Power in The French Revolution
The French Revolution of 1789 is a prime example of power play. The social structure of France, left over 27 million people living a grim life. They started to question why they were living so drastically different from the Nobles and the Clergy. The Revolution of France shows the strength of oppressed citizens banding together to overthrow incompetent leaders, using ideas and numbers. The idea to question those in power created a large scale political movement in France. French society was divided into 3 estates. The first estate was the Clergy and the second estate were the Nobles. The third estate consisted of everyone else. Over 27 million people were in the third estate with no privileges and unequal taxation;
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The King refused to sign decisions of the assembly, which meant they were unable to become laws. He also brought in more soldiers to add to his bodyguard in Versailles. It seemed as if he was going to break up the assembly by armed force. The market women gathered weapons and marched to Versailles, supported by the National Guardsmen. They complained to the King about the high price of bread and the extra soldiers. They killed 2 bodyguards and threated to kill the Queen, because of that on Oct 6 the King, Queen and their eldest son went back to Paris, surrounded by 60,000 people. It seems as if the hatred towards the monarchs made the citizens each other’s allies. The people belonging to the Third Estate only wanted their leaders to help improve their living conditions. The abuse of power by the higher authority angered millions. The people wanted a republic because of lacking leaders. The mass numbers shared a common goal and this paved the bloody path to the power of the people. The idea of revolution was spread to the oppressed Third Estate citizens and the divisions between the estates lead to an uprising which then created the National Assembly. The partisans of the Third Estate destroyed symbols of royal power through the storming of the Bastille and the Women’s March. The French Revolution is a great example of the violent lash back tyrannized people can have on incompetent leaders. As Maya Angelou once said,