• Object type: Painting
• Formal Title: l'ouverture des etats-generaux le 5 mai, 1789
• Creator: Prudhomme (from Couder's original)
• Date Created: circa 1800
• Origin: France
• Current Location: unknown

Democracy had been jump-started twice before; in ancient Greece and in Rome. But for centuries it had lay buried and repressed until the upstart United States of America burst to light in 1776, to the refrain of government by the people and for the people.

None of that trans-Atlantic law magic was lost on the intellectuals of France as they watched their monarchy squeeze France to ruin.

This engraving is of the opening day of the Estates-General convened by Louis XVI at Versailles to discuss the financial crisis. However, events soon overcame his limited agenda.

According to the Encarta Encyclopedia:

"First established in 1302, the Estates-General was a French legislative body comprising members of the three groups, or estates, of French society: nobility, clergy, and commoners. Powerful in the 14th and 15th centuries, the body’s importance declined, and it did not meet at all between 1614 and 1789. In that year, called by King Louis XVI in a desperate attempt to stave off civil unrest, the Estates-General voted to make itself a permanent National Assembly. Louis’s efforts to repress the new assembly caused widespread rioting and ushered in the French Revolution."

Robespierre wrote of the event:

"The Assembly held in its hand the destiny of France and of the world."

The interval of Napoleon's dictatorship briefly interrupted France's great experiment but not for long. Though the start line was drenched in blood of the guillotine, democracy was a fait accomplit.

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