Radical Actions in a Moderate Era

The first stage of the French Revolution is described as a moderate era. However, this did not mean radical actions did not occur during this time. One example of this is the women's march on Versailles. Due to the many émigrés (nobles who were leaving France because of peasant uprisings) many working families had no market to sell to .Futhermore there was a rumor the king was fleeing. This caused around seven thousand women on October 5 to march from Paris to Versailles where the king was and demand bread. The women stormed the royal apartments forced the royal family to move to Paris in a carriage following the heads of two aristocrats stuck on pikes. 

"We want bread!!!"

The first stage of the Revolution was also marked by actions of the National Assembly. They changed the calendar and got rid of church holidays so France's connection to the church would be lessened. Furthermore, from the church property they confiscated, the National Assembly created assagnats, a new paper currency. They also established the metric system, wanted people to use "thou", abolished the feudal system, and created 83 departments in order to weaken feudal nobility. Under the National Assembly, the king could really only come up with ideas because law making was left up to the assembly. 

On topic the National Assembly covered was women's rights. They created laws that broadened women's rights such as the right to a divorce or inherit property but the assembly still believed women's primary job was to raise children. Therefore, women still could not vote or hold office.  This was also supported by the idea that women would corrupt the government. However, these discriminations against women did not stop all women from making significant contributions to the revolution. One of the major supporters of the revolution was an english women, Mary Wollstonecraft. Unlike Edmound Burke who believed the French were throwing the baby out with the bath water, Wollstonecraft argued that to guarantee rights, certain steps had to be taken. Furthermore, Wollstonecraft also tried to eliminate the the sexual inequality women faced and wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

The National Assembly and the Moderate Era ended when it disbanded and no current members were allowed to rejoin. This lead to an entirely new group of men joining what would be called the Legislative Assembly. These men were still upper-class like the previous ones but were younger and less cautious than their predecessors. Furthermore, most of them were Jacobins. Eventually, the Jacobins would divide between the Mountain and the Girondists. 

Though the Mountain and the Girondists had their differences both wanted to continue "the war against tyranny." The French invaded many countries and sought to abolish feudalism in each one. Other countries opinions on the French Revolution had at first supported it because that meant France would be weak. However, as France began to invade others, a fear that France might infect other countries began to spread.