Simon Bolivar played a leading role in the independence of all of these countries except Mexico. Bolivar was the first and only President of an independent Gran Colombia during the 1820s.

The passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was greeted by widespread popular acclaim, except (most portentously) by King Louis XVI. In fact, the King’s conspicuous refusal to ratify the document directly resulted in the next urban riot to strike France. On October 5th, nearly seven thousand women left the city of Paris and marched on Versailles. Many of these women were armed with crude but potentially effective implements, ranging from pitchforks to knives and pikes. In addition to their outrage over the King’s political stalling on the Declaration, the women were also incensed by the ever-present bread shortages. When the mob arrived at the gates of Versailles, they demanded that the King ratify the Declaration and resolve the bread deficit, among many other things. Thoroughly frightened, the King sanctioned the Declaration the very next day.

On October 6th, 1789, King Louis XVI and the royal family were forced to abandon Versailles by an armed mob of Parisian women. These women had arrived at Versailles the day before and had been continually protesting the King’s refusal to ratify the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, as well as demanding an end to chronic bread shortages. Fearing for his safety, the King ratified the Declaration immediately, but the crowd refused to be placated – many viewed the King’s swift acquiescence as a sure sign of his untrustworthiness. The crowd began to demand that the King and his family return to Paris with them, so that the people could monitor their monarch more closely. By this point, the King, his family, and his courtiers were thoroughly petrified, especially when they recalled the recent fall of the Bastille and the violent chaos of the “Great Fear.” Believing he had no other choice, the King and his family packed up their belongings and abandoned Versailles for the Parisian palace of Tuileries.

Despite the many sociopolitical alterations set up by the National Constituent Assembly, the members of the Assembly were ill-equipped to resolve the nation’s deep economic woes. As the country’s financial conditions continued to dramatically worsen, the Assembly, faced with the recurring specter of mob violence, seized on a desperate (and rather ill-considered) plan. The legislators decided to use their governmental powers to forcibly seize all property (landholdings and buildings) owned by the Catholic Church within France’s borders; these lands and other belongings would then be sold off, with the proceedings going straight into the national coffers.

In July 1790, after confiscating all Catholic Church-owned property within the nation, the National Constituent Assembly took matters one step further. Now that the Church had been stripped of all its private holdings, some sort of reorganization was clearly needed if the Church was to continue to play a part in national life. So, the Assembly passed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. This new act placed the Church under direct governmental control – essentially, it made the Church a secular branch of the French government. Certain members of the clergy were no longer to be appointed by the Pope in Rome; instead, the French people would hold elections to choose their own bishops and other figures, who would then receive state salaries. Additionally, all religious orders (such as those run by both Catholic nuns and monks) were disbanded, unless they were directly responsible for hospitals or schools.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy proved massively unpopular with French Catholic clergy members, not to mention their counterparts in other countries across Europe. As more and more Church officials raised public objections, the Assembly, in rather foolhardy fashion, decided to reinforce and even increase its hardline stance. Foolishly, the Assembly declared that from then on, all Catholic clergy who wished to be allowed to practice their religion within the nation would have to swear an oath of loyalty to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Naturally, this new edict provoked even more virulent outcries from the clerical community, most of whom refused to take the oath. Pope Pius VI issued an official condemnation not only of the Civil Constitution itself but also of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. This disastrous chain of events created a period of intense hostility between the French government and the Catholic Church which would persist for decades.