The French Revolution
Description: A deep, easy-to-follow guide to the French Revolution: the social order before 1789, Enlightenment sparks, the economic collapse, the Estates-General and Tennis Court Oath, the fall of the Bastille, the Reign of Terror, Napoleon, and the revolution’s lasting global legacy. Read authoritative sources and primary documents. THE WORLD BEFORE THE REVOLUTION — A RIGID ORDER THAT LEFT MILLIONS VOICELESS For centuries France — like most of Europe — lived under a rigid, hierarchical system where power concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite while ordinary people carried the burden of taxes, famine and forced labor; that imbalance created a pressure cooker of anger beneath a glittering royal surface. Explain in detail: Monarchical dominance: Kings ruled by the doctrine of Divine Right, which claimed that monarchs received authority from God and therefore were not accountable to their subjects; this belief made institutional change nearly impossible without an upheaval. Thre...