The French Revolution

On July 14th, the people of Paris, driven to breaking point by centuries of hardship and oppression, rose against Louis XVI and the French aristocracy. They stormed the fortress of the Bastille. The Bastille contained only seven prisoners, but it symbolized liberty. How was a brave nation to be built? By co-operation with the king at Versailles, or by bringing him to Paris to be in closer touch with his people? By imprisoning him when he refused to co-operate? By executing him? By creating a federal republic like the United States? By submitting to the dictation of the Paris mobs? One by one these solutions were tried, but each of them in turn failed. This primary source portfolio tells the story of the Revolution from the events leading up to the storming of the Bastille to the Terror and the eventual execution of the revolutionaries themselves. 10 Primary Source Documents: * The Ancient Regime, a resume of the situation in France prior to the storming of the Bastille * A Chronology * Letter to the Third Estate * The London Chronicle for July 21st to 23rd, 1789 * The Bastille, a contemporary plan, illustrations, and eye-witness accounts of its fall * Pages from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen * The voting list on Louis XVI's death * The "Massacre of the French King" poster circulated in England in 1793 * Page from the "Law of Suspects" of September 1793 * A Portrait Gallery