For more than a century before the accession of King Louis XVI in 1774, the French government experienced periodic economic crises resulting from wars, royal mismanagement, and increased indebtedness. Attempts at reform accomplished little because of opposition from reactionary members of the nobility and clergy. As the financial crisis worsened under the rule of Louis, popular demand compelled him to authorize national elections in 1788 for the Estates-General (an assembly representing clergy, nobility, and commoners that had last met in 1614).

The Estates-General convened at Versailles in May 1789. The nobility and clergy immediately challenged the procedure for voting proposed by the commoners, or third estate. After a six-week deadlock, the third estate proclaimed itself a National Assembly with sole power to legislate taxation. The assembly then announced its intentions to draft a constitution. Some re

presentatives of the nobility and clergy joined forces with the assembly, which soon renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly.

In April 1792 the Legislative Assembly declared war on the Austrian part of the Holy Roman Empire. Austrian armies then invaded France. When Sardinia and Prussia joined the war in July, the assembly declared a national emergency. In August insurgents stormed the royal residence at the Tuileries. Louis and his family took refuge with the assembly, which promptly placed him in confinement. Simultaneously, Montagnards under the leadership of Georges Jacques Danton took control of the Paris government. They swiftly achieved control of the Legislative Assembly and called for the creation of a new constitutional convention.

The French Revolution abolished absolute monarchy, feudal privileges, and serfdom; dissolved the large estates; and established equal liability to taxation. The revolution also began reforms in the fields of education, law, and the separation of church and state. The more intangible results of the revolution were embodied in its ideals, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," which became the platform of liberal, democratic reforms in France and Europe in the 19th century.

In April the convention established the Committee of Public Safety as the executive office of the republic. After a Parisian mob forced the arrest of many Girondin delegates, the radical faction assumed control of the revolution. Leadership of the Committee of Public Safety passed to Jacobin leader Maximilien Robespierre, who instituted extreme policies to crush counterrevolutionary activity. From April 1793 to July 1794, the commit

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