THE FRENCH REVOLUTION1 7 8 9 -1 7 9 9

Causes• Social Cause One of the main factors that led to the French Revolution was the unbalanced

social structure of society during the Old Regime.

• Economic Cause It was the main reason of the depletion of the treasury of the king.

• Political Cause• King was a person of Mediocre Intelligence.

• Immediate Cause Formation of the Estate General.

• Intellectual Cause Influence from the writers.

The Social Cause/Society under the Old Regime• In France, people were divided into three estates– First Estate • High-ranking members of the Church• Privileged class

– Second Estate• Nobility• Privileged class

– Third Estate• Everyone else – from peasants in the countryside

to wealthy bourgeoisie merchants in the cities• Unprivileged class

I Estate• The First Estate, which made up about one

percent of the total population, was divided into two groups: upper and lower.The upper clergy included archbishops, bishops, and abbots.

• Due to the power of the Roman Catholic Church, these people were exempt from most taxes. These men of high status and privilege enjoyed luxurious lives in their large palaces. Meanwhile, the lower clergy, whichincluded poorly-paid village priests, had to suffer along with the third class peasants.

II Estate• The Second Estate was composed of about 30,000 families who

belonged to the nobility ㅡ Duke and Duchess, count and countess, and marquis and marquess. Like the clergy, the nobility represented another privileged Estate.They held the highest position in the Church, the army, and the government. As well, they were exempt from paying taxes of any kind. They collected rent from the peasant population who lived on their lands. They also collected an extreme amount of customary dues, as well as dues on salt, cloth, bread, and wine. Most of the nobility was descendants from the warriors, who helped the King conquer Francein the early days. They lived a life of lordly ease and luxury and enjoyed great privileges.

III EstateAbout 26 million citizens, the

Third Estate consisted the bourgeoisie, the peasantry, and the urban artisans. The bourgeoisie,which included merchants, manufacturers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, and intellectuals, were generally prosperous and often as wealthy as nobles

Third Estate was dominated by the middle class

Blending of aristocratic and bourgeois classes by 1789

Middle class were Big WinnersRevolutionary goals of the

middle class

Estates Cont.Estate Population Privileges Exemptions Burdens

First •Circa 130,000

•High-ranking clergy

•Collected the tithe•Censorship of the press•Control of education•Kept records of births, deaths, marriages, etc.•Catholic faith held honored position of being the state religion (practiced by monarch and nobility)•Owned 20% of the land

•Paid no taxes•Subject to Church law rather than civil law

•Moral obligation (rather than legal obligation) to assist the poor and needy•Support the monarchy and Old Regime

Second •Circa 110,000

•Nobles

•Collected taxes in the form of feudal dues•Monopolized military and state appointments•Owned 20% of the land

•Paid no taxes •Support the monarchy and Old Regime

Third •Circa 25,000,000

•Everyone else: artisans, bourgeoisie, city workers, merchants, peasants, etc., along with many parish priests

•None •None •Paid all taxes•Tithe (Church tax)•Octrot (tax on goods brought into cities)•Corvée (forced road work)•Capitation (poll tax)•Vingtiéme (income tax)•Gabelle (salt tax)•Taille (land tax)•Feudal dues for use of local manor’s winepress, oven, etc.

Economic Cause In 1774, Louis XVI of the Bourbon family of kings ascended the throne

of France. He was 20 years old and married to the Austrian princess Marie Antoinette. Upon his accession the new king found an empty treasury. Long years of war had drained the financial resources of France.

Added to this was the cost of maintaining an extravagant court at the immense palace of Versailles.

Under Louis XVI, France helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their independence from the common enemy, Britain. The war added more than a billion livres to a debt that had already risen to more than 2 billion livres.

Lenders who gave the state credit, now began to charge 10 per cent interest on loans. So the French government was obliged to spend an increasing percentage of its budget on interest payments alone. To meet its regular expenses, such as the cost of maintaining an army, the court, running government offices or universities, the state was forced to increase taxes. Yet even this measure would not have sufficed.

The Church too extracted its share of taxes called tithes from the peasants, and finally, all members of the third estate had to pay taxes to the state. These included a direct tax, called taille, and a number of indirect taxes which were levied on articles of everyday consumption like salt or tobacco. The burden of financing activities of the state through taxes was borne by the third estate alone ,which angered the common People

France Is Bankrupt The king (Louis XVI) lavished money on himself and residences like Versailles Queen Marie Antoinette was seen as a wasteful spender Government found its funds depleted As a result of wars

including the funding of the government spending more money than it takes in from tax revenues Privileged classes would not submit

to being taxed

Louis XVI attempted to tax the nobles.The nobles forced the king to call a meeting

of the Estates-General an assembly of delegates from each of the three estates.

Political Cause• Louis XVI, the king of France, was a person of mediocre

intelligence. He ruled with the help of his empty headed wife ‘Marie Antoinnette’, who appointed a number of her friends and relatives at high posts and kept some of them at pension. These people neither did any work nor they contribute to the National treasury. Instead they took salary from the Royal treasury.

• Louis XVI wanted to increase his territory. And to do so, he had to be engaged in wars which meant that he needed a large army for that purpose. Appointing so many soldiers, required money to pay salaries to them. It depleted the Royal treasury.

As a result, the king was forced to raise the taxes with the consent of the three estates . As the common people had to pay taxes, they became agitated against their monarch – Louis XVI.

Role of the Middle Class• The eighteenth century witnessed the

emergence of social groups, termed the middle class, who earned their wealth through an expanding overseas trade and from the manufacture of goods such as woollen and silk textiles that were either exported or bought by the richer members of society.

• In addition to merchants and manufacturers, the third estate included professions such as lawyers or administrative officials which were educated.

• Middle Class believed that no group in society should be privileged by birth. Social position must depend on his merit.

Immediate Cause• Compelled by Financial bankruptcy, the

French Emperor Louis XVI called a meeting of Estate General in 1789. It generated much heat as the members of the 3rd Estate were determined to put forth their demand. However, the first two Estates i.e. ‘the Clergy’ and ‘ The Nobility’ refused to have a joint meeting with the Third Estate. The members of the Third Estate walked of the Assembly.

Intellectual Cause• The Middle class favoured a society based on freedom and equal laws

and opportunities for all• Jean Jacques Rousseau , in his ‘Two Treatises’ of Government, Locke

sought to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch. Rousseau carried the idea forward, proposing a form of government based on a social contract between people and their representatives.

• Montesquieu in ‘The Spirit of the Laws’, Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. This model of government was put into force in the USA, after the thirteen colonies declared their independence from Britain. The American constitution and its guarantee of individual rights was an important example for political thinkers in France.

• The ideas of these philosophers were discussed intensively in salons and coffee-houses and spread among people through books and newspapers. These were frequently read aloud in groups for the benefit of those who could not read and write. The news that Louis XVI planned to impose further taxes to be able to meet the expenses of the state generated anger and protest against the system of privileges.

The Estate General• Louis XVI had to call a meeting of the Estates General which would then

pass his proposals for new taxes. The Estates General was a political body to which the three estates sent their representatives. However, the monarch alone could decide when to call a meeting of this body. The last time it was done was in 1614.

• On 5 May 1789, Louis XVI called together an assembly of the Estates General to pass proposals for new taxes. A resplendent hall in Versailles was prepared to host the delegates. The first and second estates sent 300 representatives each, who were seated in rows facing each other on two sides, while the 600 members of the third estate had to stand at the back. The third estate was represented by its more prosperous and educated members. Peasants, artisans and women were denied entry to the assembly. However, their grievances and demands were listed in some 40,000 letters which the representatives had brought with them.

• Voting in the Estates General in the past had been conducted according to the principle that each estate had one vote. This time too Louis XVI was determined to continue the same practice. But members of the third estate demanded that voting now be conducted by the assembly as a whole, where each member would have one vote. When the king rejected this proposal, members of the third estate walked out of the assembly in protest.

Formation and Voting Procedure Under Old Regime

Estate General The first and second estates sent 300

representatives each, who were seated in rows facing each other on two sides, while the 600 members of the third estate had to stand at the back. The third estate was represented by its more prosperous and educated members. Peasants, artisans and women were denied entry to the assembly. However, their grievances and demands were listed in some 40,000 letters which the representatives had brought with them.

Economic Conditions under theOld Regime

France’s economy was based primarily on agriculture.

Peasant farmers of France bore the burden of taxation.

Poor harvests meant that peasants had trouble paying their regular taxes.Certainly could not afford to have

their taxes raised.Bourgeoisie often managed to gather wealth.But were upset that they paid taxes

while nobles did not.

Formation of National Assembly◊ Representative

government did not mean democracy or “mob rule”

◊ Estates-General became the National Assembly in June of 1789 with the power to frame a constitution

◊ Tennis Court Oath was formed due to the disagreement of the 3’rd Estate and the Monarch.

National Assembly (1789-1791)

Louis XVI did not actually want a written constitution

When news of his plan to use military force against the National Assembly reached Paris on July 14, 1789, people stormed the Bastille

The Tennis Court Oath“The National Assembly, considering that it has been

summoned to establish the constitution of the kingdom, to effect the regeneration of the public order, and to maintain the true principles of monarchy; that nothing can prevent it from continuing its deliberations in whatever place it may be forced to establish itself; and, finally, that wheresoever

its members are assembled, there is the National Assembly;

“Decrees that all members of this Assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the

constitution of the kingdom is established and consolidated upon firm foundations; and that, the said oath taken, all

members and each one of them individually shall ratify this steadfast resolution by signature.”

Outbreak Of RevolutionThe Revolution started with the Estate-General convention in Versailles on May 5, 1789.

While the three Estates were supposed to discuss and vote on taxes, they ended up

debating about their own structure, the Third Estate demanding double

representation. The Third Estate eventually separated itself from the First and

Second Estates, forming the National Assembly. The King Louis XVI disagreed and

shut down the Salle des États where the Assembly met. The Assembly moved to the

Salle du Jeu de Paume were they proceeded to swear the Tennis Court Oath (June 20,

1789), under which they agreed not to separate until they had given France a

constitution. The King pretended to accept the situation, but in the same time

brought 20,000 soldiers to Paris. The people in paris started being very agitated,

worried by the price of commodities and the political situation. The King fired all of

his ministers, in particular Necker who was his financial advisor (and a strong

supporter of the National Assembly). That is what led the people to start

protesting in the streets. When they realized how many soldiers

the King had brought, they got in a Frenzy of fear, they took up weapons and started fires in the city, the anger

in the streets reached its maximum,

and on July 14, the people

stormed the Bastille.

Storming the Bastille Events of the night

of July 13, 1789 Reasons for the

attack on the Bastille the next morning

The stubbornness of the governor of the fortress

Celebrations on the night of July 14th

Sparks tremendous popular revolution all over France

France becomes a Constitutional Monarchy

Faced with the power of his revolting subjects, Louis XVI finally accorded recognition to the National Assembly and accepted the principle that his powers would from now on be checked by a constitution. On the night of 4 August 1789, the Assembly passed a decree abolishing the feudal system of obligations and taxes. Members of the clergy too were forced to give up their privileges. Tithes were abolished and lands owned by the Church were confiscated. As a result, the government acquired assets worth at least 2 billion livres.

The National Assembly completed the draft of the constitution in 1791. Its main object was to limit the powers of the monarch. These powers instead of being concentrated in the hands of one person, were now separated and assigned to different institutions – the legislature, executive and judiciary. This made France a constitutional monarchy.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens

Freedom of

religion

Freedom of

speech

Freedom of the

pressGuarant

eed property rights

“Liberty,

equality, fraternit

y!”

Right of the

people to

create laws

Right to a fair trial

Declaration of the Rights of WomanJournalist

Olympe de Gouges

argued in her Declaration of the Rights of Woman that women are

equal citizens and should

benefit from governmental reforms just as men did.

Madame Jeanne

Roland also served as a

leader in the women’s

rights movement,

and was able to heavily

influence her husband (a government

official).

Women did gain some rights during the French Revolution, but these were designed for purposes other than liberating women. • Women could inherit

property, but only because doing so weakened feudalism and reduced wealth among the upper classes.

• Divorce became easier, but only to weaken the Church’s control over marriage.

End of Special PrivilegesAfter National Assembly

completed the draft of the Constitution in 1791, Church lands were seized, divided, and sold to peasants.2/3 of Church officials fled the

country rather than swear allegiance to this.

All feudal dues and tithes were eradicated.

All special privileges of the First and Second Estates were abolished.

Tithes were abolished.

Role Played by the Rulers of Austria and Prussia

Although Louis XVI had signed the Constitution, he entered into secret negotiations with the King of Prussia. Rulers of other neighbouring countries too were worried by the developments in France and made plans to send troops to put down the events that had been taking place there since the summer of 1789. Before this could happen, the National Assembly voted in April 1792 to declare war against Prussia and Austria. Thousands of volunteers thronged from the provinces to join the army. They saw this as a war of the people against kings and aristocracies all over Europe. The king of Austria and Prussia were scared because of the people revolting in

France. They thought that people might be encouraged and they would attack the king in the same way so they attacked France in order to displace their mind from the alarm.

Formation of the Jacobin’s Club• The revolutionary wars brought losses and economic difficulties to the

people. While the men were away fighting at the front, women were left to cope with the tasks of earning a living and looking after their families. Large sections of the population were convinced that the revolution had to be carried further, as the Constitution of 1791 gave political rights only to the richer sections of society. Political clubs became an important rallying point for people who wished to discuss government policies and plan their own forms of action. The Jacobin Club was the most famous political club of the French Revolution. So called from the Dominican convent where they originally met in the Rue St. Jacques (Latin: Jacobus), Paris. It originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles as a group of Breton deputies to the Estates General of 1789

• After The Estates-General of 1789 was convened at Versailles, the club was first composed exclusively of deputies from Brittany, but they were soon joined by other deputies from regions throughout France. Among its early members were the dominating Mirabeau, Parisian deputy Abbé Sieyès, Dauphiné deputy Antoine Barnave, Jérôme Pétion, the Abbé Grégoire, Charles Lameth, Alexandre Lameth, Robespierre, the duc d'Aiguillon, and La Revellière-Lépeaux. It also counted Indian ruler Tipu Sultan among its ranks. At this time its meetings occurred in secret and few traces remain of what took place at them, or where they were convened.

Maximillian Robespierre Maximilien Robespierre (Maximilien François

Marie Isidore de Robespierre) was born on May 6th, 1758, in Arras where his father was based as an advocate. Robespierre and his three younger siblings were brought up by diverse relatives after their father dramatically lost his way in life after the death of his wife in childbirth in 1767. Robespierre was educated for a short time at a College in Arras and then in Paris initially at the very prestigious College of Louis-le-Grand and later at the College of Law.   Robespierre qualified as an advocate in 1781 and sought to establish a legal practice at his home town of Arras. He became known both as a successful advocate and as a participant in local literary and philosophic circles.

Leader of the Jacobin’s Club

Storming of the Palace of Tuilleries• Around 10:00am on August 10, 1792 a mob of nearly 30,000 French citizens advanced toward

the Tuileries Palace to capture King Louis XVI. Louis had been given information that told him an angry mob was headed for the palace, so he decided to move himself and his family to the Legislative Assembly building. Before the king fled along with his 300 volunteer soldiers, he left no orders for the Swiss Guard who defended the palace. The guards saw the crowds coming and counted upon an order from the king to surrender the palace as he had in an earlier attack, but the order never came. When the mob approached the palace, the guards scampered to the top walls and tried to fight off the attack with single-shot muskets. After firing a few rounds into the crowd the guards realized their efforts were worthless and quickly chose to surrender the palace in the hopes of saving their lives. The mob searched the palace with vengeance in their hearts, leaving only 300 of the 900 Swiss guards alive. The people found no king inside the palace, but murdered anyone within the walls that might have been associated with the king: cooks, servants, maids, etc., no one was spared.

• Many events occurred in the months prior to the Storming of the Tuileries Palace that led up to this violent episode. As early as June 20, 1792 several crowds of French citizens traveled to the Tuileries Palace in an attempt to convince the king that the government, economy, and society of France needed to change. At this original meeting the king met with the people and assured them that he was on their side. Luckily for the king, the crowd retreated without hurting anyone, having gotten the impression that things would change. By late July however, the people of Paris began to panic as the war with Austria and Prussia drew nearer to home. Both Austrian and Prussian troops were moving ever closer to the city of Paris. Believing that the king or his wife was giving information to these foreign powers, the Paris Commune, a group of local representatives, decided to lead an attack on the Tuileries Palace once again. This decision was made on August 9, 1792 and overnight nearly 30,000 French citizens came together and hosted the attack the very next day. After killing numerous Swiss guards and other staff present at the Tuileries Palace, the Paris mob moved to the Legislative Assembly building and claimed their prize. King Louis XVI and his family, who had been hiding, were found and arrested. This event signified the end of the monarchy in France and started the official trial of the king.

France abolishes Monarchy and Becomes a Republic

• In Revolutionary France, the Legislative Assembly votes to abolish the monarchy and establish the First Republic. The measure came one year after King Louis XVI reluctantly approved a new constitution that stripped him of much of his power.

• Louis ascended to the French throne in 1774 and from the start was unsuited to deal with the severe financial problems that he inherited from his predecessors. In 1789, food shortages and economic crises led to the outbreak of the French Revolution. King Louis and his queen, Mary-Antoinette, were imprisoned in August 1792, and in September the monarchy was abolished. Soon after, evidence of Louis' counterrevolutionary intrigues with foreign nations was discovered, and he was put on trial for treason. In January 1793, Louis was convicted and condemned to death by a narrow majority. On January 21, he walked steadfastly to the guillotine and was executed. Marie-Antoinette followed him to the guillotine nine months later.

Louis XVI was beheaded on 21’st January 1793 in Paris at the Place de la Concorde along with his wife Marie Antoinette. This was the beginning of the Jacobins.

Robespierre’s Reign of Terror, 1793-94The Committee of Public Safety

The Concept of “Total War”

Maximum price ceilings on certain goods

Nationalization of Small Workshops

The Reign of Terror cont.Execution of 40,000

“Enemies of the Nation”

Stress on radical definition of equality

Wanted a legal maximum on personal wealth

Wanted a regulation of commercial profits

End of Robespierre’s dictatorship on July 28, 1794

A conspiracy overthrew Robespierre.On July 27, 1794, he was barred from speaking in public and was placed Under arrest.

An uprising by his supporters was thwarted, and on July 28 Robespierredied on the guillotine withhis other supporters. Eighty more followers of Robespierre were executed the next day.

Fall of the Jacobin’s Government on 11 November 1794 and Establishment of a

new Constitution The fall of Jacobin’s government , headed by Robespierre

allowed the wealthier middle class to capture power An attempt was made to re-open the Jacobin Club, which was

joined by many of the enemies of the There midorians, but on 21 Brumaire, year III (11 November 1794), it was definitively closed. Its members and their sympathizers were scattered among the cafés, where a ruthless war of sticks and chairs was waged against them by the young "aristocrats" known as the jeunesse dorée. Nevertheless the Jacobins survived, in a somewhat subterranean fashion, emerging again in the club of the Panthéon, founded on 25 November 1795

Louis XVI was sentenced to death by a court on the charge of treason. On 21 January 1793 he was executed publicly at the

Place de la Concorde. The queen Marie Antoinette met with the same fate shortly after.

A new Constitution called Directory was introduced which denied the right to vote to the non-propertied sections of the society.

The Directory (1794-1799)

Napoleon’s Rise to Power

Establishment of the Bank of France

Reconciliation with the Catholic Church

--Concordat of 1801

Heavy Censorship

Napoleon’s “Art of War”

Role Of the Napoleon Bonaparte

Women as Revolutionaries When National Assembly was busy at Versailles drafting a constitution,

the rest of France seethed with turmoil. A severe winter had meant a bad harvest; the price of bread rose, often bakers exploited the situation and hoarded supplies. After spending hours in long queues at the bakery, crowds of angry women stormed into the shops.

From the very beginning women were active participants in the events which brought about so many important changes in French society. They hoped that their involvement would pressurise the revolutionary government to introduce measures to improve their lives. Most women of the third estate had to work for a living. Most women did not have access to education or job training. Only daughters of nobles or wealthier members of the third estate could study at a convent, after which their families arranged a marriage for them. Working women had also to care for their families, that is, cook, fetch water, queue up for bread and look after the children. Their wages were lower than those of men. In order to discuss and voice their interests women started their own political clubs and newspapers. About sixty women’s clubs came up in different French cities. The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was the most famous of them. One of their main demands was that women enjoy the same political rights as men. Women were disappointed that the Constitution of 1791 reduced them to passive citizens. They demanded the right to vote, to be elected to the Assembly and to hold political office. Only then, they felt, would their interests be represented in the new government.

Abolition of Slavery • One of the most revolutionary social reforms of the Jacobin regime was the

abolition of slavery in the French colonies. The colonies in the Caribbean – Martinique, Guadeloupe and San Domingo – were important suppliers of commodities such as tobacco, indigo, sugar and coffee. But the reluctance of Europeans to go and work in distant and unfamiliar lands meant a shortage of labour on the plantations. So this was met by a triangular slave trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas. The slave trade began in the seventeenth century. French merchants sailed from the ports of Bordeaux or Nantes to the African coast, where they bought slaves from local chieftains. Branded and shackled, the slaves were packed tightly into ships for the three-month long voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. There they were sold to plantation owners. The exploitation of slave labour made it possible to meet the growing demand in European markets for sugar, coffee, and indigo.

• Throughout the eighteenth century there was little criticism of slavery in France. The National Assembly held long debates about whether the rights of man should be extended to all French subjects including those in the coloniesIt was finally the Convention which in 1794 legislated to free all slaves in the French overseas possessions. This, however, turned out to be a short-term measure: ten years later, Napoleon reintroduced slavery. Plantation owners understood their freedom as including the right to enslave African Negroes in pursuit of their economic interests. Slavery was finally abolished in French colonies in 1848.

Napoleon was martyred in the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Death of Napoleon Bonaparte

AcknowledgementWe would like to pay our heartful regards to our Social Studies Teacher, _________who helped us in making the project.

Thank you Ma’am for helping us at each and every step where we were stuck in a problem.