When Did The French Revolution Take Place?

The exact date that marks the outset of the French Revolution is July 14th, 1789.  It commenced with the storming of the Bastille prison, that was in Paris.  The incident was characterized as a symbol of oppression and bigotry.  Nevertheless it did not come out as a surprise to King Louis XVI, who was already given enough indication that a war would soon take place, given the crass and horrible condition of the society.  This was done during a meeting of the French parliament which the King had arranged himself in the desperate need of solving his financial problems.  During the meeting, the King was received with a bolt of shock when the third estate, who was a representative of the common people refuted and defied the noblemen and clergy and instead declared themselves as the National Assembly.  An oath was taken by the National Assembly to defend the rights of peasants and the middle class on a whole and restore the elements of liberty, equality and brotherhood.  They pledged to give France a constitution, which would espouse their stance and rid the country of the feudal aristocratic government.  The very promise beheld the inception of its fulfilment on July 14th 1789, strongly inspired by the recent American Revolution in passion and ideology – an event in history that marked the great series of changes in the French society.

In essence, the French Revolution began before the storming of the Bastille, although this event does tend to signify the start historically. The representatives of the Third Estate, while a part of the Estates General in Versailles, decided to form the National Assembly and write up the constitution which would govern the people and put an end to the oppression they had suffered for so long under the monarchy. The constitution included decisions such as: to let the citizens of France have freedom of press and privacy, to reform the monarchy under a constitutional monarchy, to punish all traitors of the country with beheading by guillotine, and to form a National Guard, with only active citizens (tax-paying citizens) being allowed to join. The National Assembly was formed before the storming of the Bastille, and the writing of the constitution was finished much after the event. The Bastille storming can be seen as a patriotic climax of a few hundred Parisian citizens, rather than the beginning of the Revolution.