Key Points

French society was divided into three estates. The First Estate (clergy) and Second Estate (nobility) enjoyed privileges and were exempt from taxes, while the Third Estate (commoners) paid all taxes.

Major causes included an empty treasury from wars and royal extravagance, a subsistence crisis due to rising food prices, and the rise of an educated middle class demanding an end to privileges.

On July 14, 1789, citizens stormed the Bastille prison, a symbol of the king's absolute power. This event is considered the start of the French Revolution.

On June 20, 1789, members of the Third Estate, calling themselves the National Assembly, swore an oath in a tennis court not to disband until they had drafted a constitution for France.

This document, adopted by the National Assembly, established fundamental rights such as liberty, equality before the law, and freedom of speech as natural rights for all citizens.

The Constitution of 1791 limited the powers of the king and created a legislative assembly. However, it granted voting rights only to men over 25 who paid a certain amount of taxes, known as active citizens.

The Jacobins were a radical political club led by Maximilien Robespierre, comprising less prosperous sections of society. Their supporters, the sans-culottes, wore long striped trousers to distinguish themselves from the nobility.

On September 21, 1792, the newly elected Convention abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic. King Louis XVI was later tried for treason and executed on January 21, 1793.

This was a period of severe control under Robespierre's rule. Perceived enemies of the republic were arrested, tried, and often executed by the guillotine.

After the fall of the Jacobins, a new government called the Directory was formed, led by the wealthier middle class. Its political instability eventually led to the rise of a military dictator.

Women were active participants, forming political clubs and demanding equal rights. Olympe de Gouges wrote the 'Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen', but women in France only won the right to vote in 1946.

The Jacobin government abolished slavery in French colonies in 1794. Napoleon later reinstated it, and slavery was finally abolished permanently in 1848.

Napoleon Bonaparte, a military general, seized power in 1799 and crowned himself Emperor of France in 1804. He introduced modern laws but was seen as an invader by other European countries.

The revolution's most important legacy was the spread of the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. These ideas inspired democratic movements and the abolition of feudal systems across Europe and the world.