unit 2 ib history of europe - mcquaid1 unit 2 the french revolution

Unit 2 IB History of Europe - McQuaid

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UNIT 2

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION


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2.1

Life in the Ancien Regime


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Life in the Ancien Regime

•Population doubles in the 16th century.

•The 18th century witnesses explosive population growth.

•France had 18 million in 1715 and 26 million by 1789.


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Reasons for Population Growth

•Less famine in the 18th century.

•Harvests improved.•Hygiene and sanitation improved.

•Wars killed fewer people. •New foods.


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The Revolution in Agriculture

•Industrial Revolution.•New methods of farming.•Agriculture is commercialized.

•Peasants who were left to fend for themselves against nature and the marketplace.


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The Family in Early Modern Europe

•Household was the primary organization.

•Marriage occurred later in life.

•Illegitimacy increased.


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Status and Class

•Three Estates; Nobles, Clergy and the rest of the population.

•People received the rights afforded their estate.

•Nobles and Clergy were exempt from many taxes.

•The merchant class demands a political voice.


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How Do Divisions in Society Lead to Problems?

•No political place for the new urban middle class.

•Peasants resented the leftovers of feudal dues.

•Taxed peasants/merchants and untaxed Nobility and Clergy.

•Louis XVI lacks the charisma of the Sun King.


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2.3

Background Causes of the French Revolution


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Long-Term Causes of the French Revolution

•The Estate System.•Taxation. •War and Court Spending. •Weak Monarchs. •Growth of Trade. •The Age of the Enlightenment.


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Short-Term Causes

•French Aid to the American Revolution (1776-83).

•American Revolutionary Ideas.

•The Character of King Louis XVI.


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The Immediate Causes

•Money.•Bad Harvests.•Louis XVI Calls the Estates-General.

•The National Assembly is Created.


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Major Events: The Revolution Begins (1789-

91)• The Bastille is stormed.• The peasants storm the 40 000

Bastilles.• The National Guard is formed.• The Declaration of the Rights of

Man and Citizen.• The March to Versailles.


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2.4:

The Government of the French Revolution


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Three Phases of the French Revolution

•Liberal Revolution 1789-92.•Radical Revolution 1792-94.•Thermidorean Reaction 1794-99.


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The Legislative Assembly

•At the left of the political spectrum were the Jacobins.

•30 Jacobins in the Legislative Assembly.

•The center of the spectrum were the Girondins.


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The Legislative Assembly

•250 members in the Legislative Assembly.

•The right of the political spectrum were the Feuillants.

•20 members.


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The Constitution of 1791

•France will be a hereditary constitutional monarchy.

•France will have a parliament.

•There was to be a separate executive.


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The Constitution of 1791

•All judges in France were to be elected.

•The franchise (right to vote) was to be given to all who paid taxes equivalent to 3 days wages or more.


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Good and Bad Points of the National Assembly

•It produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

•Established a limited monarchy in France.

•The Church was curbed in France.


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Good and Bad Points of the National Assembly

•There was no universal suffrage.

•Finances were not properly handled.

•Slavery was still allowed in French colonies.


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Why Does the Revolution become More Radical?

•Disaffection with the Revolution was growing among the lower classes, especially the peasantry.

•The war with Austria and Prussia went very badly.


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Why Does the Revolution become More Radical?

•Convinced that the king was behind the invasion, a Paris mob attacked the royal palace.

•Volunteer National Guardsmen arrived from all over France.


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Events of the Second Phase of the Revolution

•Begins on August 10, 1792•The Paris Commune executed about twelve hundred people in the September Massacres.

•The sans-culottes drove the radical revolution.


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Second Phase of the Revolution

•Inequality of any kind was to be abolished.

•The aristocracy and the monarchy was to be abolished.

•The Convention was created.


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The Convention (1792-95)

•The Convention declared France a Republic.

•The radical Jacobins condemn the King’s treachery during the war with Prussia.

•King Louis XVI was executed on January 21, 1793.


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The Convention (1792-95)

•Protection of the gains made during the Revolution.

•The elimination of those elements which might endanger the new society.

•The Committee of Public Safety.


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The Reign of Terror or the Republic of Virtue?

•France would become the Republic of Virtue.

•The old system was founded on property, Christianity, and social distinction.

•‘The Cult of the Supreme Being’ became the official religion.


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The Reign of Terror or the Republic of Virtue?

•Dictatorship of Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety.

•Terror became fiercest in areas of rebellion and Paris.

•Execution of 25 000 to 40 000 counter-revolutionaries and ‘enemies of the republic.’


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Why Resort to a Reign of Terror?

•The outbreak of war in 1792.•Economic pressures.•A citizen army is drafted throughout France.

•Enemies within France had to be silenced.


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The Thermidorean Reaction (1795-99)

•In July 1794 the radical leaders of the Convention, including Robespierre, were either exterminated or powerless.

•Committee of Public Safety is stripped of all its powers.

•Monarchists and priests returned back to France.


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The Thermidorean Reaction

•A Constitution is drafted in 1795. •France officially became a democratic republic and granted all adult males who could read and write the vote.

•The monarch is replaced with a Directory of five men.


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Achievements and Problems of the French

Revolution

•Brought an end to the final pieces of feudalism.

•Radical Revolution introduced the National army, the metric system and abolished slavery in the colonies.

•Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.


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Achievements and Problems of the French

Revolution

•Nationalism and citizenship.• The Reign of Terror.

• Committee of Public Safety: 20th century totalitarian state.

unit 2 ib history of europe - mcquaid1 unit 2 the french revolution

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