Thursday, October 16, 2008

Marquis De Lafayette and the beginning of the French Revolution

After the American Revolution, in France, the Marquis de Lafayette wanted rights for the people in France. He came up with the idea when he was in the United States fighting for freedom for us from the British. He talked about this with Thomas Jefferson. After the war, Thomas Jefferson was the Ambassador to France. Then...
King Louis XVI of France wanted to raise taxes. He didn't have any money because he fought a really expensive war with Britian. In order to raise taxes he called for the Estates General for permission. The Estates General are three groups. The First Estate is the clergy, the second is made up of the nobles, the third is everyone else. At that time, there were 28 million people in france. The third estate had 27.5 million people. The third estate had other ideas. They wanted a piece of power and a Constitution. King Luis XVI did not like that, so the third estate gave themselves a new name, the National Assembly. They invited other people from the other estates to join them. Louis got mad and locked them out of the meeting. The National Assembly went to a nearby tennis court and had their meeting there. They made a promise that they would stay together until they got a constitution. The Marquis de Lafayette joined the National Assembly.

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