Louis' indecisiveness and conversatism led some elements of the people of France eventually to view him as a symbol of the perceived tyranny of the ancien régime, and his popularity detroiated progressively. His disastrous flight to Varennes in June 1791, four months before the constitutional monarchy was declared, seemed to justify the rumors tha the king tied his hopes of political salvation to the prospects of foreign invasion. The credibility of the king was deeply undertiminated and the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a Republic became an ever increasing possibility.
Louis XVI (23 August 1754 - 21 January 1793) was king of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, after wich he was subsequently King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before his deposition and execution during the French Revolution. His father Louis, Dauphin of France, was the son and heir apparent of Louis XV of France. Due to the Dauphin's death in 1765, Louis succeeded his grandfather in 1774.
The first part of Louis' regin was marked by attempts to reforme France in acordance with Enlightment ideals. This inclued efforts to abolish serfdom, remoce the taille,
and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics. The French Novility
reacted to the the proposed reforms with hostility, and successfuly
opposed their implementation; increased discontent among the common
people ensued. From 1776 Louis XVI actively supported the North America
colonists, who where seeking their independence for Great Britain, wich
was realized 1873 Treaty of Paris.
The ensuing debt and finantial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the ancien régime wich culminated at the Estates-General of 1789. Discontent among the members of France's middle and lower classes resulted in strengthened opposition to the French aristocraty and to the absolut monarchy, of wich Louis and his queen Marie Antoinette were viwed as representative. In 1789, the Bastille was stormed during riots in Paris, and the French Revolution began.
In a context of civil and internatinal war, Louis was suspended and arrested as part of the inserruction of 10 August 1972, just one month before the constitutinal monarchy was abolished and a republic declared. He was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of high treason, and excused by guillotine on 21 Juanary 1793 as a desacralized French citizen known as "Citizen Louis Capet", a nickname in reference a Hugh Capet, the founder of the Capetian dynasty-wich the revolutinaries interpreted as Louis' family name. In the mean time, the French Republic had been proclaimed 21 September1972. Louis XVI is the only king of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continious French monarchy.
The Catalan independence is a political movement, which supports the independence of Catalonia and the Catalan countries from Spain and France. In the 19th century the main reasons for the independence appeared, this is: that Catalonia is a nation, the language and Catalan civil law, and the claim that Catalonia does not reach its full cultural, social or economic correctly while still part of Spain. The separatism starts in the early 20th century, when some organisations and political parties started demanding full independence of Catalonia from Spain. During the following years, and mainly because of Franco's regime's oppression of Spanish and Catalan people and culture, the movement gained more power. In these recently years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of people who consider themselves independentists, which led to massive demonstrations with more than 1 million people claiming independence for Catalonia. Although the rulling party (CiU) lost some deputies in the parliament of Catalonia because of the austerity cuts, after 2012 elections, the majority of the parliament in Catalonia is favorable to conducting a referendum of independence, and 55% of it is composed of independentist parties. Fully independent parties like Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Solidaritat Catalana per la Independencia (SI) or Candidatura d'Unitat Popular (CUP) , don't form a majority in parliament although parties like CiU or ICV are favorable to independence. Examples would be the current Catalan President Artur Mas and former President Jordi Pujol.
Result of the vote by the Parliament of Catalonia for the declaration of sovereignty
