French Revolution
By: Mary Copper
France Pre-Revolution• The First Estate-They provided some social services within the
community. Nuns, monks, and priests ran schools, hospitals, orphanages, and other things of that sort. During the Enlightenment, philosophies targeted the Church for reform. They criticized the idleness of some clergy members, and in turn, many clergy members condemned the Enlightenment for undermining religion.
• The Second Estate-They were titled the nobility of French Society. At Versailles, ambitious nobles competed for royal appointments. The nobles, although rich in land, were not rich monetarily, so they felt the pinch to maintain their status in a time of growing prices. Many nobles hated absolutism, and resented the royal bureaucracy because they received the position that they then felt they deserved.
• The Third Estate-This was about 98% of the population. At the top, sat the bourgeoisie, or the middle class. 9 out of 10 of the third estate, were peasants. The poorest of all, were urban workers. Many men or women earned a living as servants or workers. A large number of the workers were unemployed. To survive, some turned to begging, it crime.
France Pre-Revolution• Economic Troubles-The economic troubles added to the social unrest, and
tension within the country. Part of the crisis was deficit spending. Louie XIV left the country deeply in debt. Poor harvests sent food prices skyrocketing, and in turn, aided the already collapsing economy.
• Societal Problems- Since money was low within the country, there were many problems in the country. Money was the root of most of their problems. With the money problems, came many problems within society. The rich seemed to get richer, while the poor were barely scraping by. That caused turmoil within anything that they wanted to do with society.
1789• Tennis Court Oath- They made sure that only the people that had money
had any say in the government. The Third Estate grew tired of being outnumbered, and not counted, so they decided to independently meet. The First and Second Estates didn’t approve, so they retaliated. They then took the Tennis Court Oath, vowing never to separate, and to meet wherever, no matter the circumstance.
• Storming the Bastille-On July 14, 1789, Paris seized the spotlight from the National Assembly. More than 800 Parisians assembled outside the Bastille. The commander of the Bastille refused to open the gates, and then opened fire. With the battle that followed, many people died. The storming of the Bastille soon became a symbol of the French Revolution.
1789• The Great Fear-Rumors are what started the Great Fear.
They were saying that government troops were seizing peasant crops. Afraid of losing their crops, they unleashed fury against officials, and their property. They set fire to old manor records, and stole grain from storehouses. During this time, the king and queen were targeted for seemingly not caring enough, and they were ridiculed because they were the face of the country.
Reign Of Terror
They put Louis XVI on trial as a traitor, and by one vote, he was sentenced to death by beheading. Marie Antoinette was also killed by beheading.
Maximilien Robespierre started the Reign of Terror because he believed that if people didn't agree with him, they should be sentenced to death by behead-ing.
It was stopped because Robespierre was arrested, and all of the radicals that followed him, fell from grace.
Changes To France The Constitution set up a five-man Directory, and a
two-house legislature elected by male citizens with property.
Women gained rights for a while. The government made divorce easier, officials allowed women to in-herit land, but these traditions didn't last long after Napoleon was in power.
Social reform and religious toleration were what Revolutionists pushed. They did so to attempt to de-Christianize France. This was the start of secular celebrations.
Napoleon's Rise To Power
He was in the army, and wanted to do more. He quickly rose up the ranks, and soon became a political leader. He aquired enough power to be emperor.
Napoleon controlled prices, set up public schools, and did many other good things to re-store France.
The Napoleonic Code are Napoleon's long lasted reforms, that embodied Enlightenment principals.
Napoleon's Downfall
Some countries saw Napoleon and his army as foreign oppressors.
His army was defeated because they weren't used to Russian conditions. The Russians trav-elled eastward, and burned crops along the way. Leaving French troops tired and hungry; a sitting duck.
When Napoleon died, he left the Napoleonic Code, which consolidated many changes of the Revolution.
Congress of Vienna
Stability was restored by establishing a balance of power within the continent, and protecting the system of monarchy. They redrew the map of Europe, and they kept France ringed with strong countries.
Things changed drastically after Napoleon's reign. He had a lot of great ideas, and principals, but he went about them the wrong way. He wanted to dictate their every move and thought, and that is not the way to get results.
