The French Revolution

* Part 1
* Part 2

**The French Revolution** is a two-part series uploaded by OverSimplified that covers the events involved during the French Revolution, covering the events from Louis XVI's accession to the French throne to the coronation of Napoleon.

## Summary

### Part 1

For centuries, France's clergy and nobility classes took advantage of the Third Estate. France then went to war with the United Kingdom to increase its power; however, the former lost territory and is now in debt. The first two estates did nothing to fix its financial problem. In May 1760, Prince Louis XVI married Marie Antoinette. In 1774, Louis XVI was crowned king of France after the death of his grandfather. As mentioned earlier, France aided the American Revolutionists in their fight against the UK to vengeance for its defeat. France and the Americans won the war, which caused the former's debt to increase. Tensions grew in France as the nobility did nothing to fix it. Several taxes were placed on the Third Estate to help the problem. Violence between peasants and private tax collectors occurred more frequently. Due to crops being ruined, the price of bread skyrocketed. The upper classes weren't affected by it, as they had massive batches of bread and grain, causing peasants to riot. The peasants raided many bakeries during the new crisis. The king decided to summon the Estates-General to find a solution to the problem and raise taxes on the Third Estate again. The Third Estate, which made up 98% of the French population, created a National Assembly and attempted to create their nation.

On June 20, 1789, the National Assembly declared the Tennis Court Oath to continue meeting until the king decided to reform France. As tensions grew, the National Assembly created a militia. On July 14, 1789, a crowd overran a prison fortress called the Bastille, and Governor de Launay was killed. The National Assembly accepted violence during the revolution; Jean-Paul Marat also accredited it. In August, the leaders of the National Assembly, with help from Thomas Jefferson, adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Peasants raided King Louis' palace in Versailles. Marie escaped the palace while Louis agreed to share his power with the Revolutionary government and returned to Paris.

### Part 2

The new revolutionary government stripped Louis's power away for the next several years. Louis tried to remain on good terms with the revolutionaries, then Louis tried to leave France to the Austrian Netherlands. However, in Varennes, Louis and Marie were caught and considered traitors of France. In 1791, a new constitution reduced the king's power and made France a constitutional monarchy country. Radicals didn't like the new constitution and wanted the king's removal instead. A protest of radicals happened to remove the king; however, the national guard shot several people. Tension grew between the radicals and moderates after the incident. The government decided to use a new method to execute people of all social classes. They decided to adopt the guillotine to do the job, and the writings of Marat and several others call to kill anyone who was not loyal to the revolution. Soon aristocrats fled France to other nations in Europe, while France went to war with several European powers.

The French received a letter from Prussia about what would happen to Louis, causing violence to break out in Paris. Louis fled to the chamber of the Legislative Assembly while the radicals gained more power over the assembly. The assembly decided to remove Louis XVI from the throne. The new National Convention created the French Republic on September 22, 1792. The new republic tried to destroy any resemblances of the old regime. When thousands of French troops left Paris to fight Prussia and Austria, the people of France became afraid that the arrested clergy and nobles would revolt and overturn the government. In September of 1792, France executed many nobles and clergy immediately. The government put Louis on trial and found him guilty. Finally, on January 21, 1793, Louis was guillotined. France defeated Austria and Prussia at several battles, and numerous European powers declared war on France. The convention introduced conscription across France, which caused tension all over the nation. Then multiple counter-revolts happened all over France. In 1793, the city of Toulon fell to the British. The government sent a 24-year-old captain named Napoleon Bonaparte to retake Toulon, and he successfully took back Toulon afterward. France's economy worsened, and tension grew in the country. On May 31, 1793, radicals overran the National Convention. Charlotte Corday murdered Marat. Then, Robespierre sent Corday to the guillotine.

Robespierre established a new Committee of Public Safety to execute suspected anti-revolutionary supporters. For several reasons, thousands of people, including Marie, were sent to the guillotine. Soon Maximilien Robespierre went a bit mental and increased deaths in France. However, the Committee of Public Safety executed Robespierre afterward. A new constitution and government called The Committee of Public Safety created the Directory to disallow one person to have almost all power over France. At the same time, Royalists revolted to bring back the monarchy. The Royalists were defeated after Napoleon took control of the situation. He then led the French armies in Italy for this victory. Next, France took over the Netherlands and created a puppet state under their control. Finally, France tried to invade Austria, but Austria defeated the northern army.

In contrast, Napoleon's army caused the Austrians to ask for peace. As a result, Napoleon became more popular in France and overran the government. As a result, France made a new constitution, and Napoleon became the First Consul of France.

## Characters

* Maximilien Robespierre
* Napoleon
* Marie Antoinette
* Louis XVI
* Georges Danton
* Louis XV
* Charlotte Corday
* Jean-Paul Marat
* Bernard de Launay
* Marquis de la Foofayette (mentioned, fictional)

## Transcript

View French Revolution's transcript **here**.

## Errors

* In Part 2 there are two errors:
	+ In a montage at 15:06 where Maximilien Robespierre kills multiple people with the guillotine, the bodies of the executed victims disappear after a new victim gets sent to the guillotine.
	+ When Napoleon Bonaparte got punched in the face, and when the National Guard armed their rifles at the Government, someone is missing at the top. After the Government was dissolved by the National Guard, a person appears at the top and all people there are now mad at Napoleon and the National Guard.[*citation needed*]

## Trivia

* The French Revolution series is sixth series to get uploaded to the OverSimplified channel.
* Both parts of the French Revolution are the sixteenth and seventeenth videos to get uploaded to the OverSimplified channel.
* The French Revolution series is the second series to talk about a historical revolution in detail. The first was the American Revolution.
* The French Revolution was hinted at the end of the American Revolution (Part 2).
* This episode marks the first appearance of the "OOOoOoh NOoOoOo!" running gag.