Cost of Bread Increasing

In France bread was the majority of the 3rd estates diet. With France not being in the best agricultural state at the time the price for a loaf of bread ended up becoming a whole month's salary. This caused an outrage in the 3rd estate because they needed bread to feed themselves and their families. The French people broke into bakeries in Paris, stole bread, and some bakers were even murdered. This is important because this was the first real act of violence in the revolution and caused King Louis to call a meeting of The Estates General which made the 3rd estate realize they needed to break off.

The Storming of the Bastille

King Louis XVI had soldiers surrounding Paris and the people of Paris were already paranoid that the king would launch a revolt against the national assembly so the people decided they had to do something. They broke into the Hotel del Invalides and got guns but they didn't have gun powder. They all knew they could find gun powder in the prison The Bastille. The crowd went to the Bastille and stormed in killing many of the guards and they decapitated the governor of the prison then paraded through the streets of Paris with his head on a pike. This was the first time they killed government officials and showed a lot of people how serious the revolution really was and the National Assembly not really saying anything about the brutality lead to more violence throughout the rest of the revolution. This also started the trend of decapitating heads during the French Revolution.

The Women's March on Versailles

On the morning of October 5th 1789 a huge crowd of women gathered together and began a march to the palace of Versailles with weapons. They felt like the people of France were being ignored by the monarchs and they wanted to get attention and if they couldn’t get it they wanted blood. When King Louis came out after a few hours and listened to their demands they decided to storm into the palace to try and kill the queen. In the process they murdered many of the royal guards but Marie Antoinette managed to escape. This event is important because it forced the King and Queen to live in Paris and started the reduction of their power.

The Execution of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

After trying to flee to Austria many viewed the monarchs as traitors. This also caused the French government to make the questionable decision of declaring war on Austria. Austria sent a letter to Paris saying that if anything bad happened to the monarchs they would invade Paris. This had the opposite effect on the people of Paris because they knew if Austria won they would put the monarchs back in power. So they decided if they got rid of the old monarchs there would be no monarchy to go back to. King Louis XVI was put on trial and was declared guilty for treason. He was killed by the guillotine and Marie Antoinette was put on trial and executed shortly after. This is important because there was no going back to how things were after this.