The France was in a state of alarm.
Rumors spread that the king of France had orderd troops in Paris. Some 7000 people formed a military and fought against the army. Then, some 100 people went in the prison called Bastille.
They released the prisoners and found weapons.
They destroyed the Bastille and sold its pieces in markets so that the people could buy it and take it as a importance that the people broke it.What made the people of France angry?
FRANCE DURING LATE 17th CENTURY:-
The people of France were categorised in three parts - the clergy, nobility, peasantry. Clergy were those who looked after church, nobility were nobles, king, queen and their family and the third party were peasantry which included farmers,doctors, lawyers, businessmen etc.
Most population comprised ony of third party. Louis XIV became The king of France. Though He was the king, he had an empty treasury. This was because France helped 13 American colonies to gain independence from Britain. Also, the king had to look for the family's expenses and to look upon court and troops. The king had to look for the country but there was no 💰 money. So what did he do?, He increased the taxes.
The tax was only paid by third party. The other 2 parties were simply enjoying over the tax paid by third party.
The third party called peasantry were not satisfied by the increase of taxes.
They protested against the king but the king ignored them.
Slowly and steadily, the people formed groups and protested a lot. When the king found an empty treasury, he decided to increase the taxes.
HOW THE KING INCREASED TAXES
because a king has a lot of powers, that doesn't mean that he can do whatever he can. To increase the tax, the king had to call the estate general to increase tax.
The estate general is the political body which increase taxes. The king can only call the meeting to estate general to increase the taxes.
On 5th may 1789, Louis XIV called meeting. To increase the taxes, a vote has to be given from each party. Now there is one person one vote. But in France during late eighteenth century, the voting criteria was one party one vote.
So, the king called the meeting and in the hall of his palace(called as palace of Versailles). The first two parties, the clergy and nobility seated infront of each other whereas the peasantry had to stand back. Both the clergy and the nobility had 300 members and the peasantry had 600 members.
So, logically one party one vote, so clergy and nobility gave their vote and both these parties want to increase the taxes. But the third party didn't want to increase the tax. The king was very confident that he can increase the taxes. But there came a sudden twist! To find out what happened later, do wait for another episode of the series.
Name:- The French Revolution(episode one)
Author:- SCG
episode:- one
