by Karen Ellis

Created on: June 25, 2008

Freedom! That is what the hearts of the French were screaming the day they stormed Bastille, the location of a famous prison. It wasn't entirely about the fourteen prisoners they released, but the act symbolized their unwillingness to allow the monarchy's absolute oppression in their lives any longer. July 14 is Fete Nationale (national holiday) or Bastille Day and is in celebrations of the Bastille raid and the beginning of independence for the people of France

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely." And so it was in the court of King Louis XVI, Louis Auguste, and his queen, Marie Antoinette. Marie was disliked by the French from the beginning because of her Austrian background and expensive life style flaunted in their faces. The monarch's banquet tables were full of the best food that could be found while the French population starved. They retained and continued to amass fine clothing, jewels, furniture, what ever their heart's desired while their people labored long hours in mere rags. The monarchy did not understand nor were they compassionate to the plight of their people.

Where did it all start?

Each member of the French Revolution may have had a different answer to this question. Was it King Louis XVI's rule that started such discontent in the French or was it just the final ruling monarch to put such a strain on the people's lives that forced them to revolt? Were the people unhappy with the Capetian Dynasty or the latter House of Valois or even in the final House of Bourbon? Perhaps some during different reins. There were certainly some rulers more aware of the need to be just and aware of the needs of the people, while others acted much as King Louis XVI.

Certainly the immediate trigger to the French Revolution was when the indecisive ruler, Louis XVI attempted to resolve the ever spiraling finances of the French government. In 1787 Lomenie de Brienne, the finance minister selected members of upper class bureaucrats, nobles and clergy for an Assembly that would influence parliament rule. They were instructed to approve a land tax that would include property tax for nobles and clergy, a thing unheard of up until this time. The Assembly refused and instead asked the King to convene the Estates General, which he did in May 1789. The Assembly grew with power and proclaimed themselves the National Assembly undoing any financial reforms King Louis XVI had attempted at a time when France was near bankruptcy. The streets of Paris were soon full of rioting with

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