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→The Great Fear: Section on the Great Fear
==The Great Fear==
==The Great Fear==
The [[Great Fear]] or panic resulted, as riots occurred and peasants proceeded to burn wealthy homes. [[Louis XVI]] and his wife, [[Marie Antoinette]], were forced from their home in Versailles by a riot of women over the high price of bread. Supposedly the snobby Antoinette responded unsympathetically to the lack of bread for the peasants by declaring, “Let them eat cake!” Historians doubt she ever actually said that.
During the week following the storming of the Bastille, news of events spread to teh rest of France. This led to a panic as to what the response of the nobility would be to the events, The [[Great Fear]] or panic resulted. Many villages defended themselves against imaginary threats by forming peasents militias riots occurred and peasants proceeded to burn wealthy homes.
The rural uprising prompted the National Assembly to pass a motion to 'destry the [[feudal]] regime entirely', on the 4th August. However, in order to relase himself a peasent would have to pay twenty times his annual rent to the landlord, making the measure ineffectual.
==Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen==
The Assembly also passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen on the 4th August. This annuled the right of nobles to demand taxes, tithes and labor from peasents working on their family land. The declaration was inspired by teh American Revolution and was partially written by LaFayette.
Unlike the American declaration that “all men are created equal,” the French version declared that “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.” Unlike the American declaration that all men have inalienable rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the French version declared that all men have natural rights of “liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.” Some of the French declarations seem silly, like this one: “Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.”
[[Louis XVI]] and his wife, [[Marie Antoinette]], were forced from their home in Versailles by a riot of women over the high price of bread. Supposedly the snobby Antoinette responded unsympathetically to the lack of bread for the peasants by declaring, “Let them eat cake!” Historians doubt she ever actually said that.
By then the French Revolution was in full swing.
By then the French Revolution was in full swing.
In 1791, a French journalist named [[Olympe de Gouges]] proposed a “[[Declaration of the Rights of Woman]],” but the National Assembly rejected her proposal. She, like many other leaders of that time, was eventually executed by guillotine.
In 1791, a French journalist named [[Olympe de Gouges]] proposed a “[[Declaration of the Rights of Woman]],” but the National Assembly rejected her proposal. She, like many other leaders of that time, was eventually executed by guillotine.