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On May 5th, 1789, rather than cutting expenses and increasing taxes, King Louis XVI put off dealing with the emergency until France faced bankruptcy. When he tried to tax aristocrats, the Second Estate forced him to call a meeting of all the Estates Generals to get approval for the tax reform. This was the first meeting at Versailles with all the generals in 175 years.

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On June 17th, 1789, the third estate was eager  to make changes to the government. They insisted that all three of the estates meet together and each delegate have a vote. It was suggested by Abbe Sieyes that the third estate should name themselves the National Assembly and pass laws and reforms to represent the French people.

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Louis ordered the nobles and the clergy to join the third estate in the National Assembly. The king stationed his mercenary army of Swiss guards in Paris because he no longer trusted the loyalty of the French soldiers. There were rumors going around in Paris that foreign troops were coming to massacre the French citizens, so people gathered weapons in order to defend Paris against the king's foreign troops. On July 14, there was a mob trying to get gun powder from the Bastille, a prison in Paris. The angry crowd overwhelmed the soldiers, and the Bastille fell into the control of the citizens. This became a great symbolic act of revolution to the French people. Ever since, July 14th has been a French National holiday, acting like the July 4th of the United States.

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In October of 1789, rebellion spread from Paris to the country side because of rumors that were being spread about nobles hiring outlaws to terrorize the peasants. A senseless panic called The Great Fear, rolled through France. Peasants soon became outlaws themselves, armed with pitchforks, and other farm tools. They broke into nobles' manor houses and destroyed the old legal papers that had them paying taxes, although in some cases, the peasants simply burned down the manor houses.

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On October 5th, 1789, there were 6,000 Parisian women who rioted over the rising price of bread and marched to Versailles.The women broke into Versailles, killed 2 guards, and demanded of many things. They demanded that the National Assembly take into place to provide bread. Then, they broke into the king's and queen's palace killing guards and demanding they come to Paris. After some time, the royal family finally came to Paris and signed the Declaration, putting the National Assembly into action.

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Louis's advisors warned him that he and his family were endanger. Many supporters of the monarchy thought France was unsafe, so they left. In June of 1791, the royal family tried to escape from France to the Austrian Netherlands. As they got closer to the border, they were apprehended and returned to Paris under guard. This attempt to escape increased the influence of his radical enemies in the government and sealed his fate.

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In the September of 1791, there was a constitution created which limited a constitutional monarchy. It stripped the king of much of his authority. This constitution also created a new legislative body, which was called the Legislative Assembly. This body had the power to create laws and to approve or reject declarations of war. However, the king still held the executive power to enforce laws.

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Fearing for their own safety, some members of the National Convention turned on Robespierre. They demanded his arrest and execution. The Reign of Terror, the radical phase of the French Revolution, ended on July 28th, 1794, when Robespierre went to the guillotine. The French public opinion changed dramatically after Robespierre’s death. People of all Estates had grown weary of the Terror. They were also tired of the prices for bread, salt, and other necessities of life increasing. In 1795, leaders of the National Convention made a new plan of government, the third since 1789. It placed power firmly in the hands of the upper middle class and called for a two- house legislature and an executive body of five men, known as the Directory. These five were moderates, not revolutionary idealists. Some of them were corrupt and made themselves rich at the country’s expense.

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In the July of 1793, Robespierre became leader of the Committee of Public Safety. For the next year, Robespierre governed France almost as a dictator, and the period of his rule became known as the Reign of Terror. The Committee of Public Safety's chief task was to protect the revolution from its enemies. Under Robespierre's leadership, the committee often had these enemies tried in the morning and guillotined in the afternoon. Robespierre justified his use of terror by suggesting that it enabled French citizens to remain true to the ideals of the Revolution. He also saw connection between virtue and terror.

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The National Convention had reduced Louis XVI's role from a king to a common citizen and prisoner. Guided by radical Jacobins, it tried Louis for treason. The Convention found him guilty, and by a very close vote, he was sentenced to death. On January 21st, 1793, the former king walked with calm dignity up the steps of the scaffold to be beheaded by a machine called a guillotine.

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