Absolutism in France and the start of the revolution

In 17th–18th-century France royal power was absolute, and society was divided into three estates: the first the clergy, the second the nobles, the third everyone else (merchants, artisans, peasants, the bourgeoisie). The third estate paid most of the taxes; state debt grew and the treasury ran empty. On 5 May 1789 Louis XVI called the Estates-General to approve new taxes; the deputies of the third estate declared themselves a National Assembly and then a Constituent Assembly. On 14 July 1789 Parisians took the Bastille fortress — celebrated as the start of the revolution. In August the Constituent Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: people are born free and equal in rights, and in 1791 France’s first constitution limited royal power. War with Austria and Prussia began in 1792; the king was overthrown on 10 August, the French army won at Valmy, and in September 1792 the Convention proclaimed the Republic.