They distributed publications that denounced the entire monarchy for their imposition of new taxes and for forcing their religious views into the government.
Doyle brings up that reform was attempted financially before the Revolution began in 1789, whose failed attempts might have been what pushed normally non-violent citizens to have to take matters into their own hands.
Restrictions on grain sales were lifted in the hopes that the sales and eventually government revenue would increase.
Between 1777 and 1781, the treasury system was reformed in the hopes of restoring some faith in the system, but most of the reforms were reversed due to pressure from different financial groups. The government was forced to keep borrowing money at high interest rates despite these "reforms" through the 1780's. In 1786, the new minister of finance proposed a similar plan to the first, asking for floating loans to cover expenses, to revoke some tax exemptions, remove even more grain restrictions and replacement of several taxes with updated ones. The plan was never approved because of a lack of support and eventually dismissed. Parlements were eventually abolished as well, with the restructuring of the judicial system. These actions led to the violent reaction of many of the people. The idea of despotism, or the oppression of a people by an arbitrary ruler was...
When the King got rid of what some considered their "voice" (Parlements), the reaction was strong. They called for a meeting of the Estates-General, which was representatives of the three social classes, or the clergy, nobility and commoners.
In his closing, Doyle speaks about how the revolutionaries were made by the Revolution. I feel this refers to the action that the Third Assembly finally had to take after several wasted weeks of meetings of the Estates-General during which no progress was being made. There were more representatives for the Third Assembly, but the monarchy was very vague in how the voting would occur. After they had waited for five weeks, the Third Assembly finally took over the meetings, and created what is known as the National Assembly. The noblemen and clergy were invited by the commoners to join, where voting would be by head count, not an unequal distribution of power as before. There were movements to disband the National Assembly, then all of the sudden the King agreed to their terms, which brought even more suspicion. Eventually the events came to a head when the Bastille was stormed on July 14, 1789. The Revolutionaries were determined to stop any attempts at disbanding their National Assembly and to destroy the monarchy that was…
