Who is Napoleon? Did Marie Antoinette really proclaim “let them eat cake?” Did the French Revolution actually do anything? Why is everything with the French so confusing??? Hence, this article is a simplification of the French revolution so that everyone can enjoy the chaos that ensued in the land of croissants and iou iou baguettes during the late 18th century.
The French Revolution officially began in 1789. At the time, King Louis the XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette had been poorly ruling over France; they partied a lot and were in a huge financial crisis due to war debts from the Seven Years War (against Britain). King Louis’s solution to France’s debt was to raise taxes, except only for those who were poor. France had a very oppressive class system which was split into three estates. The First and Second Estates were clergy (church officials) and nobility while the Third Estate was everyone else (aka the poor people). When the new taxes were introduced the clergy and nobility were exempt, leaving all debts to be paid by the commoners who were already barely surviving. Enraged by the unjust social structures of France, the Third Estate broke away as they declared independence by forming the National Assembly, and thus officially sparking the revolution.
Heavily inspired by the American Revolution—which the French participated greatly in— the people of France created the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. It stated that all men (which meant only land owning white men) are born with natural rights such as liberty and the right to own land that cannot be taken away or violated by a monarch or church.
The people of France raised an army and stormed Paris, as well as the Palace of Versailles on multiple occasions. This included the March on France when the women of France heard a rumor that Marie Antoinette, when told the peasants were starving from a bread famine, pronounced “let them eat cake!” After countless bloody battles, the people finally overthrew the monarchy in 1793 when King Louis and Marie Antoinette were beheaded (courtesy of the guillotine).
With a new found freedom, the people rejoiced and attempted to form a sort of democracy. Unfortunately the Reign of Terror soon fell upon France, at the root was Maxamillieon Robespeirre. Robespeirre was all for the new France; he coined a new calendar and basically kicked the Roman Catholic Church to the curb. Anyone who opposed the future of France was executed. Soon Robespeirre started seeing opposition everywhere and ended up executing more than 40,000 people in the span of only a year. Eventually, his own disciples turned against him and Robespeirre was beheaded as well.
At this point the people of France were in desperate need of stability. That’s when Napoleon Bonaparte stepped in. Napoleon was a very successful general early in his career, but after his defeat in Egypt he decided government leadership was better suited for himself. Before the news of his defeat could reach France, Napoleon named himself First Consul and later Emperor of France. The people were skeptical at first because they had just fought an entire revolution only to revert back to a monarchy, but Napoleon assured them that there was no need to worry because he embodied the ideals of the revolution. Thus he created the Napoleonic Codes which were a series of reforms that Napoleon spread throughout Europe as he conquered different nations (Spain, Portugal, etc.). These codes recognized that liberty and equality presided over the law but only for men. Eventually, Napoleon pushed his luck too far when he attempted to invade Russia during the winter. 600,000 soldiers went in but only 40,000 came out, the rest died from starvation or due to the severe cold. As the French forces were dramatically weakened, the Battle of Waterloo crushed Napoleon’s dreams of ruling Europe and his regime forever. Napoleon was later exiled and replaced by yet another Louis. So hard fought was the French revolution, full of blood, sweat and tears, that in the end the people referred back to a Louis Monarch, now Louis the XVIII.