France in 1789 stood at a breaking point of debt, tax injustice, war, and political deadlock. This course shows how that crisis turned into revolution, then into republic, terror, and unstable rule before Napoleon closed the revolutionary decade and carried its changes across Europe. It is built for readers who want the big arc of the French Revolution, with enough focus on political conflict, faction speech, and state power to make the period intelligible rather than a blur of dates.
The course covers the fiscal crisis under Louis XVI, the Estates-General, the National Assembly, and the struggle over sovereignty in 1789. It follows the upheaval from the Bastille through the fall of the monarchy, the republic, the Terror, Thermidor, the Directory, and Napoleon’s rise, while also examining Jacobins, Girondins, and Royalists in their own political language.