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The assignat was the currency used in France from 1789 to 1796 during the French Revolution. The extravagant spending of the royals and a war starting with Austria caused inflation in the economy which, over time, made these bills worthless. The bills became more expensive to print than the actual worth of the product. In December 1789, the National Assembly issued these assignats as a bond with five percent interest in attempt to pay for the debts that were depleting the economy. However, by September of 1790, they were turned into a paper currency which stimulated economic growth and helped to eliminate the money shortages. The people of France started losing trust in the paper currency and feared the reality of them losing value as inflation occurred, so the assignats eventually started to lose popularity. The outbreak of war between France and Austria in 1792 caused the assignat to lose its value even more, and essentially became worthless. In 1796, the assignats were officially replaced with currency known as the mandats territoraux which valued at one mandat equalled 30 assignats. These mandats never gained public confidence because of the failure of the assignats, so the Directory was forced to returned to metallic currency on February 4, 1797.

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Danton was a prominent figure of the French Revolution in many aspects. In 1792, he sparked the ideas of overthrowing the monarchy through powerful and and provocative speeches, which gained him popularity. In the same year, he was elected into the National Convention and is arguably known as its most dominant figure. He voted for the execution of the King and even though he was opposed to the Revolutionary War at first, he eventually got involved in the war by supplying the war effort. Danton's political rival was Robespierre because Danton wanted to slow the Revolution, negotiate peace with Europe, and rebuild France. Eventually, Danton was disgusted by the events of the Reign of Terror that he resigned from politics until late November 1793. He was accused of attempting to slow down the Revolution to take control of the entire country and essentially become a monarch, so he was put on trial and charged with corruption and attempting to return to monarchy. He was found guilty and on April 5, 1794, him and 14 of his political supporters were sent to execution by the guillotine.

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By the summer of 1789, there were high tensions present in France with the lack of intervention by King Louis and Marie Antoinette during a time of starvation and suffering of the third estate. On July 13th, royal authorities ordered 250 barrels of gunpowder to be transferred to the Bastille, a prison in Paris. After the news spread of the transfer of gunpowder, a mob of third estate members arrived at the Bastille armed with muskets, swords, and various makeshift weapons two days later. The guards inside the prison surrendered, allowing the mob to steal the gunpowder and free the prisoners inside the jail. The fall of Bastille was the mark of the end of the Old Regime and the beginning of the violent years of the Revolution to come.

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The birth of France as a republic was initiated by a group of 749 third estate members, called the National Convention. The National Convention governed France from September 20, 1792 to October 26, 1795, and made dramatic changes to the way society functioned during these three years. They vowed to create a new constitution and, in the process, overthrew King Louis XVI from his position as the monarch and declared France a republic. This declaration took power from the King and distributed it among the people to make changes to the government as they deemed necessary. The republic would have elected representatives and an elected leader similar to a president who would make decisions in the name of the people and for the people.

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Jean-Paul Marat was one of the most radical political leaders during the French Revolution, which means he wanted to overthrow the monarchy and take the king out of power. In August 1792, King Louis was put in jail, and Marat subsequently called for the death of anyone who continued to support the King. This brought about a violent nature to the Revolution, which lead to the massacre of 1,000 people, from the former aristocracy, in a Paris prison. By the summer of 1792, radical ideas about the Revolution were becoming more popular, which in turn, gradually made Marat well-liked. In September of 1792, he was elected into the National Convention and became the face of the Jacobins-a radical political group that was a part of the National Convention. The Jacobins went directly against the Girondins who were the moderates of the Revolution. Then, on July 13, 1973, a woman, who was a part of the Girondins, named Charlotte Corday stabbed Marat in his home because she thought of him as a threat to the Girondins.

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The National Convention made a group called the Committee of Public Safety who ensured the safety of the public by reporting suspected anti-revolutionists and executing them. A man named Maximilien Robespierre was elected head of this committee and the events that followed his election were known as the Reign of Terror. He quickly became a dictator over the people of France, arresting 300,000 and executing 17,000 suspected enemies of the Revolution from September 1793 to July 1794. On July 27, 1794, Robespierre and his allies were arrested and taken to a prison in Paris where Robespierre was refused entrance to the prison. He then fled to Hotel de Ville where he perceived the news that the National Convention declared him an outlaw. After hearing the news, he attempted to shoot himself, but only injured his jaw in the process. The evening after the attempted suicide, Robespierre, along with his allies, were executed by the guillotine.

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Louis XVI ascended to the royal throne in 1774 and proved to be immediately unworthy for the position. He was extremely indecisive and indolent, which was apparent when he ignored the pleas from the third estate about starvation and the inability to pay the debilitating tax of half of their income. In October of 1789, an angry mob marched to Versailles, so in fear of getting attacked, the royal couple moved to the Tuileries where they hid from the angered French people. The opposition of the royal family became so powerful that they attempted to flee to Austria where Marie Antoinette was born. They were stopped at the border between the two countries and they were caught trying to flee. The family was taken back to Paris where they received horrible backlash after attempting to flee and became traitors of France. The French people lost trust in King Louis, so after a close decision, he was sent to the guillotine to be executed on January 21, 1793.

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On August 13, 1792, the royal family was captured and this began the months of captivity that Marie Antoinette would have to endure. She was separated from her children and was housed in a cell alone for the months leading up to her trial. She appeared before the Revolutionary Tribunal on the day of her trial and they charged her with aiding Austria, which was an enemy to France, and inciting a civil war within France. They also charged her with suspected incest between her and her son, but she finally spoke up for herself and denied those charges. The Tribunal found her guilty and ordered her to execution by the guillotine. On October 16, 1793 she was executed.

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The French Revolution was characterized by the thousands of executions made by new technology called the guillotine. Joseph Guillotin presented his machine that would allow quick executions with no torture, which was favored by the enlightened thinker Beccaria. His creation was quickly accepted and was made the primary consequence of any misconduct in France at this time. By 1792, around the time of Marat's presence in politics, lists were being made of suspected anti-revolutionists who would be sent to execution by the guillotine if they were found guilty. These lists, as pictured below, were sold in the streets of Paris and would be spread to those who could send the suspects to execution. When Marat was brutally stabbed to death, the woman Charolette Corday claimed to have a version of these lists and offered to give the names to Marat. She was lying at the time about owning one of these lists, however; it shows the extent one would go to have the names of the enemies of the Revolution and to have them executed.

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On June 20, 1789, members of the third estate made a dramatic act of defiance against the inequality in the estates-general. The representatives of the third estate realized they would always be outvoted by the first and second estate because they had two votes and the third estate only had one. The representatives were locked out of their usual meeting spot at Versailles, so they moved to a nearby tennis court and met there instead. They made an oath here to not separate until they made a new constitution to govern France. On June 27, king Louis XVI ordered the clergy and the nobility to join the third estate and form the National Convention. The National Convention then continued to make decisions regarding how to govern the society without a monarch.