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302 A History of Sweden
B. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEON
BONAPARTE
The Meeting of the States-General. The same year
that Gustavus III carried out his second revolution in
the Swedish government, 1789, there began in France
the great world movement known as the French Revo-
lution. Great French writers like Montesquieu, Vol-
taire, Rousseau, Turgot, and Diderot had prepared the
minds and hearts of the French people for the great
world events that were to be enacted in France. The
bankruptcy of the French government finally compelled
the king, Louis XIV, to summon the Estates of France,
known as the States-General, which had not met for
one hundred and seventy-five years. It was composed
of about 1,200 members, more than half of whom be-
longed to the Third Estate or the unprivileged classes.
It had formerly been the rule for the Estates to sit in
separate chambers and vote in separate bodies, but
now the members of the Third Estate insisted upon
having the three Estates sitting together and voting
as one body. This was the first act in the Revolution.
The National Assembly. The Third Estate carried
their point, the Estates disappeared, and the new body,
composed of the members of all the Estates, assumed
the name of the National Assembly. The privileges of
the nobles were abolished; church property was con-
fiscated; a civil constitution was given the Church, and
a national constitution was prepared and confirmed,
establishing a government by a Legislative Assembly
and the king.
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