PHASE TWO: Path to Constitutional

Monarchy…and Beyond!

The French Revolution

National Assembly Makes Reforms: The August

Decrees - 1789• Abolished remains of feudalism• Repealed tithe• Did away with the

special privileges of 1st & 2nd Estates

• Stated that all people were equal before the law (although women were not granted equal rights! When Olympe de Gouges proposed a Declaration of Rights of Women, she was declared an enemy of the revolution & executed!)

Declaration of Rights of Man & Citizen – 1789

• Granted freedom of speech, press & religion

• Protected citizens against arbitrary arrest & imprisonment

Declaration of Rights of Man & Citizen – 1789

The Forced Move to Paris!

• The king refused to accept new reforms and the Declaration of Rights

• Women marched on Versailles, rioting over the price of bread

• Forced royal family & National Assembly to move to Paris!

• The king and family attempted to flee to Austria-Hungary

• They are caught & forced to return to Paris

The King’s Escape?!?!

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

• Placed the French Catholic Church under government control

• Clergy became elected & paid officials

• The Assembly required them to swear an oath of allegiance to the gov’t

• Church lost lands & political independence

National Assembly Confiscates Church Lands to pay off debt –

1790

Constitution of 1791

• Kept monarchy, but limited royal powers = Constitutional Monarchy!!

• Set up a unicameral legislature – the Legislative Assembly

• King lost much authority but reluctantly accepts the limited monarchy

• BUT people didn’t trust the king – many pushed for a REPUBLIC (citizens elect the leaders)

Constitution of 1791

Political Factions & Seating in the

LegislatureRadical

sModerates Conservative

s

Wanted to end

monarchy - wanted a republic; change!!

Wanted king to share

power with legislature;

some change!!

Favored Limited

Monarchy; no change!!

(left) (center) (right)

Émigrés• Nobles who fled France• Plotted to overturn the

revolution & restore Louis XVI & Old Regime

• Tried to convince the rulers of Austria & Prussia to put down the revolution – Why?

• …or their OWN rule would be threatened!

War With Austria-Hungary

War With Austria-Hungary

• French Revolutionary leaders feared that Austria would help the French monarch

War With Austria-Hungary

• France declared war on Austria in 1792

• Proclaimed that the war advanced the cause of liberty in France

• War threw France into total upheaval

Down with the King!

• August 1792: Paris crowds attacked the king’s palace

• King & family fled to Legislative Assembly for protection, but the radicals voted for their imprisonment!

2nd Revolution: Radicals Seize the

Assembly!• Radicals took over assembly &

called for a National Convention to create a NEW constitution!!

• Marks the end of the Constitutional Monarchy & the beginning of the 2nd revolutionary gov’t...