Clay+and+Will

__Timeline of The French Revolution:__
 * 1661- The Versailles Palace is rebuilt costing France $100 Million
 * 1715- King Louis XIV dies, leaving France with a massive debt (formed from is countless parties and purchases of art)
 * 1774- King Louis XV dies, leaving France with even more in debt from the wars of which they were involved
 * 1775- The American Revolution begins, the French join in the conflict to support the Americans
 * 1783- The American Revolution end, the American victory inspires the Third Estate to gain rights and respect through a revolution
 * 1787- King Louis XVI begins to use brutal methods in order to suppress the Third Estate
 * 1788- A poor harvest year for France, leaves the Third Estate (group most effected by the poor year) in a state of anger
 * 1789, May- The Estate General convens
 * 1789, June- The Third Estate declares themselves at the National Assembly and make the Tennis Court Oath.
 * 1789, July- Paris citizens storm the Bastille, starting the Revolution
 * =====1789, August- The National Assembly issues "The Declaration of Man"=====
 * 1790, March- "The Declaration of Man" is condemed by Pope Pius
 * 1790, July- "The Civil Constitution of the Clergy" requires that all priests take an oath of loyalty to the state (some do, some don't)
 * 1791, June- The King and Queen attempt to flee France in the Flight to Varennes, however they are arrested and taken back to Paris
 * 1791, September- A National Convention is held, the current French flag is adopted.
 * 1792, March- Death by the guillotine is adpoted as France's official method of execution
 * 1792, September- The National Convention abolishes the royalty, and the First French Republic is founded
 * 1793- The Reign of Terror begins. The National Assembly would eventually kill 20,000 people, making Jean-Paul Marat (their leader) a more brutal leader than King Louis XIV.
 * 1793, January- King Louis XIV is executed by guillotine
 * 1793, July- Jean-Paul Marat is killed by Charlotte Corday, a woman outrage by the mass killings of the Reign of Terror
 * 1793, October- Queen Marie Antoinette is excuted by the National Assembly
 * 1794, July- The execution of Maximilien Robespierre, the man respnsible for choosing who was executed during the Reign of Terror.
 * 1794, August- The radical phase of the revolution ends
 * 1795- The National Convention dissolves, the French Directory (a five man government) begins
 * 1796- Napoleon Bonaparte begins his military campaigns
 * 1799- The French Revolution ends, Napoleon restores the National Convention and it becomes fully in control of France

==== France began to experience unrest as the population came to around 20 million people, twenty percent of the non-Russian European population. Most of these people, about 80% lived in small towns. This statistic meant that most people were in the lowest social class of France. ==== ==== Most of the lower class citizens were farmers or, most likely, day laborers. Nearly all peasants were getting only what they could use to feed their families and nothing more. In addition to poverty was in issue over bread. Bread was one of the main food sources for urban citizens, and whenever prices went up, they would rally against bread suppliers. The government would intervene on the suppliers behalf, thus French citizens would find themselves against the government. ==== ==== Perhaps the main source of tension came from the division of classes. France had three main classes of citizens: clergy, nobility, and the common people. Once in a class it was hard to move out of that class. The king was the head of government but he would call for meetings of the estates; the three estates represented the three social classes. Each one was represented equally but in actuality this was not true. Nobles dominated the clergy so two-thirds of the estates represented the high class citizens who made up only five percent of the population. In 1789 the Third Estate, common people, moved for equal rights and began to revolt against lords and nobles by attacking their land. The Declaration of the Rights of Man was made and tension seemed to dissipate, but tension continued to grow as the rights of common people were still suppressed. Eventually revolution gained strength and the people began to push for the National Convention to have power over the king. In 1793 Kind Louis XVI was executed and unrest heightens in France. ====

[] [|http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~imcneely/435/hist435-timeline.pdf] []