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Estates-General Downfall

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The National Assembly was a transitional assembly, which aided in France’s transition from an absolute monarchy under the fiat of King Louis XVI (Aitias…, 2011). It existed from June 13th, 1789 until July 9th, 1789 (Aitias…, 2011; Audiopedia, 2015; Richey, 2014,The French, n.d.). Its life was full of accomplishments and its end marked the demise of the Estates-General and the birth of the National Constituent Assembly (Aitias…, 2011). Although short, within the month that the National Assembly was in session it made many strides toward a promising future for France. Through immense debt, bad harvests, and lack of power within the Estates-General some members of the third estate representatives in the Estates-General soon realized a need …show more content…

After years of paying for wars, fighting for French land in North America, and supporting the lavish lifestyles of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette the people of France were left with an immense amount of debt and harbored distaste for the king and queen and other nobility (The French, n.d.). Following many bad harvests, the common people were starving and unable to pay taxes, this worsened the financial situation France was already facing considering the third estate was the only estate to pay taxes (Richey, 2014; Tutors, 2016). The common people were beginning to suspect the aristocracy of plotting to starve them because of the numerous bad harvests (Richey, 2014). These suspicions were later coined as the Great Fear and they only increased feelings of polarization between the classes (Richey, 2014). In terms of representation in the Estates-General, the third estate was only allowed one third of the delegates when they represented 97% of the population at the time (Aitias…,2011; Allsop, 2013; History, …show more content…

In the early stages of the assembly they won mostly paper battles by focusing in on taxes, the food shortages, and feudalism (Aitias…, 2011). First, they declared all taxes illegally imposed and voted on the new taxes provisionally, because they voted on these new taxes provisionally the assembly had to exist for the taxes to exist so that provided motivation to protect the new assembly and resulted in an increased confidence from capitalistic countries (Aitias…, 2011; Audiopedia, 2015). The National Assembly also created a committee of subsistence to deal with and overlook the food shortages (Aitias…, 2011). On August 4th the committee officially abolished feudalism, which meant no more feudal dues, hunting rights for the nobility, and tax exemptions (Richey, 2014). Though all of these accomplishments were impactful and necessary, it is still possible that the most impactful decision the National Assembly made was the decision to ask the king to remove his troops from Versailles (Aitias…, 2011). In his response, the king offered to move or reposition the troops but not to remove them, his decision sparked public outcry and is considered to have influenced the storming of the Bastille (Aitias…, 2011). In all of these actions of the National Assembly, its members set up the assembly’s successor for

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