classes as landlords in the countryside continued to bind peasants to outdated, oppressive feudal contracts that were often difficult to fulfill. Simply put, with enlightenment ideas spreading through france in the late 1700s, it became increasingly obvious that the french nobility wielded a disproportionate amount of power and privilege for no apparent reason.

The revolutionaries, with their cries of ldquo liberty! rdquo and ldquo equality! rdquo , sought to change that. Assess the validity of this statement: by attempting to escape from france in june 1791, louis xvi effectively destroyed the prospect of a moderate revolution resulting in the installation of a limited or constitutional monarchy. By definition, a constitutional monarchy needs two things: a constitution and a monarch.

By late 1791, france had a constitution, as the national assembly had presented the new constitution of 1791 in september. Up until his attempted escape from france with his family in june 1791, king louis xvi had enjoyed vehement backing from moderates within the national assembly. Jacques pierre brissot and his followers, the girondins, had sought a constitutional monarchy since the very beginning of the revolution mdash much to the chagrin of the radical democratic jacobins mdash and had constructed the 1791 constitution around the principle of limited monarchy. However, the fact that the king tried to run away from the very constitutional monarchy to which he had agreed made it clear that he had given up on the new government. This development made it difficult, if not impossible, for brissot and the girondins to defend their pro ndash constitutional monarchy stance. The jacobins, who had detested the idea of a king from the beginning, were able to take advantage of the girondins rsquo weakened position and take control of the government.

With louis xvi having destroyed the credibility of the proposed constitutional monarchy, there was little to prevent the radicals from declaring france a republic, as the girondins could no longer justify any other feasible form of government. To what extent was the french nobility responsible for the crisis that destroyed the ancien r gime? 2. What role did women play in the revolution? were they simply a reactionary force mdash as when bread shortages prompted a march on versailles mdash or an active part of the revolutionary public? 3. To what extent did the thermidorian reaction owe its success to the excesses of maximilien robespierre? 4.

Make an argument as to which governmental arrangement mdash monarchial rule, the national assembly rsquo s constitutional monarchy, the national convention rsquo s republic, or the directory mdash was best suited to revolutionary france. What problems in france and beyond contributed to the rise of napoleon bonaparte? this is an extract from dissertation on napoleon and french revolution: napoleon played a major part in not only france’s history, but all of europe’s as well. Europe wouldn’t be what it is now, if it wasn’t for napoleon and the french revolution.

If the french revolution wouldn’t have occurred, then he wouldn’t have had a reign. The first estate was made up of church officials, the second estate was made up of nobles and wealthy land owners, and the third and largest estate was made up of three groups: the bourgeoisie merchants and artisans , laborers cooks, servants, and others , and the peasants serfs. They would allow the church officials to be exempt from taxes and make the nobles and wealthy land owners pay little taxes and then they made the third estate pay high taxes. This made the third estate very upset and what even made it worse was that france was in major debt.

The next king, louis xvi, ignored the debt and still spent major money that france didn’t have. Not only was she austrian, of whom was enemies with the french, but she too spent a lot of money. The meeting was on may 5, 1789 and the proposal to tax the aristocrats failed because the fist two estates could always outvote the third. They came together and voted to establish the national assembly on june 17, 1789. Since the third estate made up 88 percent of the population of france, they could do this. They went to meet three days later and found themselves locked out of their meeting place. This was known as the tennis court oath, they pledged to not leave until a new constitution was drawn up for france.

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He made the other two estates join the national convention and he met the demands of the national assembly. Louis still felt that there was trouble, so he stationed his swiss guards in paris. He did this because he did not trust the loyalty of the french soldiers because most of them were from the third estate. Once louis did this, rumors started about how the foreign troops were going to massacre french civilians, so the french got very uneasy. On july 14, 1789, a mob tried to get gunpowder from bastille, which was a prison in paris. Bastille fell in the control of the civilians and this day became a great symbolic act of the revolution.

France soon had rumors spreading everywhere about how the nobles were hiring outlaws to terrorize the peasants. The women marched all the way to versailles and got louis and his wife to come back to paris. On august 27, 1789, the national assembly adopted a statement of revolutionary ideals called a declaration of rights of man and of the citizen. This represented the equality among the people and the right to liberty, equality, and fraternity. This became the slogan of the revolution, however, it only applied to men, and women were not included.

It was then thrown out and replaced by the legislative assembly in september of 1791. The legislative assembly had the power to create laws and to approve or prevent any war the king declared on any nation. Though there was a new government where the king had very little power, france was still in debt. He also fought off the rebellion in toulon and paris when the nobles tried to fight the national convention.

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Many of the citizens were being murdered at this time for speaking out against the government. There was a guy named maximilien robespierre who then acted in charge of the revolution. The committee of public safety was what robespierre became the leader of in 1793. The end of this terror came when the national convention became scared of robespierre gaining too much power so they called him a tyrant and killed him too by the guillotine.