The French Revolution

• Absolute monarchs (Kings) who didn’t share power with a counsel or parliament

• Obtained power through the idea of “Divine Right of Kings”

Absolutism

King James I of England

The Seigneurial System

• In the 1700’s France had a Feudal method of land ownership and organization known as Seigneurial System. Basically peasant labor

Receiving a seigneurial grant

• Ruled from 1643–1715• Reduced the power of

the nobility• Fought four wars• Greatly increased

France’s national debt

Louis XIV

• Louis XV• War fought in Europe, India, North America• France ends up losing some of its colonial possessions• Increases French national debt

The Seven Years’ WarLouis XV French and

English troops fight at the battle of Fort St. Philip on the island of Minorca

• First Estate: clergy• Second Estate:

nobility• Third Estate: the

rest of society• The Estates General

– a very weak congress

The Three Estates

Cartoon depicting the three Estates

• Taxation• Crop failures

The Third Estate

• Brought new ideas about society and government

• The social contract – gov’t protected people and people allowed gov’t to exist

The Enlightenment

John Locke Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• France supported the colonists against Great Britain

• Revolutionary ideals brought to France.

The American Revolution

Marquis de Lafayette

• France helping America worsened their debt

• Jacques Necker – Called for a tax on property. All three estates would have to pay

• 1st and 2nd refused to pay any money

• Estates General ruled to require property tax

Financial Crisis

Finance Minister Jacques Necker

• Met in Versailles in May 1789

• One vote per estate

• 1st and 2nd or Clergy and nobility joined together to outvote the Third Estate or peasants

• Voting controversy

The Estates General

A meeting of the Estates General

• The Third Estate fed up and established National Assembly on June 17, 1789.

• Stated they were the true representation of France and the real governing body.

The National Assembly

Finish rest tomorrowWhere we left off1)France has been through two kings – both have raised the national debt.2)Peasants are pissed3)Estates General = 1 vote each estate4)Third Estate establishes National Assembly

• Louis XVI ordered the National Assembly be locked out of meeting hall

Artist Jacques Louis David’s depiction of the Tennis Court Oath

Confrontation With the King

Responded by meeting at a nearby tennis court. Wouldn’t leave until France had new constitution

Louis eventually backed down.

• Rumors began to spread that Louis was building up an army to put down the revolution.

• July 14th: a mob storms and takes the Bastille

• Guards refused to fight back and Bastille is overrun and destroyed.

Storming of the Bastille

• Rebellion spreads throughout the countryside.

• National Assembly made all men free in an effort to restore order

The Great Fear

• Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was adopted by National Assembly on August 27th 1789

• Enlightenment ideals• Outlined basic freedoms held

by all• Asserted the sovereignty of the

people• “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

• Peasants still unsatisfied; mainly because Louis XVI didn’t recognize anything.

• In October with food supplies running low a group of women and peasants marched to Versailles

The March of Women

• By the time they reached Versailles it had turned into an angry mob

• Attached the Palace and forced Louis back to Paris where he was held prisoner

• To deal with the Financial crisis National Assembly confiscates and sells church lands

• Church also secularized, reorganized

• Clergy oath of loyalty

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

Cartoon depicting the confiscation of Church lands

• Émigrés• Louis XVI and his

family attempted to flee France

• They were arrested at Varennes

Flight of the King

The capture of Louis XVI at Varennes

• Declaration of Pillnitz

• Possible foreign intervention

Reaction from Other CountriesIllustration

depicting Prussian King

Frederick William III,

Austrian Emperor

Leopold II, and the Comte

d’Artois, Louis XVI’s brother

New Constitution• Constitutional

monarchy• New Legislative

Assembly• Sans-culottes

Painting depicting the 1791 constitution

War With Austria• In retaliation of other

monarchs willing to intervene in France the National Assembly declared war on Austria

Painting of the Battle of Valmy, 1792

• Austria is joined by England, Spain and Holland to crush French Revolution.

• France institutes a Draft “Levee en Masse” of all men 18-25

• Paris mob stormed Tuileries

• Radical group takes control of government in 1792.

• Attack royal family and take Louis hostage

The Radicals Take Over

Paris crowds storm the Tuileries

• Louis and family seek aid of Legislative Assembly

• Arrested and deposed

• New government

• First met on September 21, 1792

• Abolish Monarchy; France officially becomes a republic

• Broke into Factions: Jacobins vs. Girondins

The National Convention

A Jacobin club

Jean-Paul Marat

Georges Danton

Leaders in the National Convention

• Lawyer

• Leader of the Jacobin

• Leader of Committee of Public Safety

• Most controversial figure of the French Revolution

Robespierre

The Guillotine• Dr. Joseph Guillotin• Intended as a more humane

method of execution• Thousands guillotined during

the French Revolution

• On January 17, 1793, Louis XVI was convicted of treason

• He went to the guillotine four days later on January 21, 1793

Execution of the King

• Created to stop an internal rebellion in 1793

• Given broad powers• Eventually ruled France

like a dictator for nearly a year

The Committee of Public Safety

A citizen petitions the Committee of Public Safety

• July 1793–July 1794• Killed nearly 40,000

French people who Robespierre had labeled “enemies”

• Murdered anyone; clergy, nobles, even Maria Antoinette the wife of Louis XVI

The Reign of Terror

The execution of Marie Antoinette

Robspierre was eventually arrested in 1794 and sent to the guillotine himself.

And that is the French Revolution

Now lets talk about the Reign of Terror

• Robespierre overthrown on 9 Thermidor

• Committee of Public Safety dismantled

• Jacobin clubs disbanded• New constitution

adopted in August 1795• Executive branch known

as the Directory

The Thermidorean Reaction

9 Thermidor meeting of the National Convention

• Promoted middle class interests• Financial crisis• Food shortages

• Riots in Paris• Rise of Napoleon

The Directory

Cartoon depicting the

errors and bad judgment of

the Directory

• Popularity rises after victories over the Austrians

• Conflict with Britain• 1799 Coup d’etat• The Consulate

Napoleon Bonaparte

1804: Napoleon crowns himself emperor

Napoleon Becomes Emperor

Legacies of the French Revolution

• End of absolutism• Power of nobles ended• Peasants became landowners• Nationalism

• Enlightenment ideals