WEBVTT 00:00:06.792 --> 00:00:10.501 What rights do people have, and where do they come from? 00:00:10.501 --> 00:00:14.310 Who gets to make decisions for others and on what authority? 00:00:14.310 --> 00:00:19.209 And how can we organize society to meet people's needs? 00:00:19.209 --> 00:00:21.868 These questions challenged an entire nation 00:00:21.868 --> 00:00:25.019 during the upheaval of the French Revolution. 00:00:25.019 --> 00:00:27.409 By the end of the 18th century, 00:00:27.409 --> 00:00:31.441 Europe had undergone a profound intellectual and cultural shift 00:00:31.441 --> 00:00:33.800 known as the Enlightenment. 00:00:33.800 --> 00:00:37.409 Philosophers and artists promoted reason and human freedom 00:00:37.409 --> 00:00:40.070 over tradition and religion. 00:00:40.070 --> 00:00:42.830 The rise of a middle class and printed materials 00:00:42.830 --> 00:00:45.209 encouraged political awareness, 00:00:45.209 --> 00:00:48.749 and the American Revolution had turned a former English colony 00:00:48.749 --> 00:00:51.450 into an independent republic. 00:00:51.450 --> 00:00:55.259 Yet France, one of the largest and richest countries in Europe 00:00:55.259 --> 00:00:59.969 was still governed by an ancient regime of three rigid social classes 00:00:59.969 --> 00:01:02.052 called Estates. 00:01:02.052 --> 00:01:06.769 The monarch King Louis XVI based his authority on divine right 00:01:06.769 --> 00:01:11.040 and granted special privileges to the First and Second Estates, 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:13.781 the Catholic clergy, and the nobles. 00:01:13.781 --> 00:01:17.021 The Third Estate, middle class merchants and craftsmen, 00:01:17.021 --> 00:01:21.390 as well as over 20 million peasants, had far less power 00:01:21.390 --> 00:01:24.461 and they were the only ones who paid taxes, 00:01:24.461 --> 00:01:28.632 not just to the king, but to the other Estates as well. 00:01:28.632 --> 00:01:30.013 In bad harvest years, 00:01:30.013 --> 00:01:33.370 taxation could leave peasants with almost nothing 00:01:33.370 --> 00:01:39.190 while the king and nobles lived lavishly on their extracted wealth. 00:01:39.190 --> 00:01:43.272 But as France sank into debt due to its support of the American Revolution 00:01:43.272 --> 00:01:45.680 and its long-running war with England, 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:47.542 change was needed. 00:01:47.542 --> 00:01:50.767 King Louis appointed finance minister Jacques Necker, 00:01:50.767 --> 00:01:52.381 who pushed for tax reforms 00:01:52.381 --> 00:01:57.432 and won public support by openly publishing the government's finances. 00:01:57.432 --> 00:02:00.713 But the king's advisors strongly opposed these initiatives. 00:02:00.713 --> 00:02:05.132 Desperate for a solution, the king called a meeting of the Estates-General, 00:02:05.132 --> 00:02:07.902 an assembly of representatives from the Three Estates, 00:02:07.902 --> 00:02:12.091 for the first time in 175 years. 00:02:12.091 --> 00:02:16.583 Although the Third Estate represented 98% of the French population, 00:02:16.583 --> 00:02:20.102 its vote was equal to each of the other Estates. 00:02:20.102 --> 00:02:25.462 And unsurprisingly, both of the upper classes favored keeping their privileges. 00:02:25.462 --> 00:02:28.021 Realizing they couldn't get fair representation, 00:02:28.021 --> 00:02:29.913 the Third Estate broke off, 00:02:29.913 --> 00:02:32.003 declared themselves the National Assembly, 00:02:32.003 --> 00:02:37.503 and pledged to draft a new constitution with or without the other Estates. 00:02:37.503 --> 00:02:39.972 King Louis ordered the First and Second Estates 00:02:39.972 --> 00:02:41.782 to meet with the National Assembly, 00:02:41.782 --> 00:02:45.912 but he also dismissed Necker, his popular finance minister. 00:02:45.912 --> 00:02:48.833 In response, thousands of outraged Parisians 00:02:48.833 --> 00:02:53.183 joined with sympathetic soldiers to storm the Bastille prison, 00:02:53.183 --> 00:02:57.447 a symbol of royal power and a large storehouse of weapons. 00:02:57.447 --> 00:03:00.103 The Revolution had begun. 00:03:00.103 --> 00:03:02.385 As rebellion spread throughout the country, 00:03:02.385 --> 00:03:04.724 the feudal system was abolished. 00:03:04.724 --> 00:03:07.994 The Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen 00:03:07.994 --> 00:03:10.614 proclaimed a radical idea for the time - 00:03:10.614 --> 00:03:15.675 that individual rights and freedoms were fundamental to human nature 00:03:15.675 --> 00:03:19.494 and government existed only to protect them. 00:03:19.494 --> 00:03:22.775 Their privileges gone, many nobles fled abroad, 00:03:22.775 --> 00:03:26.864 begging foreign rulers to invade France and restore order. 00:03:26.864 --> 00:03:30.694 And while Louis remained as the figurehead of the constitutional monarchy, 00:03:30.694 --> 00:03:32.984 he feared for his future. 00:03:32.984 --> 00:03:37.135 In 1791, he tried to flee the country but was caught. 00:03:37.135 --> 00:03:41.126 The attempted escape shattered people's faith in the king. 00:03:41.126 --> 00:03:45.405 The royal family was arrested and the king charged with treason. 00:03:45.405 --> 00:03:46.986 Queen Marie Antoinette, 00:03:46.986 --> 00:03:51.507 a foreigner long mocked as Madame Deficit for her extravagant reputation, 00:03:51.507 --> 00:03:54.066 was publicly beheaded. 00:03:54.066 --> 00:03:57.235 After a trial, so was the once revered king, 00:03:57.235 --> 00:03:59.333 ending 1,000 years of monarchy 00:03:59.333 --> 00:04:02.406 and launching the first French republic 00:04:02.406 --> 00:04:07.625 governed by the motto, "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite." 00:04:07.625 --> 00:04:09.977 But the Revolution would not end there. 00:04:09.977 --> 00:04:13.099 Some leaders, not content with just changing the government, 00:04:13.099 --> 00:04:16.396 sought to completely transform French society - 00:04:16.396 --> 00:04:17.796 its religion, 00:04:17.796 --> 00:04:18.909 its street names, 00:04:18.909 --> 00:04:20.356 even its calendar. 00:04:20.356 --> 00:04:22.226 As multiple factions formed, 00:04:22.226 --> 00:04:26.416 the extremist Jacobins lead by Maximilien Robespierre 00:04:26.416 --> 00:04:28.726 launched a Reign of Terror 00:04:28.726 --> 00:04:33.226 to suppress the slightest dissent executing over 20,000 people 00:04:33.226 --> 00:04:36.026 before the Jacobin's own downfall. 00:04:36.026 --> 00:04:39.817 Meanwhile, France found itself at war with neighboring monarchs 00:04:39.817 --> 00:04:43.726 seeking to strangle the Revolution before it spread. 00:04:43.726 --> 00:04:48.237 Amidst the chaos, a general named Napoleon Bonaparte took charge 00:04:48.237 --> 00:04:53.537 becoming Emperor as he claimed to defend the Revolution's democratic values. 00:04:53.537 --> 00:04:56.857 All in all, the Revolution saw three constitutions 00:04:56.857 --> 00:04:59.876 and five governments within ten years, 00:04:59.876 --> 00:05:03.657 followed by decades alternating between monarchy and revolt 00:05:03.657 --> 00:05:06.927 before the next Republic formed in 1871. 00:05:06.927 --> 00:05:09.716 And while we celebrate the French Revolution's ideals, 00:05:09.716 --> 00:05:12.977 we still struggle with many of the same basic questions 00:05:12.977 --> 00:05:15.498 raised over two centuries ago.