In France during the Revolution, there were a multitude of different types of riots and revolts that took place for a multitude of different reasons but, the most common was the fact that people were unable to live with the basic necessities and rights that were being promised to them. We are going to focus on three specific occurrences but they are not inclusive of all the revolts and riots that took place during the French revolution. These three occurrences were chosen because they relay the ideals behind different types of revolts, specifically rioting due to pay, riots evoked to help the citizens defend themselves and food riots. The Reveillon Riots (April 23-29, 1789) was the earliest form of insurrection against a figurehead, the reason for these riots is because there was a speech held that indicated that wages were too high and that people could live off less livres (money) like they used to previously. The Reveillon Riots have been called by some historians as the first manifestation of the French Revolution (Rude 35). The Taking of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 happened for a couple of different reasons. Mainly the citizens of France were attempting to obtain weapons and armaments to protect themselves but, the symbolic effects of destroying the concept of ministerial despotism was far more successful (Rude 53-54). Another popular reason that there were riots was because of the food shortages that were taking place because of the severe weather that had destroyed most of the crops across France. In August, 1789 there were a number of different outbreaks of violence, one being the Chatel massacre and another at the Hotel de Ville on Aug. 8 (Rude 67).