General. When the body met to discuss financial reforms, middle-class revolutionaries were able to attend and control the outcome, eventually declaring themselves a National Assembly. Thus, Louis XVI’s own hand was involved in helping pave the way for the revolution by allowing the participation of the middle-class revolutionaries.
When Louis realized his mistake he tried to call out troops against the assembly but an angry mob stormed the Bastille and marked the start of what would become a violent and bloody revolution. That same year the mob forced the royal family to move to Paris and Louis remained suspect from the perspective of the revolutionaries because, though he publicly accept their demands for change, he was viewed as having given only lukewarm and slow-coming support to legislation enacting change. Louis XVI also made the political mistake of aligning himself with the Austrians and Prussians coupled with his attempt to escape from France. When France was invaded by the Austrians and Prussians, the revolutionaries declared war on the monarchy and declared a republic in 1792 (Washitaw 2). Louis XVI was tried for treason and condemned to death via the guillotine on January 21, 1793 (Washi
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