The French Revolution

Absolute monarchs didn’t share power with a counsel or parliament

“Divine Right of Kings”

Absolutism

King James I of England

The Seigneurial System Feudal method of

land ownership and organization

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

The Three Estates

Cartoon depicting the three Estates

The French Urban PoorThe French Urban Poor

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% of Income Spent on Bread

17871788

New ideas about society and government

The social contract Tradition v. reason L—inalienable liberties R—general will—

citizens alienated their rights. Unanimous consent of the citizenry acting out of civic virtue, not individual self- interest

The Enlightenment

John Locke Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Taxation Crop failures Seyes, “What

is the Third Estate?”

Ideological basis? Individual liberities or general will?

Foreshadowing of 1789?

The Third Estate

France supported the colonists against Great Britain

Revolutionary ideals

The American Revolution

Marquis de Lafayette

Jacques Turgot: cut gov’t spending; abolish trade guilds, end corvee.

Jacques Necker Tax on property

Calling of the Estates General

Financial Crisis

Finance Minister Jacques Necker

Commoners3rd Estate

Aristocracy2nd Estate

Clergy1st Estate

The Suggested Voting Pattern:The Suggested Voting Pattern:Voting by EstatesVoting by Estates

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Commoners3rd Estate

Aristocracy2nd Estate

Clergy1st Estate

The Suggested Voting Pattern:The Suggested Voting Pattern:Voting by EstatesVoting by Estates

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One vote per estate

Clergy and nobility usually joined together to outvote the Third Estate

Met in Versailles in May 1789

Voting controversy

The Estates General

A meeting of the Estates General

The Third Estate took action and established its own government

On June 17, 1789, the National Assembly was formed

The National Assembly

Louis XVI ordered the Third Estate locked out of the National Assembly’s meeting hall

The Tennis Court Oath

The king reverses his position

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

Confrontation With the King

Tennis Court Oath "We swear to never separate ourselves from

the National Assembly, and to reassemble whenever circumstance require, until the constitution of the realm is drawn up and fixed upon solid foundations."

--The Oath of the Tennis Court, June 20, 1789

Rioting in Paris in early July

Firing of Necker

July 14th: a mob storms and takes the Bastille

Storming of the Bastille

Rebellion spreads Peasants destroy

the countryside End of feudal

privileges All equal in eyes

of law. Part of backdrop,

with Bastille, against which National Assembly forced to create new Constitution

The Great Fear

• Adopted by National Assembly on August 27

Enlightenment ideals

Outlined basic freedoms held by all “all men were born and remain free and equal

in rights.” Natural rights include “liberty, property,

security and resistance to oppression Free speech, press, assembly, religion,

freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, right to petition government

Asserted the sovereignty of the people• “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Lower classes still unsatisfied

Thousands of starving women and peasants march on Versailles

Louis forced to return to Paris

The March of Women

Financial crisis National Assembly

confiscates and sells off church lands--assignats

Church also secularized, reorganized

Clergy oath of loyalty

“good Catholics” vs. “good revolutionaries”

Sep. corps of clergy need to be incorporated into general will

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 (8/27/91):

monarchs of Austria & Prussia expressed concern for the French royal family and desire for the restoration of “order” in France.

Most people in France saw as an affront to their nation’s sovereignty.

clamored for the government to declare war on Austria, which they viewed as the primary threat.

Reaction from Other Countries

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:power to create laws

Sans-culottes

Painting depicting the 1791 constitution

The French Constitution of 1791:The French Constitution of 1791:A Bourgeois GovernmentA Bourgeois Government

Y The king got the The king got the “suspensive” veto“suspensive” veto [which prevented the passage of laws [which prevented the passage of laws for 4 years].for 4 years]. ** he could not pass laws. he could not pass laws. ** his ministers were responsible his ministers were responsible for their own actions. for their own actions.Y A permanent, elected, single chamber A permanent, elected, single chamber

Assembly.Assembly. ** had the power to grant taxation. had the power to grant taxation.

Y ““Active” CitizenActive” Citizen [who pays taxes [who pays taxes amounting to 3 days labor] vs. amounting to 3 days labor] vs. “Passive” Citizen“Passive” Citizen..

Y A newly elected LEGISLATIVE A newly elected LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY.ASSEMBLY.

War With Austria: April 1792

France declares war. Prussia allies w/ Austria

War of the First Coalition

Levee en masse 5-800K drafted. Army of merit. First draft

Painting of the Battle of Valmy, 1792

Paris mob stormed Tuileries August 1792

Louis and family seek aid of Legislative Assembly

Arrested and deposed

The Radicals Take Over

Paris crowds storm the Tuileries

1804: Napoleon crowns himself emperor

Napoleon Becomes Emperor

Legacies of the French Revolution End of absolutism Power of nobles ended Nationalism Enlightenment ideals

TWO CONTEMPORANEOUS VIEWS

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Reflections on the Revolution in France

Conservative: opposed revolution as mob rule

Thomas Paine: Rights of Manresponded to Burke’s indictment by

defending the Enlightenment principles of the revolution