4 Marxism is 'a theory of history which assigns a central role to the bourgeoisie as the representatives and beneficiaries of capitalism'.5 According to Georges Lefebvre, 1789 was the moment when this class took power in France as "the great fear allowed the peasants to realise their strength",6 after several centuries of growing numbers and wealth. An interesting interpretation is that there was in fact not one revolution, but four. Firstly, the revolt of the aristocracy, which destroyed the monarchy as the nobility sought to regain the pre eminence in the state of which Louis XVI had deprived them. Unable to affect their revolution alone, the nobility succeeded with the help of the bourgeoisie. Ironically however, this success sparked new ideas in the minds of the bourgeoisie. This can clearly be reflected in the events which unfolded in September 1788 after the parliament of Paris declared that the Estates General would be constituted as it had been in 1614, giving the aristocracy two thirds of the vote. Thus begun the revolution of the bourgeoisie, a class struggle against the aristocracy which lasted until the creation of the National assembly in June 1789.7 The bourgeoisie aimed to form civil equality and establish a regime where all men obeyed the same laws. These ideals stemmed from the Enlightenment, the intellectual product of the right of the bourgeoisie emphasizing the link between various factors which ultimately led to the outbreak of the French Revolution. .
However, just as the aristocracy had needed bourgeois support to defeat the monarchy, so the bourgeoisie needed other elements in order to consolidate their own success. In July 1789, their unstable victory was threatened by a noble inspired royal attempt to dissolve the national assembly. The coup was only defeated by an uprising of the public, whose most spectacular achievement was the storming of the Bastille on the 14th of July 1789.