I need someone to rephrase these four history assignments (about 2.5 pages total)

profilehcoiki
ap_euro_french_national_assembly-2.docx

Yavuz Sefik

1/28/15

Week 21 Homework

The French National Assembly came to be in a turmoil of chaos and oppression of French commoners; they had a goal of revolutionizing the French governmental system by giving more power to the people and less to the monarchy, and they were partially successful in doing this by passing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Constitution of 1791.

In the 1780s, France was in a crisis. After paying for a costly war to ensure the independence of the Americans, the country was in deep debt. Since all taxes came from the poorest people of France, there was little that could be done in the current situation to alleviate the debt. As a result, the government called the Estates-General into session, which did not happen since 1614. Three estates, or social classes, made up this legislative body: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. Normally, each estate had one vote. However, the third estate, the commoners, did not like this, since any proposal to tax the other two smaller, but vastly richer estates would fail. As a result, the third estate, along with a few clergy members and nobles, formed what they would call the National Assembly, and acted independently of the Estates-General.

This new legislature wanted drastic changes for French society, namely for all people to be seen as equal in the eyes of the government. Church would be separate from state, and people of all levels of wealth would be taxed fairly. The commoners were sick and tired of bearing all of the taxes of the country, even though they, ninety-five percent of the population, owned twenty-five percent of the wealth. The Declaration of the Rights of Man, passed in 1789, ensured that everyone was guaranteed due process in court and that everyone was equal. This basically ended the Ancien Regime that had existed in France for hundreds of years. The Constitution of 1791 added to this declaration by limiting the monarchy’s power. France’s sovereignty now rests in the hands of the National Assembly. These goals seemed to satisfy the people of France, as they were no longer treated unfairly by the king. Unfortunately, France’s internal crisis did not end there, as the radical stage of the French Revolution would begin the next year.