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In 1789 the estates met in Versailles. The third estate could not agree on two representatives and boycotted until they could. They become angered when they discover that the representatives would vote by estate, rather than by head-count, (the third estate had more members) they decided to call themselves the National Assembly, and the true representative of national sovereignty. # Because of their actions, the other two estates locked the third estate out of the meeting hall. This forced the third estate to meet on a tennis court, taking an oath to create a new constitution and claiming legitimate sovereignty and an authority equal if not more powerful than that of the king of France. .
What is considered by many historians to be the turning point in the revolutions is the storming of the Bastille. The Bastille was a prison set in the middle of Paris. It acted as a barrier, separating the upper class from the lower class. In 1789 thousands of people from tradesmen, to artisans seized weapons and stormed into the city toward the prison. The crowd of people charged the prison, which was being defended by a small garrison. During the storming, over two hundred died and when the town's people entered the prison, they found only five prisoners. When King Louis the XVI heard of his he asked, "Is it a revolt?" Came the reply, "No, Sire, it is a Revolution." # .
Following the storming of the Bastille, the peasants begin to take matters into their own hands. It has been called the attack on paper. Peasant rebellions helped cause a general panic known as the Great Fear. The peasants would destroy any evidence of what taxes they owed. At this time the nobles would keep record, and if there was no proof, there was no taxes. In addition to the destruction of paper notes, the peasants also took to the rooftops. In 1780's France, only nobles had weather vanes on the roofs of their house.