The French bourgeois revolution broke out not from scratch. The following events served as a spark for its ignition.
In the late 80s of the 18th century, France suffered the consequences of natural disasters, lasting from 1785 to 1789: a city that destroyed the crop, droughts, cold winters. Prices for the most necessary foodstuffs have risen sharply. In addition, France signed with England in 1786 a trade agreement unfavorable for national producers of wool and cotton to reduce the tax on the import of goods of this type. Unemployment began to flourish.
The government, beingware of bankruptcy, found a way out by imposing a tax on the nobles and the clergy. Naturally, the notables - representatives of high society - were outraged by this decision and for the first time showed disobedience to the king. The king, in turn, was forced to assemble the highest organ - the General States. But the traditional voting on the camps did not take place, as the representatives of the third camp refused to vote according to the old model and proclaimed themselves and the indignant part of the clergy and nobles of the National Assembly. The guardsmen of the king tried to disperse the deputies, but they said that they would disperse only after they met their requirements. The king ordered them to be left alone, however, a few days later, on his orders, troops were sent to Paris.
The National Assembly, considering it its goal to establish a new political regime in the country , on July 9, 1789 declared itself the Constituent Assembly. Three days later, anxiety in the capital grew into an armed uprising. It began with an attempt by the rebels to seize a weapons depot, which was located in the old, long-inactive fortress of the Bastille. Negotiations did not lead to anything, so the fortress was stormed on July 14. This is the day the French Revolution of 1789 began.
Events in Paris became an example for other cities of the country. The revolutionaries completely took power into their own hands. They formed their bodies, issued their laws and decrees. Armed forces also appeared in the new government - the National Guard. The peasants joined in the uprising, too, who took the call to destroy the feudal lords too literally and stopped paying anything. However, the Constituent Assembly, personifying the new government, was to give answers to all the questions that the French bourgeois revolution posed to the people.
In the early years of rule, it carried out some reforms relating to many aspects of public life.
First of all, the French bourgeois revolution led to economic changes in the state and society:
- confiscation of church lands and the proclamation of their property as a nation, as well as the sale of this property. This was done to counter the financial crisis and weaken the power of the church;
- liquidation of workshops, deregulation of production by the government;
- the abolition of domestic taxes and other restrictions that actually only hindered the development of trade and industry.
The administrative and social transformations that the French bourgeois revolution entailed were:
- the abolition of the inheritance of noble titles and division into camps;
- Establishment of state control over the church;
- the abolition of the old administrative system and the division of the country into 83 departments.
But perhaps the main result of the great French bourgeois revolution was the adoption by the Constituent Assembly of the “Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights”, which proclaimed people free and have the same rights from birth, and agrarian decrees. They became the beginning of the creation of a new constitution, completely changing the socio-political system of France.