2. Journal Entry I
May 5,1788~1789
All the peasants were demanding food. A new king, Louis XVI, promised us that he was
going to provide bread and never would raise taxes. But that speech was just to make
himself king. After Louis XVI became king, everything became crazy. People revolted
against the King. Many people died by the soldiers who were defending the palace and
their head were rolling on the ground. But they never gave up. I was thinking that do I
have to revolt against the king with him or not. I just stayed at my home and watched
them. They looked extremely angry and sad. Marie Antoinette, the queen of France had
an exact same personality as Louis XVI. She never give us bread, and Louis XVI was
keep increasing the taxes. It was so unfair that us, the third estate had to pay more money
than second and third estates even through we’re numerous times poor than them.
A year later, all the people and the king had a National Assembly. We had chance to talk
with the king so I talked to the King politely that we want more breads and low taxes.
Louis XVI said that he will think about it, but he didn’t even change the amount of breads
and taxes for 3 months. I finally realized that I have to join the rebellions and rebel
against the King. Even through I was full of madness, I was still a little bit scared and
nervous because I don’t want to die. In this age, 18. I’m not even an adult yet, and the city
didn’t looked like what I was dreaming. I stood in the middle of the rebellions, and
revolting against the kin with them. The people who were in front of me were keep dying
by the guards and the soldiers, and I was scared that what if I die. I moved myself to the
middle of the survivors and began to rebel again. The kind never gave up, and we’re keep
revolting…
4. Journal Entry II
July 14, 1789
Today was an unbelievable day for the Third Estate. We stormed the Bastille to protest how we
have been treated. We needed to fight back. This historic day has been brought about because of
months and years of mistreatment by the King.
In the National Assembly, second and third estates which are nobles and peasant joined the
national assembly to convince the king because King Louis XVI is unfairly treating us and nobles.
He is not giving enough breads and was keep raising taxes. We, the bourgeoisie was feeling an
extreme depression and were irate in the other hand. After the National assembly, feudalism is
abolished and the king seemed like he is giving enough breads and was not raising the taxes for us.
But it was just for few days.
Later on, King Louis XVI rose taxes again. We were so angry about it so we decided to revolt
against the King.
All the bourgeoisie and nobles decided to attack the Bastille in 3days. We gathered around and
had a discussion and a plan how we going to attack the bastille. Three day later, we stood in front of
the gate of the Bastille and got ready for the battle. We shouted "King shall treat us same as the
church(1st estate)!" We burnt the house and resting places in the bastille. From now, it is the real
revolution. I'm not scared anymore. I felt very impressive when I burned all the houses. This incident
is called the "Storming of the Bastille" and the reason why this incident is called the Storming of
the Bastille is because we were rebelling against the King in the Bastille. King Louis XVI tried to run
away from us, but he is arrested by us. Few days later, King Louis tried to regain his supreme
power but us, and also the first estate doesn't want him to come back, so I could get the power
again. After King Louis is executed by Robespierre, it was not a monarchy anymore. We were
happy that the King is not ruling over us with his authority power, but we are also worrying about
who is going to be a new king.
6. Journal Entry III
June 20 1792
We have finally done it. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the citizens was
written and adopted by us and to be formally approved by the King. We will never be
forgotten in the hearts of the Third Estate, it was the great victory for the National
Assembly.
After the Storming of the Bastille, it made a huge difference of citizen. After the
storming, A peasantry revolt occurs in France about abolishing feudalism and the
three social estates.
King Louis XVI lost his power and ran away to Paris with his family. After the king left,
nobles are abolished and middle class took the power. King Louis XVI is soon had to
come back to France. When he came back, he wanted to regain the power of authority,
but all three estates disagreed and didn't want him to regain the power. The king
doesn't exist in France now, but the price of the bread and the taxes didn't decrease
that much. We were still in poverty.
Robespierre, the one who also joined the National assembly called King Louis XVI to
the France again from Paris. King is executed by Robespierre in the guillotine, and all
the followers of the King Louis XVI are also killed in the guillotine. After this incident,
Robespierre become really famous inside of the population of Third estate.
Robespierre killed King Louis XVI and his all followers, and that is the right thing to do,
but after he began to take power, he became very greedy, with killing more people.
When can I see a good leader…
8. Journal Entry IIII
April 1793
The choice what we chose was completely wrong. Robespierre seemed like he is going to be a good
leader of France, but he was more than 90% same as King Louis XVI, and I realized that the power can
change everything even personality of human.
After Robespierre gained power, he became a killer. While the constitution is being created he killed
more and more dissenters and its about 20,000 people. Before he took the power, he looked every
confident and trustful because he killed King Louis XVI and his followers, and he was also in the national
assembly with rebelling against the King. We thought he is going to carry us and lead us but after he got
the power, he is not even focusing on how we are starving and poor. He is just concentrating on killing
people who are showing insubordination to him. He was the leader of the Jacobins, and the leader of
public safety, and thats another reason why we chose him as a new leader. The citizen who committed
no real crimes but merely had social or political agendas were also killed.
One day, I was just walking down the street, and saw a bunch of people crowded watching something. I
wasn't even caring what's going on, but one thing made me to look what was happening there. All the
people looked very shocked and some of them were screaming. When I went closer to the place, I
couldn't believe the violence going on. I saw Robespierre looking angry and a head that was rolling on
the ground with blood, and I realized that he killed another person just now. I haven't seen him killing
people with my eyes because I just heard from people gossiping. I was very confused. I couldn't believe
how he killed a young man with the guillotine and just leaving that place. In that time, an old woman who
was crying seemed like that young man's mom. She suddenly stopped crying and hold the stone and
tried to hit Robespierre with it. But unfortunately, Robespierre realized, and beheaded that old woman,
too in public. I also wanted to kill Robespierre just like how an old woman tried, but I was too scared of
dying when I saw two heads rolling on the ground…
10. Journal Entry V
November 9, 1799
5 years. It was a huge gab between Robespierre ruling France. It was an absolute riot 5 years
ago. After Robespierre was named the "Supreme Being" of the National Convention, he
began killing almost everyone he saw for being against the revolution and sent them to the
Revolutionary Tribunal. He also killed people who were just staring at him because he thought
they are also against the revolution with looking at their eyes. He was so insane with killing of
the people that he was forced to resign from the National Convention but he refused. He
killed almost 40,000 people in total, and I wanted to tell everybody who didn't know how many
people did Robespierre killed, but if Robespierre hears what I said to them, I will be executed
by him so I couldn't tell anyone before he leave or die.
As time passes, citizen are hating Robespierre more and his popularity is keep going down as
he kills more people. He was known as a killer not a leader of France. He was just a dictator.
The Jacobins couldn't just dissolve so easily. Jacobins created a new directorate rule,
consisting of five of themselves and named it the Directory. But it wasn't effective like the
National Assembly. It started out as a failure, and ended with failure.
6 Months later, I heard that one person who is called Napoleon Bonaparte is going to rule the
France. I saw him, and he seemed like a ruler who could do some good things for France. But I
was worried that what if he is also crazy at the power of authority and act like Robespierre. But
with looking at his attitude for France, he was absolutely different than Robespierre. He helped
develop military systems. This is significant because it helps people kill opponents. He also
helped spread nationalism especially to Germany and Italy. We thought Napoleon is a king,
but he said he is an Emperor of France. Other than everything, he especially helps the military
to fight against people and win the war.
