The+Working+Class+Revolt

toc =**__Introduction__**=

France was not in a good state after the National Assembly was created. Due to poor harvests, bread prices began to rise. They eventually rose to high very few people could afford to eat their daily bread. Enormous line ups waited in front of bakeries which consisted of people hoping to be lucky enough to get even slice of bread to keep them from starvation. Streets were filled with hungry people, who often got into fights over what was left of food. Riots and protests spread throughout Paris.

=__**Very Brief Summary**__=

Because of a lack of bread, Paris lost order. Scared civilians attacked Bastille and killed Governor Launay, the first major success in the Revolution. Angry women then marched to Versailles as an attempt to kill Marie Antoinette, but instead ended up bringing the royal family back to Paris. This event was known as the March on Versailles. People living in the countryside was afraid that the kind's soldiers and aristocrats would try to stop the revolution, so peasants caused destruction among them. Many aristocrats fled France for their lives.

=**__The Storming of the Bastille__**=

Soon rumors began that [|Louis XVI] was sending hired soldiers to forcibly remove the National Assembly, and possibly stop the riots in the streets of Paris. Civilians began to arm themselves. Eventually the riots had the support of the French guard, as royal leadership had abandoned the city. People began to turn their eyes towards the fortress of [|Bastille], which served as a massive prison and torture chamber as well as a weapons cache. On the 14th of July, 1789, a large mob gathered in front of the Bastille and told governor Marquis Bernard de Launay to surrender, which he refused to do. Angry protesters hacked the gates open with hatchets, but the guards of the fortress opened fire on them, killing several people. The civilians opened canon fire on Bastille, forcing Launay to surrender. Despite the fact that he and his soldiers surrendered, most of them, including Launay, were brutally murdered. This was considered the first success of the French Revolution, but there would be much more violence that would follow.

=__March on Versailles__= After the Storming of the Bastille, women were still mad about the high price of bread. They blamed Queen Marie Antoinette for the trouble they were going through, so on October 5, 1789 a large group of angry and hungry civilians, mostly women, grabbed all the weapons they could get their hands on and marched to Versailles, where the royal family lived. They planned to attack the castle and kill Marie Antoinette if possible. Upon arrival, they demanded that the queen came out to the balcony where everybody could have a clear view of her. She came out with her two children, who were told to leave. The queen of France stood alone on the balcony with hundreds of weapons pointed at her for well over ten minutes. People hesitated to shoot. Eventually, they were so impressed with her bravery that they lowered their weapons, and some cheered “Long live the queen!” The women still wanted food, so they told the royal family to move back to Paris. Reluctantly they did in order to rule over their country. This event was a major turning point in the French Revolution. Women of the Third Estate (women who are not aristocrats – common people) learned that they could also be a driving force of the revolution.



=**__The Great Fear__**=

The Great Fear occurred from July 20 to August 5,1789 in France also known as the peasant’s revolt. In the countryside, peasants were aware that enormous changes were taking place, but they were also fearful. They believed that king’s soldiers and the aristocrats would stop the revolution. These feelings resulted in a panic called the “[|Great Fear],” which spread rapidly through rural parts of France. Peasants stormed the great estates of the rich of the aristocrats, burned them to the ground, and killed hundreds of people. They invaded offices and burned feudal certificates and papers that recorded their obligations to the lords. The "Great Fear" had spread across the countryside, with attacks on wealthy landlords impelled by the belief that the aristocracy was trying to put down the revolution.



=__Bibliography__=

http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/bastille.html http://www.historyguide.org/images/bastille.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storming_of_the_Bastille http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_on_Versailles http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/tpsocialsciences/world_history/dem_ideals/versailles.htm

By Cindy, Albert, Jessie