The intellectuals of the city criticised the church and the King's rule, gathering groups of supporters. Many of the ordinary peasants were fed up with the lack of food and enormous taxes.
Eventually the King was forced to call the States-General but each of the three estates (clergy, nobility and commons) wanted different things. Eventually the third estate (commons) declared itself the National Assembly as they had the majority.
Under pressure the King legalised the assembly but called in the armed forces to surround Versailles and dismissed the popular director general Necker. This angered the Parisians and lead to the storming of the Bastille.
Mobilized by alarm over food shortages and economic depression, by hopes aroused with the calling of the States-General, and by the fear of an aristocratic conspiracy, peasants pillaged and burned châteaux, destroying records of feudal dues; this reaction is known as the grande peur [great fear].
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