french revolution “. ancien régime (old order) three estates i. clergy (catholic priest class) 2....
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French Revolution
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Ancien Régime (Old Order)
• Three EstatesI. Clergy (Catholic priest class)2. French Nobles3. Everybody else
a. Bourgeoisie (Urban Middle Class)
b. Rural Peasantsc. Urban Workers
King Louis XVI (Bourbon Family)
• Louis XVI left France deeply in debt.
• Became king at age 20.• Young, weak, and
indecisive. • Years of deficit spending
(government spends more than it takes in).
• Government had to raise taxes to pay interest on the national debt.
Not dealing with the debt.
• Louis hired Jacques Necker, a financial expert and advisor.
• Necker’s advice to the king; cut down on lavish (expensive) court costs, reform government, tax the first and second estates.
• The king’s response? He fired Necker under pressure from the first and second estates.
Estates-General
• Cahiers (list of demands) drawn up by representatives of each estate.
• Third Estate representatives demanded changes in tax laws and equal votes to create a new constitution in France.
• Unfair voting system set up. First and Second Estate outvoted Third Estate two to one.
Tennis Court Oath• After weeks of debate,
Third Estate representatives continued to argue for voting rights.
• On the king’s order, Third Estate representatives locked out of the Estates-General.
• Third Estate representatives and like-minded clergy and nobles joined together in a local tennis court.
• Gave an oath that they would not be dissolved until a fair constitution was drafted.
• The National Assembly is created by Third Estate representatives and like minded clergy and nobles.
Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789
• Working-class Parisians in fear of royal troops attacking the city organize a mob and storm the Bastille prison fortress in search of weapons.
• This is considered the start of the French Revolution.
• Since this time July 14 is marked as French Independence Day.
The Great Fear
• Poor harvests result in food shortages and high prices across France.
• Rumor spreads claiming royal troops are looting and killing peasants village to village.
• In response, peasants form mobs and burn the property of nobles.
• The rumors turn out to be unfounded but the damage is done.
French Revolution
Phase 1 (1789-1791)
Constitutional Monarchy
Marquis de Lafayette
Factions in Paris• Various political factions
competed to gain power.• Paris Commune- radical
(extremist) group replaced royalist city government.
• Radicals could mobilize whole neighborhoods to protest or commit violent action.
• National Guard, middle-class militia led by Lafayette organized in response to the arrival of royal troops.
Feudalism Abolished
• August 4, emergency all night meeting held by the National Assembly.
• Reform was passed to end all special privileges of nobles.
• This meant equality of all male citizens in France.
• late August the National Assembly issued first part of their new constitution, “the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
Influence of the Declaration of Independence
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Declaration of Independence (1776)
Preamble of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good…The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
Catholic Church nationalized
• To pay off huge government debt, the National Assembly voted to sell off church owned lands.
• 1790, the Assembly put the French Catholic Church under state control.
• Bishops and priests became elected salaried state officials.
• Angered the Church and conservative French peasantry.
1791 Constitution
• Set up limited monarchy.• Legislative Assembly
had power to make laws, collect taxes, decide issues of diplomacy and war.
• Lawmakers elected by tax-paying male citizens over 25.
• Replaced old provinces into 83 departments.
• King Louis XVI first refused but later signed off on the new constitution.
Marie Antoinette
• Sister of Austro-Hungarian Emperor Joseph II.
• Married to future king Louis XVI at age 14.
• Questions raised in paternity of children.
• Took part in high fashion trends of her time.
• Enjoyed lavish court.
Tulieres and Versailles Royal Palaces
Women’s March to Versailles, Oct 4, 1789.
• Starving Parisian women marched with cannons to the Versailles Palace.
• Demanded the royals return to Paris to deal with the growing despair.
• In fear, Louis decides to return to Paris.
• In 1792, the royal family under disguise attempts to flee the country.
• They are recognized and arrested only miles from the French-Austrian border.
Arrest and return of the royal family to Paris 1792
Fear of revolution spreading across Europe
• Increased border patrols by European rulers.
• Émigrés- nobles, clergy, and other who had fled France during the revolution.
• Émigrés reported attacks on their lands, privileges, and religion.
• Even “enlightened rulers” were horrified by the French Revolution.
• August 1791, emperors of Austria and Prussia threatened to declare war if the French royal family is harmed.
• France prepared for war.• Problems within France
included devalued currency and food shortages.
Radicals fight for power.
• Sans-culottes (sanz koo lahts) movement made up of working-class men and women.
• Pushed radicalism and change of government.
• Wore “flood” style trousers.
• By 1791, sans-culottes demanded a republic without monarchy.
Jacobins
• Jacobins were a radical revolutionary political club.
• Made up mainly of middle-class lawyers and intellectuals.
• Spread the idea of a French republic without the king.
• Moderates opposed the radical parties but were losing political ground quickly.
Declaration of War!
• Radicals take majority in the Legislative Assembly.
• April 1792, Legislative Assembly declared war first on Austria, then Prussia, followed by England and other states.
• The French Revolution now entered its second phase.