The day after the women’s march on Versailles, the National Assembly followed the king to Paris, and the next two years, until September 1791, saw the consolidation of the liberal revolution. In June 1790, the National Assembly abolished the nobility, and in July, the king swore to uphold the as-
This decision was attacked by a small number of men and women who believed that the rights of man should be extended to all French citizens. Olympe de Gouges (1748–
In addition to ruling on women’s rights, the National Assembly replaced the complicated patchwork of historic provinces with eighty-
The National Assembly also imposed a radical reorganization on religious life. The Assembly granted religious freedom to the small minority of French Protestants and Jews. In November 1789, it nationalized the Catholic Church’s property and abolished monasteries. The government used all former church property as collateral to guarantee a new paper currency, the assignat (A-
In July 1790, with the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the National Assembly established a national church with priests chosen by voters. It then forced the Catholic clergy to take an oath of loyalty to the new government. Many sincere Christians, especially those in the countryside, were appalled by these changes in the religious order. The attempt to remake the Catholic Church, like the abolition of guilds and workers’ associations, sharpened the conflict between the educated classes and the common people that had been emerging in the eighteenth century.
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What role did ordinary French people play in shaping the course of the first phase of the French Revolution?