The French Revolution in Paris in the Year 1789 - Research Paper Example

This is the capital city of France and it experienced a number of events in the year 1789 that saw its revolution. This was the Renaissance or period of discovery all over the world and Paris is one city that experienced the Renaissance first hand. This paper will discuss various events, their causes and consequences in Paris in the year 1789, most specifically the French Revolution. The Renaissance is one of the most interesting and disputed periods of European History. Many scholars consider it as a period with its own unique characteristics.

It was a historical era with a lot of discovery made on literature, politics, art, religion, social life and music. The renaissance period is also known as the period of rebirth because aspects such as learning, literature and arts were reborn after a long dark period where they had almost been forgotten. There had been long years of cultural darkness since most of the learning and culture of the ancient time had been forgotten. It is during this period of rebirth that led to the French Revolution in Paris city of France in the year 1789.

In Paris, the French Revolution was also called the Revolution of 1789. During this time the people of Paris were being driven by three ideologies, liberty, equality and brotherhood (Kent 1). These are the goals that the citizens as well as leaders of Paris wanted to promote but this could still not promote the gruesome Reign of Terror which lead to a number of losses of lives. The French Revolution started as a result of the economic crisis that France was facing after having supported the American Revolution between 1775 and 1783 (Wilde 1).

The financial crisis led to an increase cost of living with the burden being felt majorly by the peasants and bourgeois who were the main tax payers. As a result there was the big question of who should solve the situation, the clergy, nobility or the common people? (Kent 1). There was another question of why all these groups should not be treated equally in terms of payment of taxes. With these questions, the people wondered if they were all equal, why was there a king to govern them. Thus, the French Revolution was a result of economic and social problems; people were tired of the monarchy and wanted a change.

As a result of all these problems, The Estates-General met at Versailles on May 5, 1789 and they were divided over a fundamental issue on whether they should vote by head giving advantage to the Third State or by estate whereby the two privileged orders might outvote the third, the Commons (Cody 1). Thus, the bitter struggle on this legal issue drove deputies of the Third State to declare themselves the National Assembly in June 17, 1789, and threatened to proceed without the other two orders, Clergy and Nobility (Cody 1).

The King Louis XVI was not pleased and locked the Commons out of his meetings; however, they stayed around his Tennis Court advocating for a written constitution on June 20th 1789 (Wilde 1). On July 10 the National Assembly was renamed the National Constituent Assembly by the third estate, meaning that it was an assembly for ‘the people’ as opposed to what it was earlier as an assembly of the Estate (Wilde 1). This would ensure that the needs of the common citizens were looked into in contrast with the earlier situation where only the high class citizens, nobility and clergy, got their needs while the commoners suffered.

The height of the