Government were decentralized and hard to coordinate during Louis XVI (1754-1793) and unable to raising taxes to pay off debt from wars.
•Middle and upper-class reformers demanded both political and social changes.
•The commoner formed a popular National Assembly and Louise XVI was forced to accede to demands for constitution.
•An Ill-Fated Constitution – aristocratic privileges were abolished and church land was confiscated.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man (Liberty, equality, and fraternity).
•Persistent rumors of the king’s imminent return to absolute power, Louise XVI was convicted of treason, deposed, and then beheaded in June 1793.
•Reign of Terror under Robespierre – executions by guillotine ordered by the Committee of Public Safety became commonplace.
•The results of the French revolution did not achieve its desired ends.