Revolutions of 1789
Louis XVI ascended to the throne amidst a financial crisis; the state was nearing bankruptcy and outlays outpaced income. This was because of France’s financial obligations stemming from involvement in the Seven Years War and its participation in the American Revolutionary War. In May 1776, finance minister Turgot was dismissed, after he failed to enact reforms. The next year, Jacques Necker, a foreigner, was appointed Comptroller-General of Finance. He could not be made an official minister because he was a Protestant.
Necker realized that the country's extremely regressive tax system subjected the lower classes to a heavy burden, while numerous exemptions existed for the nobility and clergy. He argued that the country could not be taxed higher; that tax exemptions for the nobility and clergy must be reduced; and proposed that borrowing more money would solve the country's fiscal shortages. Necker published a report to support this claim that underestimated the deficit by roughly 36 million livres, and proposed restricting the power of the parlements.
This was not received well by the King's ministers, and Necker, hoping to bolster his position, argued to be made a minister. The King refused, Necker was fired, and Charles Alexandre de Calonne was appointed to the Comptrollership. Calonne initially spent liberally, but he quickly realized the critical financial situation and proposed a new tax code.
The proposal included a consistent land tax, which would include taxation of the nobility and clergy. Faced with opposition from the parlements, Calonne organised the summoning of the Assembly of Notables. But the Assembly failed to endorse Calonne's proposals and instead weakened his position through its criticism. In response, the King announced the calling of the Estates-General for May 1789, the first time the body had been summoned since 1614. This was a signal that the Bourbon monarchy was in a weakened state and subject to the demands of its people.
The Estates-General was organized into three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the rest of France. On the last occasion that the Estates-General had met, in 1614, each estate held one vote, and any two could override the third. Elections were held in the spring of 1789; suffrage requirements for the Third Estate were for French-born or naturalised males only, at least 25 years of age, who resided where the vote was to take place and who paid taxes. Strong turnout produced 1,201 delegates, including 291 nobles, 300 clergy, and 610 members of the Third Estate.
The Estates-General convened in the Grands Salles des Menus-Plaisirs in Versailles on 5 May 1789 and opened with a three-hour speech by Necker. On 10 June 1789, Abbé Sieyès moved that the Third Estate vote proceed with verification of its own powers and declare themselves the National Assembly, an assembly not of the Estates but of "the People." This National Assembly invited the other Estates to join them, but made it clear they intended to conduct the nation's affairs with or without them. A majority of the representatives of the clergy soon joined them, as did 47 members of the nobility. By 27 June, the royal party had overtly given in, although the military began to arrive in large numbers around Paris and Versailles. Messages of support for the Assembly poured in from Paris and other French cities.
By this time, Necker had earned the enmity of many members of the French court for his overt manipulation of public opinion. Marie Antoinette, the King's younger brother the Comte d'Artois, and other conservative members of the King's privy council urged him to dismiss Necker as financial advisor. On 11 July 1789, after Necker published an inaccurate account of the government's debts and made it available to the public, the King fired him, and completely restructured the finance ministry at the same time.
Many Parisians presumed Louis's actions to be aimed against the Assembly and began open rebellion when they heard the news the next day. They were also afraid that arriving soldiers – mostly foreign mercenaries – had been summoned to shut down the National Constituent Assembly. The Assembly, meeting at Versailles, went into nonstop session to prevent another eviction from their meeting place. Paris was soon consumed by riots, chaos, and widespread looting. The mobs soon had the support of some of the French Guard, who were armed and trained soldiers.
On 14 July, the insurgents set their eyes on the large weapons and ammunition cache inside the Bastille fortress, which was also perceived to be a symbol of royal power. After several hours of combat, the prison fell that afternoon. Despite ordering a cease fire, which prevented a mutual massacre, Governor Marquis Bernard de Launay was beaten, stabbed and decapitated; his head was placed on a pike and paraded about the city. Although the fortress had held only seven prisoners (four forgers, two noblemen kept for immoral behavior, and a murder suspect), the Bastille served as a potent symbol of everything hated under the Ancien Régime. Returning to the Hôtel de Ville, the mob accused the prévôt des marchands Jacques de Flesselles of treachery and butchered him.
The King, alarmed by the violence, backed down, at least for the time being. The Marquis de la Fayette took up command of the National Guard at Paris. Jean-Sylvain Bailly became the city's mayor under a new governmental structure known as the commune. The King visited Paris, where, on 17 July he accepted a tricolore cockade, to cries of "Vive la Nation!" and "Vive le Roi!"
As civil authority rapidly deteriorated, with random acts of violence and theft breaking out across the country, members of the nobility, fearing for their safety, fled to neighboring countries. By late July, the spirit of popular sovereignty had spread throughout France. In rural areas, many commoners began to form militias and arm themselves against a foreign invasion: some attacked the châteaux of the nobility as part of a general agrarian insurrection known as "la Grande Peur." In addition, wild rumours and paranoia caused widespread unrest and civil disturbances that contributed to the collapse of law and order.
On 4 August 1789, the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism (although at that point there had been sufficient peasant revolts to almost end feudalism already), in what is known as the August Decrees, sweeping away both the seigneurial rights of the Second Estate and the tithes gathered by the First Estate. In the course of a few hours, nobles, clergy, towns, provinces, companies and cities lost their special privileges. On 26 August 1789, the Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen which comprised a statement of principles to be incorporated into a new constitution. Amid the Assembly's preoccupation with constitutional affairs, the financial crisis had continued largely unaddressed.
Fueled by rumors of a reception for the King's bodyguards on 1 October 1789 at which the national cockade had been trampled upon, on 5 October 1789 crowds of women began to assemble at Parisian markets. The women first marched to the Hôtel de Ville, demanding that city officials address their concerns regarding the harsh economic situations they faced, especially bread shortages. They also demanded an end to royal efforts to block the National Assembly, and for the King and his administration to move to Paris as a sign of good faith in addressing the widespread poverty.
Getting unsatisfactory responses from city officials, as many as 7,000 women joined the march to Versailles, bringing with them cannons and a variety of smaller weapons. Twenty thousand National Guardsmen under the command of La Fayette responded to keep order, and members of the mob stormed the palace, killing several guards. La Fayette ultimately persuaded the king to accede to the demand of the crowd that the monarchy relocate to Paris. On 6 October 1789, the King and the royal family moved from Versailles to Paris under the "protection" of the National Guards.
During the same time period the revolutionary sentiment was similarly on the rise across the border in the Netherlands. In 1786 the Emperor Joseph II began launching a series of liberal reforms in the Austrian Netherlands along the lines of those already introduced in other states of the House of Habsburg, such as the Duchy of Milan. His first reforms included a reform of seminaries in the provinces, followed was the abolition of the Council of Brabant (replaced by a supreme court) in which provoked widespread rioting and even a rising in Brussels known as the "Small Revolution" in May 1787. The suppression of this revolt allowed the Emperor to abolish the Joyous Entry and the rights of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Hainault in June 1789.
In the Prince-Archbishopric of Liege the pro-Enlightenment François-Charles de Velbruck in 1772 became head of an ecclesiastical principality that had become particularly backward in its intellectual life and its scientific and literary studies. Velbrück's attempts to combat social problems like poverty or class inequality were many, but were unable to make a real effect on the deplorable situation. He tried to make changes in many areas, including public health, by setting up the Hôpital général Saint-Léonard to receive and assist the needy, a free midwifery course and establishments to deal with disease.
Velbruck was succeeded as prince bishop in 1784 by César-Constantin-François de Hoensbroeck, hostile to any reform, whose authoritarian rule fanned the flames of revolution. He tried to roll back Velbruck's reforms and reestablish the privileges of the clergy and nobility, having no sympathy for the liberal aspirations of the third estate or for his people's sufferings. He made himself highly unpopular and the principality's inhabitants nicknamed him 'the tyrant of Seraing' after the prince-bishops' summer residence.
The principality's middle classes violently opposed Hoensbroeck's regime, criticising his system as unrepresentative and parasitic, particularly in exempting the nobility and upper clergy from taxation. On 18 August 1789, Jean-Nicolas Bassenge and other democrats met at the hôtel de ville, demanding the magistrates' dismissal and their replacement with the popular mayors Jacques-Joseph Fabry and Jean-Remy de Chestret. The citadel of Sainte-Walburge fell to the insurgents and Hoensbroeck was dragged from his summer palace at Seraing to ratify the election of the new aediles. Some days later the prince-bishop fled to Trier in Germany.
Meanwhile, the insurgent nature of the Revolution was such that the principality was abolished and a republic created. The Estates of the former principality prepared a constitution, including equal taxation for all, the election of deputies by the people and freedom of work. A 'Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de Franchimont' was also adopted on 16 September 1789, largely inspired by France's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
By 1789, the imperial government lacked the necessary means to respond to the instability in Brabant and Liege, as for about a year it's full military resources were committed to the Austro-Turkish War. The Emperor was unable to prevent political dissidents fleeing from his territory to the neighboring United Provinces to organize resistance. In the city of Breda, those who opposed Joseph’s rule over the Netherlands were able to form a kind of government in exile and to organize militarily. In addition to the United Provinces, these rebels were also supported in their goals by the rebels in the Principality of Liège following the prince-bishop’s flight to Germany.
Rebel incursions along the Austrian Netherlands' border with the United Provinces began in the Summer of 1789. On 24 October, a column of Rebel soldiers crossed the border into Austrian territory. After capturing the town of Hoogstraten on 24 October, one of the revolt's leaders, Henri Van der Noot, read a declaration of independence for Brabant known as the Manifesto of the People of Brabant and declared the Austrian government invalid.
The rebel army, led by Jean-André van der Mersch, moved further into the Austrian Netherlands and fought a battle with a numerically superior force at Turnhout on 27 October. Van der Mersch lured the Austrian force sent against him into the town and bitter street fighting ensued. After five hours of fighting, the Austrian force withdrew from the combat.
Following the Austrian defeat at Turnhout, riots began in major cities in the Austrian Netherlands. Unable to maintain control in the face of both the Patriot army and the rebels, Austrian forces retreated from the territory to the Duchy of Luxembourg in the south. On 26 December 1789, the state of Brabant declared its independence from the Holy Roman Empire in Brussels.
[Stats updated to reflect events. Also, colonies got tweaked, this should be the final version pre-update.]