r1618th

The Great Fear 1789 Forms of political protest, reform, and revolution The Great Fear (July 20 to August 5, 1789) which took place shortly after civil unrest in Versailles and the famous storming of the Bastille, was mostly a series of rural revolts. Motivated by rising Grain prices, a severe grain shortage and in fear of further exploitation by the Nobles peasants soon began to revolt all across the countryside. Peasants attacked the nobles estates and manors, and burned documents that stated the peasants obligations on the nobles estates they had worked on. In some places peasants went as far as undoing enclosures and reoccupying the old common lands, which for hundreds of years had been used for agricultural purposes by the entire community, forests whose use had only been privileged to nobles were seized made open for everyone to use. The peasants revolt against exploitation by the nobles was heard and weeks later the nobles and landowners themselves renounced their feudal rights in hope of bringing the violence in the countryside to an end. Peasants now were no longer bound by any manorial law and had the right to go hunting, farming etc. wherever they wanted an were not obligated to work for any noble. Overall the Great Fear was a very effective revolution because it also brought about tremendous reform that met the revolutionaries demands and put an end to the nobles unjust rule on the french countryside.

McKay, John P. __A History of Western Society__. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003