Fool Proof: The French Revolution Apr23

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Fool Proof: The French Revolution

In the beginning there was the AR, the Ancien Regime. This was a system that gave disproportionate power to the king and his nobles. They were the PC: the privileged classes.

AR = PC

Not everyone was happy: the Third Estate – TE – wanted a bigger slice of the cake. The Middle Classes – MC – belonged to the TE; they were educated and ambitious: EA

MC = EA

Because of a bad recession, the king called the Estates-General (EG) to raise taxes. Nobody liked this, especially the TE and the MC. They took the Tennis Court Oath (TCO); this meant they were going to fight for change.

EG v. TCO

The TE/MC set up their own, alternative parliament, the National Assemby (NA) which wanted a constitutional monarchy. (CM) Now there were two parliaments: the EG and the NA. The king outlawed the EG. The NA was the only game in town.

NA wants a CM

The National Assembly wanted guns to protect their parliament. The guns were in the Bastille. They stormed it.

SOB = Storming of the Bastille

Louis freaked out and tried to escape but he was caught. The NA became the National Convention (NC) and it wanted something new: a republic (R)

NC wants an R

The king is killed by guillotine. The NC goes all paranoid, with good reason: it institutes the Reign of Terror (ROT) which was run by the Committee of Public Safety (CPS). All suspected and actual enemies of the Revolution are either arrested or executed. Robespierre (Rob) did that, mostly.  The Directory (Dir) had Robespierre killed.

ROT   Rob.   Dir.

The Revolution calmed down a bit, and even inspired other countries, like Ireland.

AR, PC, MC = EA,  EG v. TCO,  NA wants a CM,  SOB, NC wants an R,   ROT,   Rob.  Dir.

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