The French Revolution

EHAP

Preliminary Stage

Causes of the French Revolution

The Enlightenment

Political & Legal Equality (Rousseau)Personal Freedoms (Voltaire)Social Contract (Hobbes)Popular Sovereignty &

Natural Rights (Locke)Global Influence of

Enlightenment ValuesAmerican Revolution

Overthrow the ancien régime (old order)

Inept Ruler? King Louis XVI

Financial Crisis

During 1780s, 50% of revenue went to pay off debtsAmerican Revolution?Lavish lifestyle of the monarchy

Series of bad harvests 1787 & 1788Bread prices went up 50% in 1789

Need for tax reformLouis XVI hoped to raise taxes on ancien régimeAristocracy resisted reformsForced Louis to call the Estates-General for the first time

since 1614

Estates General

First Estate: 100,000 Catholic clergyDid not pay taxes

Second Estate: 400,000 noblesExempt from many taxes

Third Estate: Rest of PopulationSans-culottesProvided bulk of French tax

revenue

Discussion Questions

What were the similarities between the long-term causes of the

American and French Revolutions? Differences?

Initial Stage(1789-1791)

Calling of the Estates-General

May 5, 1789

The National Assembly

Liberty, Equality,

Fraternity

June 20, 1789

Storming of the Bastille

French citizens fearing King Louis XVI would use violence to put down the revolution stormed the Bastille on 14 July 1789

Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen

Passed by the National Assembly on August 26, 1789

Not a Constitution but a statement of general principalsDefines individual and

collective rightsDoes not address women

or slavery

Women’s March

Storming of VersaillesOctober 1, 1789

Crisis Stage(1792-1794)

Radicals Take Control

Arrest of Louis XVIAugust 10, 1792

Execution of Louis XVI

January 21, 1793

Radical Reforms of the Jacobins

Universal adult male suffrageAbolished slavery

Fuels Haitian Revolution

Universal military conscriptionIncreased rights of women

Could not participate in politics

Attacked Catholicism Spirit of nationalismSet price controls & seized crops from farmers

Festival of the Supreme Being

Reign of Terror

“The first maxim of our politics ought to be to lead the people by means of reason and the enemies of the people by terror.”

Led by Maximilien Robespierre

According to records 16,000+ died under the guillotineHistorians estimate

could be as high as 40,000

British View of Reign of Terror

End of the Terror

July 28, 1794

Discussion Question

How were the actions of American radicals and French

radicals similar? How were they different?

Recovery Stage(1794-1815)

Napoleon Bonaparte

Moderate government, the Directory, rules for four years following Reign of TerrorFailed to solve economic

problems of France

Napoleon staged a coup d’etat in 1799Becomes emperor in

1804

Domestic Policies of Napoleon

Maintained some rights gainedduring the revolutionFreedom of religionNapoleonic Code (Civil Code)Schools and universities

Reversed other gainsRights of womenFreedom of expression

Reformed economyRevised tax codeCentral bank

Napoleon’s Empire

Left: Napoleon’s Empire by 1912

Above: Napoleon’s Retreat from Russia

Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia

Napoleon on Elba

This should NOT be a prison

Battle of Waterloo

Legacy of the French Revolution

Global Independence movementsHaitian RevolutionLatin American independence

• Triggered by Napoleon’s invasion of Spain

Egypt broke away from Ottoman Empire

Slave Trade and SlaveryEngland abolished slave trade in 1807; slavery in 1833Brazil—Last to abolish slavery (1888)

Abolition of serfdomExcept in Russia

Legacy of the French Revolution

Women’s RightsPlayed major role in the revolutions

• Sewing uniforms, nurses, running businesses, some even fought

Lost many rights after revolution• Napoleon

Feminist Movements• Mary Wollstonecraft

Spread of nationalism in EuropeGerman and Italian unificationGreek independence