What is the French Revolution?

The French Revolution was a series of rapid social and political changes in the nation of France during the late eighteenth century. 

Prior to the Revolution, French society was composed of the bourgeoisie elite class and the proletariat peasantry. France was in the last dwindling stages of a feudal society, where ownership of land and resources was in the hands of the nobility, but peasants worked the land. As was common in many of the European revolutions, the peasantry were angry that they had no rights to the land they lived on or goods they produced- their labor was exploited for the benefit of the upper class.

This general undercurrent of societal tensions was really brought to a head with the growing debt of the French government and numerous crop failures in the years leading up to the Revolution. Peasants in particular suffered from crop failure because they were giving bigger and bigger portions of the foods they produced to be eaten by wealthier people. Prices of foods sold in markets were on the rise, leading to a number of riots in protest of the high price of bread. Additionally, the French involvement in the American Revolution and an increase in study of philosophy (particularly that to do with social liberty) were major inspirations for the French Revolution.

In 1789, representatives of the Three Estates of French society (the nobility, clergy, and peasantry) met to try and negotiate some of the issues creating conflict. They disagreed over how much power each had in voting, and the Third Estate (the peasantry) threatened to isolate themselves as a group and take charge in the decision making process. The king could smell a revolution brewing, and encouraged the nobility and clergy to cooperate with the peasantry- forming the National Constituent Assembly. Things were slow to progress with the assembly, while the food shortages continued to get worse outside of the halls of government. On the 14th of July, peasants gathered to attack the royal prison- La Bastille- which was a symbol of the king's power. 

Things escalated quickly after the attack on the royal prison. In August, the ancien regime  was outlawed, as was tithing, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was written as a new governmental document. The Declaration held that the highest values of the new France were equality, brotherhood, and freedom- still the motto of France, today.

After the abolition of the constitutional monarchy and the feudal system, France rapidly transformed into a secular, democratic republic which valued the needs and voices of all citizens (now including Blacks and Jews,) over the wants of a privileged few.