Exam #1

This picture shows how massive and gruesome The Terror was during the French Revolution. In this you see the entire town gathered around the guillotine. The guillotine is a structure with a sharp blade dropped by pulling a rope. It was used to execution the people whom were targeted by the town. This method worked a lot better than the previous one, before this time they just used a axe, which wasn't very efficient. Back then sometimes when the axe was used the head wasn't taken cleanly off and it would take a lot of time for it to work, not only was this new way more effective, but also made it a little easier on the victim. In this picture you can also see that this did not bother the townspeople, but it was widely cheered on. This was because of the mass amount of people in each town during the French Revolution. Because of this it made it even harder on everyone with the food and money storage. Another thing this shows is that the executions were done right in the middle of town for everyone to see. Some people of higher ranks would spread false rumors about people just to get them killed. That is why everyone had to be so careful about what they said and did around others because you never knew who would twist and turn your actions and words around.

In this picture you can see the event named The Fall of the Bastille. The Bastille was a prison that was run during the French Revolution. Anyone could be taken to it just for speaking against or saying bad things about the king. If the guards heard that you said anything they would come to your house in the middle of the night and take you away to the Bastille. Only, this jail wasn't your regular jail. The inmates here were tortured severely and it had a horrible reputation around town. So a large mob of townspeople decided to storm it and take it down. As in the picture there was a large amount of people who joined in. They took it down brick by brick, which was quite symbolic because it meant that the building could never torture people like that ever again. This was really one of the first times the French people had the nerve to go against the government, which was really the start of the Revolution.

This picture shows one of the most important aspects of the Revolution, the Tennis Court Oath. The reason it was called that was because the large group of townspeople who had come to the castle in order to take down the king couldn't get in. This was because the king had barricaded himself inside the castle so that he didn't get hurt. So they decided to go out onto the tennis court. As in the picture, there were many many people who were all working and agreeing on a common cause. The agreement was to stick together until France received a written constitution so that their country wasn't a monarchy anymore. They were so forceful and powerful that King Louis XVI was forced to succumb to them and force the other nobility and the clergy to join with them. It is clear to see that whomever was speaking was very well liked and the crowd was firmly in agreement with him. The men in the middle were most likely the leaders of that class of people, or also called deputies. This was a major movement for the French Revolution because it was one of the only times they got the courage up to go against their current government, and it actually worked out for them.

Even though all of these pictures are 3 different events, but they all tie together to show what an impact the French Revolution had. One of the things that is common in all of these is that the people during this period came out of it with a great deal of control. In each of these events it had to do with the people of France getting together as one and going for a common goal of what they wanted to change. Usually the change had to do with the way the government was running things. Another thing about all of these events was that they all changed France very dramatically and long lasting. Overall the effects of the French Revolution came largely from events like these. It was these that helped to change the country's government and future forever.