THE FRENCH

REVOLUTION

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

THE ROOTS OF

THE REVOLUTION

Although France was one of the most advanced societies in Europe and center of the enlightenment, there were tremendous internal difficulties taking place

• food availability

• high taxes

• limited civil liberties that would inevitably lead to revolution

SETTING THE STAGE

• France was considered to be the most advanced country in Europe in the 1700s

• Large population

• Prosperous foreign trade

• The center of the Enlightenment

• Great political unrest started to grow throughout France

• Bad Harvest

• High Prices

• High Taxes

• Questions raised by enlightened thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Locke

THE OLD ORDER

Under the old regime, the people of France were divided into 3 classes:

• The Privileged Classes

• Clergy

• Nobility

• The Third Estate

THE FIRST ESTATE

(CLERGY)

• Were members of the Church (Priests, Bishops)

• Made up approximately 1% of the French population

• Owned approximately 10% of land in France

• Had exemptions from taxes

THE SECOND ESTATE

(NOBILITY)

• Made up of rich nobles

• Accounted for approximately 2% of the population

• Owned approximately 20% of the land and paid no taxes

• Held highest positions in government and army

• The first and second estate made up only 3% of France’s total population, but possessed 30% of the land and much of the countries wealth while paying no taxes

THE THIRD ESTATE

• Made up 97% of the French population

• Can be broken into 3 groups

• The Bourgeoisie (Middle Class) - Bankers, factory owners, merchants, professionals, and skilled artisans. Were often well educated and heavily influenced by enlightened ideals. Although many were rich, they paid high taxes and lacked privileges.

• Urban Workers – were the poorest citizens of France. Included tradespeople, apprentices, labourers, and domestic servants. Were paid poorly and were often unemployed.

• Peasants - Were the largest group in France (80% of population). Paid half of their income in dues to nobles, tithes to the Church, and taxes to the king.

• The Third Estate resented the clergy and the nobles

for their privileges and special treatment,

GROWING

DISCONTENT• Increased population and cost of living

• Families were growing larger and needed more money to live

• Higher estates raised rents and taxes

• Bourgeoisie wanted liberty and equality

• Began to gain strength and prosperity

• Enlightened ideas about rights, power, and authority and increasing demands for equality, liberty, and democracy

GROWING

DISCONTENT CONT.

• They were inspired by the American Revolution

• France’s economy was in decline by the 1780’s which was causing alarm and disruptions.

• This was primarily due to huge debts racked up by the King due to extravagant spending, the cost of supporting the American Revolutionary War, and serving the debt of previous kings.

• Heavy taxes were also stifling the economy as there was less money for consumer spending and inflation meant people had less disposable income.

Marie Antoinette

PALACE OF VERSAILLES

GROWING

DISCONTENT CONT.

There were widespread crop failures at this time which led to famine, as well as a

great leap in the price of food as demand was high but supply was not.

Louis XVI was not a strong leader and he did not act decisively to address the

above mentioned problems.

His wife, Marie Antoinette, was highly unpopular as she dispensed bad advice to

her husband, interfered in governmental affairs, was of Austrian background

(France’s traditional enemy) and was referred to as “Madam Deficit” due to her

opulent spending habits.

The situation started to come to a head when bankers refused to lend the

government any more money due to the county’s ballooning debt.

MEETING OF THE

ESTATES GENERAL

Rather than cutting expenses, Louis continued to spend

When the money ran out he tried to impose taxes on the nobles or the Second

Estate.

The nobles forced Louis to call a meeting of the Estates General on May 5, 1789;

its first meeting in 175 years.

MEETING OF THE

ESTATES GENERAL

The nobles and clergy thought they would dominate proceedings as each estate

met separately and had one vote per group, hence the nobles and clergy could

always outvote the Third Estate.

The Third Estate delegates refused to operate in the traditional way, rather they

wanted all delegates to meet in one chamber and for each delegate to have a

vote but the King refused and sided with the nobles and clergy.

THE REVOLUTION

• The Third Estate was determined and with the support of a sympathetic

clergymen named Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, the delegates named themselves the

National Assembly

• They gave themselves authority to pass laws and reforms in the name of the

French people

• Their first act was to declare an end to absolute

monarchy and the beginning of representative

government.

• This was the first act of revolution

THE REVOLUTION

Three days later King Louis XVI locked the third estate out of the assembly

They broke down the door to a tennis court where they vowed to remain and

not leave until a new constitution had been drafted (Tennis Court Oath).

They were also joined by sympathetic nobles and clergy.

STORMING OF

BASTILLE

Louis XVI barricaded himself in Versailles Palace protected by his Swiss Guards.

Rumours abounded that Louis intended to dismiss the National Assembly by force so the citizens of Paris collected weapons and stormed the royal prison, the Bastille, looking for weapons.

Prisoners were freed and prison officials attacked and killed.

The storming of the Bastille (July 14th) is seen as the symbol of the French Revolution

THE GREAT FEAR

Rumours of the privileged classes hiring outlaws to terrorize

peasants spread through the countryside (Great Fear). This led

peasants to arm themselves and carry out violent acts on the local

nobility.

MARCH TO

VERSAILLES

By October 1789, due to rising bread prices, the women of Paris demanded action

from the National Assembly.

When no action came they armed themselves and marched to Versailles Palace

and stormed it, killing some guards and taking the King and Queen back to Paris.

• Their removal from Versailles marked the end of one era and beginning of another where revolution and radical reforms would change the face of France and the history of the world.

THE RIGHTS OF MAN

• The National Assembly adopted a statement of revolutionary ideals called The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

• Document stated that man is born with rights such as liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. It also guaranteed equal justice, freedom of speech and freedom of religion .

• Revolutionary leaders adopted the expression “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” as their slogan.

• Unfortunately this did not apply to everyone. When Olympe de Gouges published a declaration of rights of women, her ideas were rejected and in 1793 she was declared an enemy of the Revolution and executed.

STATE-CONTROLLED

CHURCH

• The National Assembly took over Church lands and declared that Church officials and priests were to be elected and paid as state officials

• This meant that the Catholic Church lost its land and its political independence

• The assembly’s actions alarmed millions of peasants, who were devout Catholics. They believed that the pope should rule over a church independent of the state. From this time on many peasants opposed the state.

FLIGHT TO VARENNES

• Was warned that he and his family may be in danger

• A number of supporters of the monarchy had already fled the country

• In June of 1791, the royal family attempted an escape from France to Austrian Netherlands, but they were apprehended near the border

• The attempted escape increased the influence of Louis’s radical enemies and sealed his fate

A LIMITED MONARCHY

• In September 1791, the National Assembly completed the new constitution

• The constitution created a limited constitutional monarchy that stripped Louis of much of his power

• It also created a Legislative Assembly which had the power to create laws and to approve or reject declarations of war

• The king still held the executive power to enforce laws

DIVISIONS DEVELOP

• Food shortages and government debt remained

• Questions on how to deal with these problems caused the Legislative Assembly to split into 3 groups. Each sat in different areas of the meeting hall:

• Radicals sat on the left side (opposed monarchy and wanted sweeping changes in the way government was ran)

• Moderated sat in the center (wanted some changes but not as many as radicals)

• Conservatives sat on the right side of the hall (they upheld the idea of a limited monarchy and wanted few changes)

DIVISIONS DEVELOP

CONT.

• Groups outside of the Legislative Assembly also wanted to influence the government:

• Émigrés – nobles and others who fled France, hoped to undo the Revolution and restore the Old Regime

• Sans-culottes – Parisian workers and small shopkeepers wanted the Revolution to bring even greater changes to France

FRANCE AT WAR

• Monarchs across Europe feared a revolution might break out in their countries and they urged France to restore Louis XVI.

• The Legislative Assembly responded by declaring war.

• The Prussian commander threatened to destroy Paris if the French royal family was harmed.

• This enraged the Parisians and 20,000 men and women invaded the palace where the royal family was staying.

• They massacred the royal guards and imprisoned Louis and Marie Antoinette.

FRANCE AT WAR CONT.

• When French troops defending Paris went to reinforce the French army in the field, rumours spread that supporters of the king held in Paris prisons planned to break out and seize control of the city

• Citizens responded by raiding the prisons and murdering over 1000 prisoners

• Under pressure from radicals, the Legislative Assembly set aside the constitution of 1791.

• Declared the king disposed, dissolved the assembly, and called for the election of the new legislature

• A new government called the National Convention took control and abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic

JACOBINS AND THE END

OF LOUIS XVI

• Most of the members involved in the government changes were members of a radical political organization called the Jacobins

• The National Convention reduced Louis XVI’s role to that of a common citizen and prisoner

• The Jacobins tried Louis for treason

• The convention found him guilty and by a close vote he was sentenced to death

• Louis was executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793

ROBESPIERRE

• Jacobin leader who slowly gained power

• Set out to build a “republic of virtue” by wiping out France’s past

• Closed all churched in Paris because they believed religion was old-fashioned and dangerous

• In 1793 Robespierre became leader of the Committee of Public Safety and he governed France as a dictator for the next year.

REIGN OF TERROR

• Robespierre’s rule became known as the Reign of Terror

• Under Robespierre, enemies of the revolution were often tried in the morning and guillotined in the afternoon

• Paradoxically, Robespierre believed that his use of terror enabled French citizens to remain true to the ideals of the Revolution. In other words, the end justifies the means.

• Approximately 40,000 were executed. Many were peasants who were the ones who benefited from the Revolution

• Even Marie Antoinette was executed

END OF THE TERROR

• In July 1794, members of the National Convention turned on Robespierre and demanded his arrest and execution

• The Reign of Terror ended when Robespierre was executed on July 28, 1794

• In 1795 leaders of the National Convention drafted a new government, the 3rd

since 1789

• Power was placed in the hands of the upper middle class

• It has 2 house legislatures and an executive body of 5 men known as the Directory.

• The new government believed that the problems and excesses associated with the French Revolution were due to ordinary people having been given too much power and influence. Therefore power was now restricted to the educated and wealthy.

• Had a general to command France’s army. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte

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