The French Revolution(FRENCH PBL)

GROUP MEMBERS

Nilabhra Banerjee [14BEE1121] Nadim Arif [14BCE1112] Mansi [14BCE1026] Shinalkar Milindkuma Navnath

[14BCE1217] Dumbre Onkar Popatrao

[14BCE1022]

France – A Great Power When the Sun

King Louis XIV died in 1715, France was the richest, most powerful nation in Europe. It remained so throughout the 1700s.

France – A Great Power The French army was the most

powerful in Europe, and its navy was rivalled only by that of Britain. French philosophers led the Enlightenment, and people across Europe followed French fashions in clothes, art, and even cooking.

France – A Great Problem At the same time, France suffered

from a growing economic crisis, caused primarily by France’s aristocracy.

Attempts to solve the economic problems of the country were hampered by the traditional political and social system of France, which historians call the Old Regime.

Structure of the Old Regime

The king of France was an absolute monarch.

Society was organized in a rigid social structure called the Old Regime.

The people of France were divided by law into three estates: clergy, nobility, and commoners.

The First Estate: Clergy

The clergy administered the church, ran schools, kept birth & death records, and cared for the poor.

To support these activities, the clergy collected the tithe – a tax on income.

The church owned vast amounts of land and other property on which it paid no taxes.

The First Estate: Clergy

In contrast, parish priests usually lived a simple, hard-working life.

Many clergy criticized social injustices in France and resented the privileges enjoyed by the higher clergy.

Abbé Sieyes, Revolutionary Leader

The Second Estate: Nobles

The Second Estate, or nobility, made up less than 2% of the French population.

Many nobles enjoyed great wealth & privileges. Only nobles could become officers in the army or fill high offices of the church.

In addition, nobles were exempt from most taxes.

Most nobles spent their time living in luxury in their own palaces/chateaux or at the Palace of Versailles (the most luxurious of them all).

The Third Estate: Commoners

The vast majority of French people were commoners belonging to the Third Estate.

The Third Estate included: the peasants, the city workers and the bourgeoisie, or middle class.

Third Estate: The Bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie was

small in numbers, but it was the wealthiest, most outspoken group within the Third Estate.

The bourgeoisie included successful merchants and manufacturers, educated lawyers and doctors, as well as small storekeepers and artisans.

Third Estate: Peasants & City Workers

Peasants made up the largest group within the Third Estate. In general, French peasants were better off than peasants in other parts of Europe.

Third Estate: City Workers Another group within the Third

Estate was city workers (urban poor) – servants, apprentices and day labourers. Like the bourgeoisie and peasants, city workers also resented the privileges enjoyed by the First and Second Estates.

The Growing Crisis

France was close to bankrupt because of bad economic policies

Famines and natural disasters led to starvation for the peasants

Families were falling apart because parents were abandoning children they couldn’t feed

Improvements in industry in Britain put workers in France out of business

The Growing Crisis

King Louis XVI seemed incapable of dealing with any of these problems

The philosophers’ ideas of change were popular amongst the 3rd Estate and even some nobles

Rousseau,Philosophe

The Growing Crisis

Involvement by soldiers in the American Revolution spread ideas of change

People pushed for a republican government (no monarch) or a constitutional monarchy

The Growing Crisis The most serious economic problem

facing the French government during the 1770s and 1780s was the huge debt it owed to bankers.

The government had borrowed large amounts of money to pay for the wars of Louis XIV. Louis XV and Louis XVI continued to borrow money to support the court at Versailles and to fight wars to maintain French power in Europe and over-seas.

The Estates-General

Was a form of parliament that had to be called by the king. Hadn’t met since 1614 (175 years)

Had Three Estates: Clergy, Nobles, Everyone Else.

The Estates-General

After Louis XVI called the Estates General in 1789, the 3rd Estate argued for change for 6 weeks, but was ignored

The delegates of the 3rd Estate walked out and started a new government called the National Assembly (this new government was formed in a Tennis Court).

They promised not to disband until they had written a constitution. (The Tennis Court Oath).

The Tennis Court Oath

The National Assembly Louis XVI was forced to give in. He

ordered the other two estates to join the Third Estate in the National Assembly.

Now members of all three estates were forced to work together to reform France. Significant differences prevented significant progress.

The Storming of the Bastille Meanwhile, bread and other food was

scarce all over Paris in the early summer of 1789. Talk of revolution filled the air.

The poor people of Paris did not want to wait for the National Assembly to talk out a solution.

They chose action against the symbol of the tyranny of the Absolute Monarchy in France – the Bastille.

The Storming of the Bastille

July 14, 1789 marks the date of the storming of the Bastille and the beginning of the French Revolution.

The Storming of the Bastille The Bastille was a huge prison fortress

in Paris. Armed with axes, the crowd ran to the prison cells and freed the astonished inmates.

Soldiers joined the attack, rather than defending the Bastille

The mob found only seven prisoners in the entire fortress. New weapons were obtained and the people created their own army, called the National Guard.

The Great Fear

July, 1789: in the countryside, the people were also impatient.

Fearful that the upper class were going to squash the revolution, peasants started attacking, looting, and burning chateaux.

They destroyed all of the records of their serfdom to try to guarantee their freedom.

Reforms of the National Assembly The events in Paris and the

countryside forced the National Assembly into action. During a long session on the night of August 4, many delegates rose to make impassioned speeches in support of reform.

By the end of the evening, the Assembly had abolished most feudal customs. It ended serfdom and the tax exempt privileges of the nobles.

The Declaration of the Rights

This Declaration was passed on August 26, 1789.

It gave basic rights and freedoms to all of the men (not women yet)

Rights such as liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression

The March on Versailles Neither the King nor the National Assembly

had been able to deal with the problems of poverty and hunger.

In October 1789, a Paris crowd led by thousands of women marched in the rain to Versailles. The women were angry about high food prices.

The March on Versailles They also suspected that

the king and the queen, Marie Antoinette, were plotting against the National Assembly.

They stormed the palace, trapping the royal family.

They demanded that Louis XVI and his family return with them to Paris, where they could be watched. To prevent violence, the king agreed.

The March on Versailles The king rode on horseback, escorted by a

cheering crowd. He wore the tri-colour, the red, white, and blue ribbon that the revolutionaries had adopted as their symbol. By forcing the king to wear the tri-colore, the people proved that they were directing events in France.

The Constitution of 1791

Since they were caught, Louis was forced to accept the new constitution which created a Legislative Assembly with which he was to share power.

The Legislative Assembly

In October 1791, the Legislative Assembly, elected under the new constitution, met for the first time. The seating arrangements in the Assembly reflected divisions among the revolutionaries. Moderate revolutionaries sat on the right side of the meeting hall, and radical revolutionaries sat on the left side.

The Legislative Assembly

Radicals claimed that the king could not be trusted. They demanded the establishment of a republic.

The Jacobins were the most influential radicals. They demanded a true democracy in which all male citizens had the right to vote.

As the French Revolution unfolded, the Jacobins and their leaders, Jean-Paul Marat, Georges Danton, and Maximilien Robespierre, would gain the upper hand.

France at War Many other European nations disliked

the spread of Revolution (especially Austria and Prussia who ally together).

France declared pre-emptive war on Austria in April 1792. At first, the war went badly for France. French armies were disorganized and poorly led. Many army officers, who were nobles, had left France.

By August 1792, Austrian and Prussian armies were advancing on Paris.

France at War

The people of Paris angrily declared that no foreign troops would crush the revolution. All over France, people rallied to defend the revolution and chanted the slogan: “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” Soldiers from Marseille hurried to Paris singing a patriotic marching song, the “Marseillaise,” which was adopted as the National Anthem of France.

France at War

In September, 1792 and the months that followed, revolutionary armies forced the invaders to retreat from France.

The war against Austria and Prussia caused high prices and desperate food shortages in France.

This created an opportunity for radical revolutionaries to push harder for changes.

The National Convention August 10, 1792. Radical

revolutionaries took over Paris and marched on the Tuileries, where the king and his family lived. The troops attacked the palace, killing many of the king’s Swiss guards.

The king and queen fled to the Legislative Assembly, hoping for protection. But the radicals also seized control of the Assembly. They removed the king from office and voted to imprison the royal family. They then called for a National Convention to write a new constitution.

The National Convention

The National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy and make France a republic. The Convention then had to decide what to do with the king. The radical Jacobins demanded that Louis be tried for treason.

Letters that showed that Louis was plotting with foreign troops (émigrés) to crush the revolution were used in the trial. Louis XVI was convicted of treason.

Execution of the Monarchs On January 21, 1793,

Louis mounted the steps of the guillotine. “People, I die innocent!” were the king’s last words to the watching crowd.

Marie Antoinette was guillotined later that year - in October, 1793.

The Reign of Terror

After the death of Louis XVI, the government became more and more radical. Harsh laws made it possible to arrest and kill almost anyone just by accusing them of speaking against the revolution.

Nobles, clergy, food speculators, Girondists, and even Jacobins and commoners were killed in large number (over 37 000).

The Reign of Terror

Danton was killed by guillotine after trying to caution against radicalism (April, 1794).

The Fall of Robespierre

Robespierre was the last of the three main leaders. He had become a dictator running the Reign of Terror.

He was turned on after he threatened to execute more members of government, but didn’t specify who.

Robespierre was killed by guillotine three months after Danton (after failing to commit suicide properly) (July, 1794).

The Directory (1795-1799)

The Constitution of 1795 established a new government known as the Directory. The Directory included an elected legislature and an executive branch with five directors. There were five leaders to try to avoid dictatorships.

The Constitution restricted the right to vote to men who could read and who owned a certain amount of property. As a result, the middle class and wealthy landowners gained influence in the new government.

The Consulate (1799-1804)

When the Directory proved to be ineffective, it was replaced by a Consulate (1799-1804), which was three men who ran the government.

The Consulate was not much more effective, because it was soon dominated by one man .

CONCLUSION Because of the French revolution the French

earned their basic human rights and changed their political structure and social structure from the old regime. Napoleon used his military skills to gain power and support, in order to create a strong empire. Even though some of his doings undermined some of the basic ideals of the French revolutions, he created a stable empire .Even though Napoleon didn’t satisfy all the ideals of the French revolution he was true enough to help France grow as a strong nation.