French Revolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUrEJBsWLf

A http://

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Documentary and Crash Course

Seven’s Year- left French monarchy in debt Support of the American Revolution further

endangered Financial stability Louis XV and Louis XVI were unable to solve

taxation disputes with the parlements Jacques Necker- issued a report blaming the

aristocratic government for France’s financial troubles

The Crisis of the French Monarchy

Charles Alexandre de Calonne proposed new

taxes: Taxes on salt-Gabelle Tax on landowners regardless of status

Meeting with Calonne: Assembly of Notables Claimed that they had no authority to consent

to new taxes only Estates General had the Right 1788 Louis XVI agreed to convene the Estates

General

Crisis Continued

Estates General

First Estate (the Clergy) Second Estate (the nobility) Third Estate (wealthy members of professional

middle class) First conflict that arose was the organization

the Estates General After calling the Estates General conflicts

emerge between the Aristocrats (2nd Estate) and Bourgeoisie (3rd estate)

The Revolution of 1789

Cahiers de Doleances- list of grievances

presented to the Monarchy The Third Estate petitioned the king fro

equality of rights among the king’s subjects

Revolution Continued

After a standoff the third estate leave and

assembles at a near by tennis court Invite Nobility and Clergy to join (some do but

a majority do not) June 17th 1789-

Take an oath of loyalty known as the Tennis court oath)

declare itself the National Constituend Assembly

Tennis Court Oath

July 14, 1789 800 Parisians stormed Bastille

(prison where they hold debt violations and political activists)

Search for weapons for the citizen militia in response to presence of royal troops in the city

Crowd stormed the fortress, released prisoners, killed troops and governor

Bastille

Driven by peasants who felt they were

reclaiming what was rightfully theirs but what had been lost t aristocrats over time

The Great Fear

August 1789

Set Forth by the National Assembly Claimed that all men “were born to remain free

and equal in rights” Louis XVI was forced by a group of women to

return from Versailles to Paris After First Hesitating Louis XVI sanctioned the

measures

Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen

National Constituent Assembly reforms:

Men paying annual taxes equal to three days of local labor were allowed to vote

Women could not vote or hold office This law transferred power from aristocratic

wealth to anyone who accumulated land or property

Judical Adminstration: 83 departments replaced the ancient provinces

The Reconstruction of France

Suppressed guilds (artisan organizations),

liberated grain trade, established the metric system

Confiscated Church property and sold it to pay for debts

Civil Constitution of the Clergy- the result of the reconstruction of the Roman Catholic Church into a branch of the secular state

Emigres- wealthy who left France and settled on the border to plot a revolution

Reforms Continued

Jacobins- desired more radical reform Known as the Girondists (Jacobins in

Legislative body) ordered the emigres to return from border Demanded clergy who refused to take the oath

to support the civil constitution to do so or lose state pensions

Louis XVI vetoed both acts

Second Revolution

A Parisian crowd invaded the Tuileries Palace

forced Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to take refuge in Legislative Body

Louis XVI loses power to the Paris Commune a committee of representatives from wards of Paris

September Massacres- Paris Commune Murders about 1,200 people in jail The Convention (a new assembly) declared France a

Republic December 1792 Louis XVI was executed

A month later France is at war with England, Holland, Spain and Prussia

August of 1792

Edmund Burke- a British statesmen and Irish

born writer condemned the Revolution for its extreme measures Reflections on the Revolution in France

William Pitt (England) and other European leaders (Prussia and Russia) would discourage popular uprisings

Europe at War with the Revolution

The revolutionary government established a

series of committees to protect its new creation

Committee of General Security and Committee of Public Safety Carried out executive duties of the government

A levee en masse: a military conscription for all males in the

population was mobilized to defend the country Citizen led army led to Reign of the Terror

The Reign of Terror

Autumn of 1793- mid-summer 1794:

A period marked by quasi-judicial executions Christian calendar was replaced by a secular

calendar and all other places of worship were “de-christianized”

Executions grew increasingly arbitrary Sans-culottes revolutionaries served as victims

as well as persecutors Marie Antoinette and other members of the

royal family were the first victims

Reign of Terror Continued

Maximilien Robespierre- powerful member of the

Committee for Public Safety Established the “cult of the Supreme Being”

A civic religion modeled after the views of Rousseau Encouraged the execution of key republican political

figures including committee colleague Jacques Danton

Robespierre would also be executed during this period

The reign of terror would claim more than 25,000 victims

Reign of Terror Continued

Involved:

Political reconstruction Abandoned constitution of 1793

The Convention issued the Constitution of the Year III Provided for a legislature of two houses:

Upper Body (Council of Elders)- consisted of men over 40 who were husbands or widowers

Lower council of 500- consisted of men who were at least 30 years old and either married or single

The executive body was a 5 person directory chosen by the elders from a list submitted by the Council of 500

The Thermidorian Reaction