The French RevolutionThe French Revolution

1789-1799

What do you know?What do you know?

� What was society like in the Old Regime?

� What was the purpose of dechristianization?

Did it help or hurt the Revolution?

� What are some of the accomplishments of

the Revolution?

� Was the Terror necessary to secure those

accomplishments?

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First Estate: ClergyFirst Estate: Clergy•Old Regime

• Exempt from taxes

• Owned 10% of

French land

• Contributed very little

to taxes

• Ministered to poor

Second Estate: The NobilitySecond Estate: The Nobility

� Made up 2% of France’s population

� Landed aristocracy (owned

25% of land)

� Paid little or no taxes

� Many anti-Enlightenment (felt threatened)

Third Estate: Everyone elseThird Estate: Everyone else� 98 % of France’s population

� Three groups

1. Wealthy merchants (Bourgeoisie)

� Well educated

� Embraced Enlightenment

� Paid high taxes

2. Workers

� Overcrowded cities

� Low wages & often hungry

� Bread riots

3. Peasants

� Rural, 80% of population, 50% income to church and nobles

Third Estate Becomes RestlessThird Estate Becomes Restless

� Enlightenment ideas of liberty, equality and democracy

� Kingly and aristocratic authority weakened by the writings of Voltaire, Diderot, etc.

� Heavy state debt causing hardships

-Seven Years’ War

-Financing American Revolutionary War

-Droughts (1780s)

-High rolling King & Queen (Louis XVI& Marie Antoinette)

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King Louis attempts economic reformKing Louis attempts economic reform

� Charles Calonne (1783)

• urged Louis to call the Assembly of Notables

� group of aristocrats who refused to accept

Calonne’s plan to pay taxes

� Louis appoints banker Jacques Necker

� Urged Louis to call the Estates-General

• medieval congress last summoned in 1614

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EstatesEstates--General (1789)General (1789)

� Each Estate gets one vote

• 3rd Estate always out voted

� Deputies of 3rd Estate must enter through side door

� 3rd Estate breaks from

Estates-General to form

National Assembly

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National Assembly (1789)National Assembly (1789)

� Tennis Court Oath

• members of 3rd Estate (National Assembly)

vowed not to disband until new constitution is

formed

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Think, Write, Share Think, Write, Share

What would you have done if you were King Louis XVI to avert the financial crisis?

--Share your answer with someone else

Video: Political Alliances to Financial Crisis

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Storming the Bastille (1789)Storming the Bastille (1789)� Actions of the National Assembly encourage

uprisings in Paris (National Guard formed)

� A race for arms among Parisians

• leads the mob to the Bastille

� Medieval prison for political prisoners

� Mob easily takes it

� Kills the governor

• places his head on a pike

� Symbolic victory

• 3rd Estate powerful

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Great Fear(1789)Great Fear(1789)

� News of the National Assembly & the fall of the Bastille reaches rural areas

• a Great Fear spreads

• peasants begin rioting

• revolt against landowners

• burn feudal contracts

• try to break free from

feudal obligations

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August Decrees (1789)August Decrees (1789)

� Fearing that peasant violence would rage out of

hand the National Assembly issued the August

Decrees

• abolished feudal obligations of peasants to landlords

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Declaration of the Rights of Man and Declaration of the Rights of Man and

the Citizen (1789)the Citizen (1789)� National Assembly issued

•“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”• sovereignty of French people

• due process rights

•“exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits (unless harmful to others)”

•“The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man”

•“No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions”

•influenced heavily by Enlightenment philosophers & American Revolutionary documents

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Think, Write, ShareThink, Write, Share

Why is the “Declaration of the Rights of

Man” important?

List the ideas of the document you think

most important

--Share your answer with someone else

Video: Bastille to The People’s Friend

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Bread Crisis (1789)Bread Crisis (1789)

� Shortage of bread in Paris

� Women known as fishwives grow impatient

� Mob of fishwives march on Versailles

� Demand bread and seek to kill the Queen

� Louis gives in and accepts August Decrees

& Declaration of the Rights of Man

� The mob forces Louis back to Paris

� Louis lives in the Tuileries Palace

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Fishwives Storming

Versailles

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Flight of the King (1791)Flight of the King (1791)

� Louis and family flee Paris for Austria in

hoping to regain the throne

� They are discovered miles from Austrian

border & marched back to Paris

� Austria & Prussia issue the Declaration of

Pillnitz

• any harm done to the king—they will invade

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Constitution of 1791Constitution of 1791

� Established constitutional monarchy

� Established the new Legislative Assembly

�Divisions within:

• Girondins-moderates who wanted a constitutional monarchy and limits on democracy (in control until 1793)

• Jacobins-radical liberals who sought to push the Revolution toward direct democratic republic (w/out the king)

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Revolutionaries declare War (1792)Revolutionaries declare War (1792)

� Threatened by the Declaration of Pillnitz

� Austria and Prussia rout the French

� Duke of Brunswick invades France

• proclamation to restore the King

• Georges Danton rallies support

• Duke ground before being stopped

at Valmy (near Paris)

Danton

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September Massacres (1792)September Massacres (1792)

� Invading Austria & Prussian armies causes fear

in Paris

� Danton urges sans-culottes to storm Tuileries

and arrest the King for treason (10th of Aug.)

• sans-culotte—urban radicals

� Fearing invasion of aristocrats,

sans-culotte storm Paris prisons

slaughter over 1,000 prisoners

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French Republic (Fall 1792)French Republic (Fall 1792)

� National Convention created

• abolished the monarchy

� Trial of King Louis XVI

• executed (Jan. 1793)

• Marie Antoinette executed (Oct. 1793)

� Committee of Public Safety created to

bring order

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Storming the Tuileries, 10 Aug. 1792

Execution of Louis XVI, 21 Jan. 1793

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Marie told of the King’s death

Marie taken to the Guillotine26

Think, Write, ShareThink, Write, Share

1. Why would the Revolutionaries declare war

on Austria & Prussia? Was it a smart move?

Explain.

2. What role did women play in the Revolution?

--Share your answer with someone else

Video: Foreign Assistance to Death of a King

Answer one of the following:

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Maximilien RobespierreMaximilien Robespierre

� Lawyer

� The Incorruptible

� Vocal leader of the Jacobins

• took control of the Committee of P. S.

• suspended constitution (1793)

• instituted price maximum

� Began Reign of Terror

• Reign of Terror—period from fall 1793-summer 1794

*sent 15,000-50,000 to the guillotine—accused of disloyalty

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Reign of Terror (cont’d)

� Radicals propose De-christianization

• they attack priests

• pillage churches—rid them of symbols & altars

• causes civil war in the French countryside

Lyon and the Vendee

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Thermidor (1794)Thermidor (1794)� Robespierre executed

• too aggressive

• attempted to create a “Republic of Virtue”

• forced a “cult of Supreme Being”

� Moderates return to power

• dismantled Robespierre’s price controls

• freed many political prisoners

• guillotined Robespierre

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The Directory (1795The Directory (1795--1799)1799)

� National Convention creates new constitution

• five man executive

• two large legislative bodies

• conservative

• corrupt

� Jacobins & sans-culotte weakened

� Fighting Jacobin influence & Royalist return

� Disliked by the people

� Fell victim to military coup (Napoleon)

Now what do you know?Now what do you know?

� What was society like in the Old Regime?

� What was the purpose of dechristianization?

Did it help or hurt the Revolution?

� What are some of the accomplishments of

the Revolution?

� Was the Terror necessary to secure those

accomplishments?

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