This is Part 2 of a 3-Part series. In Part 1, we looked at how French Revolution started and then turned into a violent mass struggle.
And while it had turned into a mass struggle, a good number of people were still starving and didn’t care about equality or laws.
Commoners, especially women, thought that their problems existed because the king lived in Versailles, which was prosperous while Paris was full of problems that were unknown to him.
So, women marched to meet the king and were joined by thousands of men on their way.
King ignored the gathering, the crowd became frustrated and barged inside the palace killing a few guards.
King came out to meet people and agreed to share power with the revolutionary government and to live in Paris.
Gradually the revolutionaries took away most of king’s powers and occasionally insulted him.
King’s wife, Marie Antoinette, was from Austria, so king & queen decided to flee to Austria but were caught and brought back to Paris.
With his attempt to run away, people started believing the king was against the revolution.
So, in the new constitution, National Constituent Assembly (NCA) reduced his powers to mere token powers.
The radicals in the assembly demanded complete removal of king and this led to violent protests by them; National Guard, which was so far under the moderates at NCA opened fire killing a number of them.
This exposed the divide between the revolutionaries, with moderates on one side and radicals on the other.
On the other hand, queen’s brother in Austria was worried about king’s and queen’s wellbeing and threatened NCA of consequences if anything unfortunate happened.
NCA was offended by the threat and decided to attack Austria but was defeated.
Austria and its ally Prussia who had gained confidence with their victory threatened NCA again and suggested about restoring back king’s power.
The mob got angry with the threat and raided king’s residence killing his guards; king got scared and asked for shelter at NCA chamber.
NCA voted and decided that king should be removed from power completely; he and queen were sent to a prison.
A month later, NCA now National Convention declared France a French Republic.
In Part 3, we cover the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.
