In the 1780's France was divided into the three estates. The first estate was the clergy, the second estate was nobility, including King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and the third estate was the peasants. The third estate was treated terrible compared to the others, they were given little food or resources. They were tired of being treated poorly and it lead to the revolution.

    first estate             second estate           third estate

The Estates General was called as a meeting for them to discuss the problems, but nothing changed because the third estate was outnumbered by the first and second estate. The third estate had much more people so they thought their opinion should matter more.

vote by head, not by order

Nah

The third estate came together under the name the National Assembly. They were writing a new constitution but the first and second estate didn't want them to so they banned them from the meeting hall. Instead the third estate met at a nearby tennis court and made an oath to keep meeting until they successfully established a new constitution.

They stormed the Bastille to take weapons, then went to Versailles, tearing it apart and forcing the King and Queen out of their home. Their ideas for the revolution were of equality, liberty, and fraternity.

Unfortunately they didn't know how to run a country. Fights and riots started to break out when even a loaf of bread became too expensive. It began the Great Fear, when the fights became so bad that people feared for their lives and were on edge about it.

The National Assembly wrote the constitution of 1791 which King Louis signed. It gave more power to the people, making France a limited monarchy. The National Assembly decided they wanted control over the church which made the clergy angry.

The nobles began to flee France because they didn't like the changes being made. Prussia asked the National Assembly to stop, but they refused and declared war. Austria joined Prussia in the fight.

Bring back the king!!

No!!!

Louis and Marie were scared of the revolutionists, so they decided to flee to Austria. They were caught at the border and captured by the National Assembly.