The French Revolution and
Romanticism
Roots of The Revolution
• Absolute monarch
• Philosophes
• Infamous
• Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Bourbon
• Marquis de Lafayette
• Treaty of Alliance
Roots of the Revolution
• 1700’s
• Paris is buzzing with new ideas
• Salons
•
•
Attracted writers, poets, musicians, important government
officials, liberal minded aristocrats, and members of the middle
class
Talked about Ideas of the Enlightenment
• Natural rights
• Rights of man
• Religious tolerance
• Freedom of speech and press
• Freedom to choose their own leaders
Ideas that were sweeping across Europe
• All people have certain natural rights
• People of a nation have the right to remove a
government that takes away these rights
•
John Locke
• People that believed in justice tolerance and freedom
• Limit the power of the absolute monarch
• Give people voice in government
• Philosophes
•
•
•
Voltaire
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Montesqueiu
Ideas of the Philosophes
• Advocate of Religious Freedom
• Used humor and satire to make his points
• The Catholic deliberately kept people in ignorance
and superstition
• “Crush the Infamous thing”
•
Voltaire
• People are born free but usually end up enslaved
• “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”
• Kings should rule by the will of the people, not the by
the will of God
•
Rousseau
More Ideas of the Philosophes
• The Persian Letters
• Praised England for establishing and preserving a
balance of power between Parliament and the king
•
Montesquieu
Talk of Change
• Salons were a place where ideas could be discussed
freely and openly
• People were not free to criticize the state in public
• Speech and writings were censored
•
•
Books printed in other countries and smuggled into France
Some officials that were suppose to ban helped to circulate
• Many people in the middle and upper class liked the
idea of having a voice in the government.
•
Something that they never had under the rule of the Bourbon
Kings
Late 1870’s
• Ideas of the Enlightenment had been simmering in
the minds of the people
• Reform was needed
•
England had done it
•
•
Glorious Revolution
Drastic steps were needed
The Influence of English Rights
• Many French Thinkers had visited England
• They were impressed
• Parliament had passed a Bill of Rights
• 1640 bloody civil war
• 1688 Glorious Revolution
• Limited Monarchy
• High Officials in France worried
• 1649 the English had executed their king
• Many Frenchmen believed that the English system was better
• “Why not France?”
Enlightenment and America
• Meanwhile across the pond
• Jefferson, Madison, Franklin
•
•
Well acquainted with the glorious revolution
Expected those rights for the colonists
• Enlightenment ideas were the ammunition of the
revolutionaries
• A new government was formed
•
Far beyond what the French Philosophes imagined
“Let me Volunteer”
• Marquis de Lafayette
• Aristocrat
• Believed in the ideals of the
Enlightenment
• Wanted to help America
• Eager for military fame and
glory
• Bought his own ship and
volunteered to help the
colonist fight
• Becomes a hero of the
American Revolution
• First Frenchman to help
America to fight
France to the Rescue
• King Louis XVI
• Absolute monarch
• French King
• France had lost all of it’s territory in North America during the
French Indian War
• Wanted to see the British humiliated by the revolutionaries
• February 1778
• Treaty of Alliance is signed
•
France agrees to send
• Money
• Equipment
• 12000 Soldiers
• 32000 Sailors
• And a large naval fleet
Impact of Helping the Revolution
• Frenchmen fought side by side with revolutionaries
• Admired the courage of the Americans
• Saw how determination and ideals can defy an empire
• Made the desire for liberty burn more brightly for the French
• Helping in the Revolution was expensive
• French Indian War was expensive
• American Revolution emptied the treasury even further
• Meant higher taxes for the people
• This leads to the beginning of the revolution in France
The Three Estates
• Ancien régime
• Tithes
• Versailles
• Bourgeoisie
• Corvée
The Three Estates
• Thomas Jefferson spent 4 years in France
• Observing
•
•
“Out of the population of 20 million of people suppose to be in
France, there are nineteen millions more wretched, more accursed
in every circumstance of human existence, than the most
conspicuously wretched individual of the whole United States.”
Exaggeration
•
The French peasants were poor and hungry but they had a much
better life than that of the “most conspicuously wretched”
Three Social Classes
• Ancien régime
• “Old Regime”
• Rigid social ladder that has been in place since the middle ages
• 3 social classes called the Three Estates
•
•
•
Clergy
Nobility
Peasants
The First Estate
• Clergy
• The Catholic church was the official church in France
• Gap between the rich and poor clergymen
• Poor—parish priests
• Rich-headed monasteries
•
•
•
Archbishops, bishops and abbots
Lived like princes in extravagantly furnished palaces
Spent most of their time doing things other than their church
duties
• One churchman astounded the aristocrats with his extravagant
gambling
The First Estate
• Wealth of the Clergy came from tithes and rent
• Tithes—one-tenth of a person’s income paid to support a
church
• Land
•
•
•
Clergy made up 1% of the population
Owned 10% of the land
Clergy paid no taxes
•
Paid 2% of income as a “gift” to the state
• Wealth and large landholdings gave the members of
the clergy power to guide the affairs of the nation
The Second Estate
• Nobility and the Aristocracy
• No longer a warrior class
• Owned 20% of the land
• Some were poor most had modest wealth
• Few were extremely rich
•
•
•
•
Didn’t have to pay taxes
Allowed to hold the highest offices
•
•
Hired managers to look after their property
Lived in luxury in Paris or Versailles
Church, government, and military
Some members of the second estate were wiling to give up
some privileges in exchange for more political power
Similarities between 1st and 2nd estates
• Both held power and wealth
• This meant that things stayed the same
• Unless they could weaken the king and give themselves more
power.
The Third Estate
• Changed the most since feudal times
• 98% of the people
• Anyone who wasn’t an aristocrat or clergy
•
Doctors, lawyers, business people, merchants, manufacturers,
writers, government workers, and craftspeople
• Classes within the 3rd estate
• Bourgeoisie
• Urban working class
• Peasants
The Bourgeoisie
• Wealthiest group of the 3rd estate
• Much like the nobles
• Powdered wigs, silk stockings, and tight fitting knee britches
called culottes
• Could not claim any privileges of the nobility
• Some could purchase nobility
• Had to pay taxes
• Could not be promoted to the highest ranks in the Church or
the army
• Deep resentment
• They were the ones who supplied most of the money, engaged
in trade, and built the wealth of the country
The Urban Working Class
• Almost as poor as the peasants
• Lived miserably
• Existed mainly on bread
• 3 pounds per day
• Became known as the sansculottes
• Sansculottes- those without trousers
• Wore red woolen hats to show support for the
revolution
Life of a Peasant
• Better off than peasants in other countries
• Poorest members of the 3rd estate
• Paid the most taxes
• The “wretched” individuals Thomas Jefferson wrote about
• Story from the life of a peasant
• Corvée
• A special tax were people worked for free for the government
The Absolute Monarchs
• Courtier
• King Louis XIV
• Versailles
• King Louis XV
• “Après nous, le déluge”
• King Louis XVI
• Marie Antoinette
The Absolute Monarchs
• How many of us would want to be friends with
royalty
• Courtier
•
•
An attendant at court, usually an aristocrat
Palace had 200 guest rooms
• King Louis XIV
• Center of the world
• Everything revolved around him
• He was the sun
Rules of Behavior
 Falseness
 Acting like a slave
 Elaborate rules of etiquette
 Knocking on a door
 Admiring glances
 If you were lucky you
 Flattery
 The more extravagant the
better
 Bowing and removing of
hat for everything that was
the king’s
 You must be seen at court
 Spend money
 Wear expensive clothes

No gray
would receive the greatest
of honors

Holding the candle while the
king put on his nightgown.
King Louis XIV
• Most Powerful monarch in Europe
• Perfect example of an absolute monarch
• God’s representative on earth
• Ruled by divine Right
• Said that he was is own chief minister at the age of 23
•
•
Unheard of
“I am the state”
• Became king at the age of 7
• At age 10 uprising by nobles in Paris
• Failed, left its mark on the young king
• Became determined to keep the nobles under his thumb
Versailles
• Previous kings lived in the Tuileries in Paris
• Luis XIV built a magnificent palace at Versailles
• 7 football fields long
• Gardens
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1 million red and yellow tulips
1000 rooms
Library
Theater
Council rooms
Living quarters for the king and queen
Hall of Mirrors
•
17 tall windows 17 huge mirrors 32 chandeliers
Versailles continued
• Luis XIV insisted that the most powerful nobles live
at least part of the year at Versailles
• Did favors for them
•
The nobles became dependent on him
• Nobles became idle, corrupt flatterers, gamblers, and
gossips
The Reign of Louis XIV
• 72 years long
• France becomes on of the most prosperous nations
and the center of European Culture
• Art and Literature Flourished
• Louis became involved in long and costly wars
• Left France in deep debt
Louis XV
• Great Grandson of the Sun King
• Became ruler at the age of 5
• Ineffective
• More interested in having fun than governing
• France becomes involved in more costly wars
• French Indian War
•
•
Seven Years’ War
France loses all of its colonies in North America and India
• Kept his court at Versailles
• Continued to heavily tax the poor and spend
extravagantly
More Louis XV
• Knew that he was leaving France in a financial crisis
• “Après nous, le déluge”
• After us comes the flood
• August 23, 1754 a baby boy is born
• Grandson of Louis XV
• Courier dies on the way to announce the birth
• Louis Augustus is born
• King Louis XVI
King Louis XVI
• Kind and Generous
• Trouble making decisions
• Mostly interested in hunting
• Flabby and nearsighted
• Skilled and fearless hunter
• Kept a detailed account of each hunt
• Very shy when he was not hunting
• Not very bright, talented or bold
• At the age of 15 marries Marie Antoinette
• Becomes King at the age of 20
• “I feel like the universe is going to fall on me”
Queen Marie Antoinette
• dauphin
• Ancien régime
• Le Petit Trianon
Queen Marie Antoinette
• The dauphin and Marie Antoinette visited Paris for
the first time
•
Dauphin- the title given to the prince who is next in line to
inherit the French throne
• What people saw:
• Tall and slender woman
• Blue eyes charming smile
• Perfect complexion
What Marie Saw
• We made our entrance into Paris . . . The poor people
. . . In spite of the taxes with which they are
overwhelmed, were transported with joy at seeing us.
. .When we returned from our walk we went up to an
open terrace and stayed there half an hour. I cannot
describe to you, my dear mamma, the. . .joy and
affection which every one exhibited toward us.
Before we withdrew we kissed our hands to the
people. Which gave them great pleasure. What a
happy thing it is for persons in our rank to gain the
love of a whole nation so cheaply. . . I felt it
thoroughly, and shall never forget it.
Lois XVI
• One year later King Louis XV dies of the smallpox
• The search began for Louis XVI (20) and Marie
Antoinette (19)
• Found Praying
•
“Protect us, O God. We are too young to reign.”
King Louis XVI and Marie Antionette
• Many people hated Marie because she was an
Austrian
•
Austria is an enemy of France
• Others saw them as a breath of fresh air and a hope
for the future
• Both were virtuous
• In love with each other
• Kind and generous
Dangerous Advice
• People believed that Marie Antoinette interfered
with her husband’s decisions
•
Not true—still a problem
• Marie was a spoiled child and was determined to
have things her way.
• Louis indulged her
•
If people wanted things from the king they would ask the
queen
• Nation is nearly bankrupt because of extravagant
spending
• The poor could not pay enough taxes to pull out of
debt
uy
• King louis XV’s ministers were making reforms
reforms
•
Tax the Aristocrats
•
The Aristocrats resisted
• Louis Fires his grandfather’s ministers
• Aristocrats—”he is going to be a good king”
• Maintained the ancien régime
• The attempted reforms of King Louis XV could have
prevented the revolution
The Extravagant Queen
• Marie Antoinette liked to spend money and have a
good time
•
Allowance twice that of the previous queen
•
Constantly in debt
• She wasn’t well educated
• Only interested in gossip and scandals
• Good at gambling, gossip, and staging dramatic
productions
•
Often lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in one night
Marie’s Wardrobe
• Always buying new clothes
• 2 million dollars in a year
• Most of it in jewelry—Diamonds
• Personal dressmaker and beautician
• Liked to have her hair piled high
• Decorated with scenes of people, houses and animals
Le Petit Trianon
• A small mansion on the grounds of Versailles
• Enclosed with fences and gates to keep people out
• Inside
• Theater, gardens with a lake and a river
• Peasant Village
• People posing as peasants
• Farm animals
• She would dress in a white dress and pretend to be a peasant
• Meanwhile the government is in debt, people went
hungry, the real peasants suffered under the weight
of taxes
Marie Antoinette and the Revolution
• Many people believe that Marie Antoinette caused
the Revolution
•
Thomas Jefferson
• Not all her fault
• She did play a part
• Extravagance didn’t reduce debt
• People began to hate her
• She became the symbol of everything that the French people
thought was wrong.
• “Give them Cake”
• Cold-hearted and cruel, loyalty to the king and queen began to
weaken
The Third Estate Revolts
• Estates-General
• Abbé Sieyès
• National Assembly
• Vive l’assemblée
• Jean-Sylvain Bailly
• The Tennis Court Oath
The Third Estate Revolts
• May 1789
• Louis XVI had been in power for 15 years
• France was on the brink of financial collapse
• One of the biggest reasons was because of wars
• American Revolution
• Colonies gained independence
• Great Britain had been crippled
• France was in deeper debt
• Extravagant spending by the court
• The French government spent half of its money
paying off interest on loans
Reform is Needed
• The only solution to all of France’s problems was
reform
• This would also means changes for the aristocracy
•
•
They knew the government was in trouble
“We will agree to make some changes, but you must call a
meeting of the Estates-General
• The Estates-General
• The legislative body before the French Revolution, made up of
representatives from the Three Estates
• Originated in medieval times
• Purpose was to give advice to the king
•
Approve new taxes
The Estates-General
• Had not met since 1614
• Louis agreed for the meeting
• Opened the door to revolution
• Saturday, May 2, 1789
• King Louis XVI is sitting in the Hall of Mirrors receiving
representatives from the Three Estates
•
Deputies
• First Estate
• Rich, elegantly embroidered robes
• Second Estate
• Satin suits with lace cuffs, plumed hats, silver vests, silk cloaks
• First and Second Estates Received Graciously
Enter the Third Estate
• Third Estate
• Plain simple clothes
• Waited for three hours
• Not in the Hall of Mirrors
• Marched single file past a solemn king
Meeting of the Estates General
• Ancient Rules
•
•
•
The Three estates met separately to vote on a proposal
Each Estate cast one vote based on the decision of its members
What is the Problem with this?
•
The First and Second Estates dominated the Estates-General
• The Third Estate wanted to change the rules so that they
would have a real voice
•
•
Had more deputies than the other two Estates combined
They knew that some member of the clergy might be sympathetic to
their problem
• The Third Estate wanted all of Three Estates to meet
together.
•
•
•
Each deputy would be able to cast one vote.
The Third Estate would be able to control the outcome of the voting
The nobles objected and the king sided with them.
The Beginning of the Estates-General
• The deputies in the Third Estate spent time getting
to know each other
• The public was admitted to the hall
• Discussion Begins
•
•
Some were willing to settle for small changes
Others wanted nothing less than a constitution and an end of
the Ancien régime
• Abbé Sieyès
• Clergy man who was a champion of the poor
• Wrote a pamphlet to express his ideas about the Third Estate
• “What is the Third Estate? Everything! What has it been up to
now in the political order? Nothing! What does it demand? To
become something!”
The Third Estate Looks For Help
• The deputies of the Third Estate agreed that they
should ask deputies of the First Estate to join them
in their meeting
•
“The gentlemen of the commons invite the gentlemen of the
clergy, in the name of the God of Peace and for the national
interest, to meet them in their hall to consult upon the means
of bringing about the concord which is so vital at this moment
for public welfare”
• Some of the clergy were excited others wanted to
discuss the proposal
• The delegation went back to wait for a reply
•
June 13 three priests arrived, more and more followed
The National Assembly is Formed
• The Third estate was ready to begin its work
• Abbé Sieyès
• The third estate represents 98% of the population
• New name
• THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
• Debates on the name began
•
A vote was taken
• 491-89 in favor
• The First Estate Joins
• The Nobles would join eventually
The Tennis Court Oath
• The king was furious about the news
• Locked the doors of the National Assembly meeting
• Wanted to declare their actions illegal
• Put the commoners back in their place
• The deputies would not back down
• Moved their meeting to the nearby tennis courts
• Vive l’assemblée
•
Long live the Assembly
• Jean-Sylvain Bailly
• Chosen to lead the meeting
• All that wanted change would take an oath to stay together
until a constitution was written
•
•
•
Arms raised in a salute
Sign the paper that the oath was written on
Only one person did not sign the oath
• Known as the Tennis Court Oath
A Time of Violence
• Sanscullotes
• Jacques Necker
• Bastille
• July 14 1789
• Great Fear
• Émigrés
• archives
A time of Violence
• King Louis XVI
• Calls his Swiss Guards in to Paris to protect him
• Rumors started to fly
• The king was going to arrest the deputies of the Third Estate
• The troops were arriving in preparation for the war
• In Paris the sansculottes were becoming angry
• Economy was failing
• 150000 people were out of work
• Bread was in short supply
•
•
The cost of bread was half a days wages
Speculation that aristocrats were withholding grain to sent the
price higher
• July 12 the King makes another mistake
• Fires Jacques Necker
•
•
•
•
Jacques had encouraged Louis to give into the Third Estates
Demands
Working people thought Jacques was their ally
They thought that he could control the price of bread , make tax
reforms and save the country from bankruptcy
People thought King Louis the XVI would use force to disband
the Assembly
•
•
•
Angry mobs
Looting
Threatening
To The Bastille
• 14th Century Fortress
• Five-foot-thick stone walls
• 8 stone towers
• Outer moat with a draw bridge
• Inner moat with a drawbridge
• Represented the Tyranny of the Bourbon Kings
• Only had seven prisoners
•
•
•
4 lunatics
Others were not political prisoners
Bastille had been used to store 250 barrels of gunpowder for
safekeeping
July 14 1789
• Rioters had broken into the military storage facility
• 30,000 muskets
• Canons
• No Gun Powder
• The Rioters heard that there was gunpowder in the
Bastille
•
“to the Bastille! To the Bastille!”
• Launay could hear the noisy mob approaching
• A delegation was sent to speak with Launay
• Remove the canons
• Hand over the fortress
Attack on the Bastille
• Launay agreed to remove the cannons
• More sansculottes joined the crowd
• Men broke the pulleys holding the drawbridges
• “Down with the Bridges”
• Luanay opened the gates
• Killed by the mobs
• Heads cut off and put on pikes
• THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION
The next day
• Louis is awakened early
• “is this a rebellion”
• “no sire, this is a Revolution”
• Journal “Rien”
• Necker is returned to office
• Violence and rioting continued
•
•
•
Millers were killed
Game was killed in private estates
Broke into the home of nobles
• Sometimes killed the lord and his family
• Some nobles fled to other countries
• Called Émigrés
The Great Fear
• The violence continued
• Rumors
• People in the pay of nobles were roaming the countryside
•
•
•
•
Burning crops
Murdering peasants
The peasant armed themselves with whatever they could find
The fear disappeared when nothing happened
• The kings officials abandoned their offices
• Replaced by mayors and officials that were friendly to the
revolution
The National Assembly is at work
• In Versailles
• Working on reforms and on a constitution
• News of the riots and looting
• In several provinces the whole people forms a kind of league
for the destruction of the manor houses, the ravaging of the
lands, and especially for the seizure of the archives where the
deed to feudal properties are kept. It seeks to throw off at last
a yoke that for centuries weighted it down.
•
Archives- the place where records related to an institution or
organization are stored.
• What should be done about the violence?
Toward a New Government
• August 27, 1789
• Declaration of the Rights of Man
• National Guard
• Marquis de Lafayette
Toward a New Government
• What should be done?
• Give up some of the nobility’s ancient priveleges
• Pay taxes according to income
• Peasants be allowed to hunt
• All citizens should be allowed to hold offices and positions in
the army
• “a contagion of sentimental feeling”
• Clergy gave up rights to tithes
• Lord gave up the right to collect land rents
• “Suspend the session. They have all gone quite mad”
• By morning the Ancien régime was gone.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
• “For a constitution to be a good
one, it must be based on the rights
of man and must protect these
rights: we must understand the
right which are granted to all men
by natural justice; we must recall
all the principles which are at the
base of human society.”
DORM continued
• Some people didn’t think that the constitution was a
good idea because they felt like France might not be
ready for freedom.
•
They had lived under the feudal system for centuries
• August 27 1789
• Declaration of the Rights of Man is issued
•
•
“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”
“these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to
oppression,”
DORM
• New provisions of the Declaration of the Rights of
Man
•
•
•
•
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Religion
Right to have a say in how they were governed
Absolute Monarchy was abolished
• Not quite ready to write a constitution.
• There were still disagreements
•
How much power the king should have
• The Poor People Speak again
Women March on Versailles
• Shortage of bread is reaching a crisis in Paris
• Bakers are threatened with hanging
• Fights break out in bread lines
• Women were in charge of getting the bread
• October 5 1789
• Angry women demanding bread
• Told they would have to go see the king
• SO THEY DID
•
•
•
•
Marched to Versailles
Armed with pikes
Imagined horrible tortures for the queen
Crowd of 6000
Women March on Versailles
• The rain began to fall
• Reached Versailles in the late afternoon soaked and
muddy
• The National Guard
•
•
The citizens militia
Commanded by Marquis de Lafayette
• The marching women demanded that Lafayette lead
them to Versailles
• Pushed their way into the meeting hall where the
National Assembly was meeting
•
Foul language shouting at the deputies
Women March on Versailles
• A delegation of 6 women were allowed to meet with
the king
• “Sire, we want bread”
• “You know my heart, I will order all of the bread in
Versailles to be collected and given to you.”
•
King went to sleep
• 6am the queen is awakened
• Women had broken into the palace looking for her
•
•
2 bodyguards killed
“We want to cut off her head, tear out her heart, hack up her
intestines”
• The queen was scared
• Fled through an empty staircase to the kings room
• The empty room
• Slashed her bedsheets with knives
• Lafayette arrives and clear the place of the rioters
• The women were in the courtyard
• Body guards heads on the pikes
• The king to Paris! The king to Paris!
• “My friends, I will go to Paris with my wife and
children.”
• National Guard in front
• Women walked along
•
Pikes included
• “We are bringing the bake, the baker’s wife, and the
baker’s boy– now we shall have bread!”
Reforms and the Constitution
• Deputies of the NA followed the king to Paris
•
Announcing reforms
• 18 months laws were passed that formed the basis of a
new constitution
•
Limited constitutional monarchy
•
•
•
Assembly makes the laws
The king and ministers are responsible for enforcing them
Took over lands of the Catholic Church
•
•
Sold to pay off debts
Clergy would be elected by voters
• Paid by the state
• Angered religious officials
• The king approved the Declaration of the Rights of man
and the Constitution
From Monarchy to Republic
• Conservative
• Radical
• Republic
• The Marseillaise
• The National convention
• Louis Capet
• Guillotine
From Monarchy to Republic
• Every night a duke leaves the Tuileries at the same
time
•
•
June 21 1791
Something is different
• A plump man in a dark cloak leaves and enters the
carriage
•
Inside there is one woman and 2 girls
• Another woman enters the carriage dressed in a
simple dress and hat.
Escape
• The Carriage begins its trip to Austria
• In the town of Varennes a man recognizes the face of
the man in the carriage
•
•
His face was on the money
Chubby man in cloak
•
•
Woman in the carriage
•
•
Louis’ Sister
2 Girls
•
•
King Louis the XVI
Louis son and daughter
Plainly dressed woman
•
Marie Antoinette
Busted
• The king and his family are returned in humiliation
• Streets are lined with soldiers of the National Guard
• Huge crowds watched the carriage in silence
• “Whoever applauds the king shall be flogged; whoever
humiliates him shall be hanged.”
• The king had lost the love and trust of his people
• If his attempt was successful he could have
persuaded Austria to invade France
• The king becomes a prisoner in Tuileries
A New Legislative Assembly
• September 1791 the National Assembly is done
• A new Legislative Assembly is formed
• Younger men with different ideas
• Solid members of the middle class, many lawyers
• The old problems remained
• No jobs and no bread
• The Legislative Assembly held its meetings in the
riding school in the gardens at Tuileries
Divided Legislative Assembly
Radical
Conservative
 Favored extreme
 Opposed rapid change
change
 Wanted to get rid of the
king
 Left-wingers
and hold traditional
values
 Wanted to keep the
limited monarchy
 Right-wingers
Divisions in other places in France
Radical
Conservative
 Wanted to get rid of all
 Wanted to go back to
the old rules and
traditions
 Establish complete
equality and
democracy
the absolute monarchy
 Most of them had left
the country
France at War
• Leopold II
• Austrian Emperor
• Supported the right-wingers
• Wanted to overthrow the revolution
•
France set a bad example for other Europeans
• Austria threatens to attack
• The assembly responds
•
•
“hooray”
“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,”
• The National Assembly declares war on Austria
The War goes bad for France
• “I am not able to understand, how we could ever get
into war without the slightest preparation”
•
Marquis de Lafayette
• The French Soldiers Fled at the sight of the Austrian
Army
• Rumors spread
•
The king and queen are traitors! They have betrayed us to the
enemy!
• The sansculottes turned to violence
August 10, 1792
• The king and queen had been awake all night
• The Swiss Guards stood by to defend their king and
•
•
•
•
queen
The sansculottes had taken over the city government
They approached the Tuileries
Muskets and cannons fired
New sound
•
•
•
•
Marching
Militia from the province of Marseille
Coming to fight against the Austrians
They sang “The Marseillaise”
Attack on Tuileries
• The mob forced its way into the palace
• One member of the assembly tried to protect the
royal family
• All 500 of the Swiss guards are slaughtered
•
And anyone else that could be found (more than 1000 people)
• The king and queen become prisoners
• In September a new radical assembly is elected
• The National Assembly
The National Assembly
• September 22 1792
• Declared France a republic
• The end of the Monarchy
• Louis Capet
• “The king must be killed”
•
Antoine de Saint-Just
The Fate of the King
• Put on trial for conspiracy against the nation
• Found guilty
• Now what
• Vote
• Death
• Most shocking vote was that of Philippe Egalite
• January 21, 1793
• Louis has a date with the guillotine
• October 16 1793
• Marie Antoinette has a date with the guillotine
• “I beg your pardon, I did not do it on purpose”
Religion Culture and Art
• Festival of the Supreme Being
• Maximilien Robespierre
• NeoClassicism
• Jacques Louis David
Religion, Culture and Art
• The radical leaders wanted to destroy everything
from the ancient regime
• They shared Voltaire’s dislike of the Catholic Church
•
•
Doubted the doctrine
Hated the bishops
• The attack on the Church
• All of the church’s land was taken and sold
• Tried to change the name of the Church to the French national
church
• Priests had to make an oath of loyalty to support the new
constitution
The Attack on the Church
• Many of the Catholics in France became angry
• Not just the priests
• Began to turn against the revolution
• The pope condemned the revolution
• After the execution of the king
• Radicals took over the Cathedral of Notre-Dame
•
•
Tore out the statues of Saints
Replaced them with statues of Voltaire and Rousseau
• The radical leaders wanted to get rid of the old
Christian religion.
The Festival of the Supreme Being
• Announced to introduce the people of France to the
new civic religion.
• Paris was excited
•
•
Houses were decorated with flowers and colors of the
revolution
The best artists worked to prepare for the festival
• Tuileries
• Thousands gathered
• Maximilien Robespierre explains his belief
•
•
The idea of a supreme being and the immorality of the sould
reminds us always of justice”
Set fire to wooden statues that represented Atheism, Folly and
Vice
A New Calendar
• Mr G’s Birthday Fructidor 17 186
• The radicals wanted to remove all traces of
Christianity
•
•
The old calendar counted dates from the birth of Christ
New Calendar began September 22, 1792
•
The day the National Convention took power
• 12 months
• Each had 30 days
• 3 ten-day weeks
• Festival celebrating the Sansculottes
• The months were named after natural events.
• Autumn:
• Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, "grape harvest") Starting Sept 22, 23 or 24
• Brumaire (from French brume, "fog") Starting Oct 22, 23 or 24
• Frimaire (From French frimas, "frost") Starting Nov 21, 22 or 23
• Winter:
• Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, "snow") Starting Dec 21, 22 or 23
• Pluviôse (from Latin pluviosus, "rain") Starting Jan 20, 21 or 22
• Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, "wind") Starting Feb 19, 20 or 21
• Spring:
• Germinal (from Latin germen, "germination") Starting Mar 20 or 21
• Floréal (from Latin flos, "flowering") Starting Apr 20 or 21
• Prairial (from French prairie, "pasture") Starting May 20 or 21
• Summer:
• Messidor (from Latin messis, "harvest") Starting Jun 19 or 20
• Thermidor (or Fervidor) (from Greek thermos, "heat") Starting Jul 19 or 20
• Fructidor (from Latin fructus, "fruit") Starting Aug 18 or 19
New Styles in Clothing and Speech
• No more powdered wigs and elaborate, heavy dresses
• Men
•
•
Women
•
•
Plain clothes with simple decoration
Soft cotton dresses and sandals
Imitating the Greeks
• The new styles reflected modesty and virtue which
were expected in the new republic
• Monsieur, Madmoiselle, madame
•
Replaced with citizen and citizeness
The Art of the Revolution
• The Revolutionaries encouraged new styles of art
• Looked at the ancient Greeks and Romans
• Models of modesty, piety, and devotion to duty
• Contrasted with the Ancien régime aristocracy
• Immorality and vice
• Paintings and sculptures
• Contemporary Figures in Classical Garb
• Used figures from ancient times to make statements about
contemporary events
• The style was very formal with crisp outlines and cool colors
Neo Classicism
• Influential
• Encouraged the discover and excavation of ancient
Roman Cities
•
Herculaneum and Pompeii
•
Neoclassical paintings mimicked actual pictures found on the
walls of the ruins
• Jacques-Louis David
• The most famous neoclassical artist of the revolution
• Member of the National Convention
• Voted for the death of the king
The Tennis Court Oath
Emphasized the heroism of the delegates to never
part until a constitution had been written
The Death of Marat
• Depicts one of the
most famous events
of the revolution
• Marat was a radical
journalist and hero
of the sansculottes
• Stabbed by a young
woman while taking
a bath
• These paintings
inspired the people
with revolutionary
fire
The Reign of Terror
• Tumbrels
• Royalist
• Suspect
• The Jacobins
• The Committee of Public Safety
• Maximilien Robespierre
• The Law of Suspects
The Reign of Terror
• When the French Revolution Started in 1789 liberal
minded people were applauding it.
• 1793 the world was horrified
• Tumbrels could be heard every afternoon
•
Tumbrel-A two wheeled wooden cart used to transport
prisoners to the guillotine
• Reasons someone might be in the Tumbrel
• Crying while husband was being executed
• Chopping down a tree
• “Not caring a fig” for the revolution
• Using monsieur or madame
The Jacobins and the Committee of Public Safety
• 1791 The legislative assembly took office
• Formed clubs to discuss ideas
• The most radical of these clubs was the Jacobins
• When the National Convention took power with the
sansculottes the revolution turned down a violent
path
• The Jacobins had demanded the deaths of King
Louis and Marie Antoinette
• Declared war against Austria
• Took Control of the Government
France was in trouble
• France was surrounded by enemy forces
• Many uprisings and civil wars
• Many people in France would welcome the invasion
of enemy troops
•
Royalists-supporters of the king and queen.
• Prices increased and food was in short supply
• People felt that the country was filled with traitors
• Something had to be done
The Committee of Public Safety
• Established in July of 1793
• Lead by Maximilien Robespierre
• Favorite Color was green
• Sculptured bust of himself in his room
• Lots of paintings and engravings as well
• Kept the book Social Contract next to his
bed
• Fanatical towards the revolution
Robespierre’s plan for “safety”
• All opposition to the revolution must be rooted out
• “Let terror be the order of the day”
•
Terror would allow virtue to flourish
• September 1793
•
The Law of Suspects is introduced
•
People were condemned for being “suspected” to not agree with the
revolution
• People were brought by the thousands to the guillotine
• October 1, 2400 people
• December, 4500
• People were tried up to 50 at a time
• Final death toll 40,000
• The flow of blood did not solve the real problem
• Paris was experiencing a near famine
• “There is no butcher shop in Paris except in this
square”
• Robespierre turned on his fellow Jacobins
•
July 27 1794
•
•
Meeting for Robespierre to accuse deputies of being “suspect”
“Down with the Tyrant!” “Long Live the Republic!”
• Robespierre and friends are taken to jail
• Robespierre attempts suicide
• The next day he has a date with Madame Guillotine
• Along with his friends
• Antoine de Saint-Just
• The Revolution had spun out of control
Napoleon: Empire Builder
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• Directory
• November 9 ,1799
• The Napoleonic Code
• Cossacks
• Exile
• Waterloo
The End of Terror
• Robespierre and his supporters were overthrown in
1794
• A moderate bourgeoisie takes control
•
•
•
New Constitution
Directory- 5 men that were in control of the government
Same Problems
•
•
•
No food
Rising prices
Foreign wars
• October 1795
• Royalist and émigrés feel like it is a good time to restore the
ancien régime
• Mobs attacked the Tuileries
Attack on the Tuilleries
• National Convention is in a meeting
• Napoleon is an officer in the French army
• Called on to defend the Convention
• Fires cannons point blank into the crowds
• Puts and end to the uprising
• Napoleon was a supporter of the revolution
• Member of the Jacobins
• 1796- given command of the French forces
• Defeats several armies and increases France’s Territory
Napoleon Takes Control
• Napoleon always wanted to have political power
• 1799 the people had lost faith in the Directory
• Window of opportunity for Napoleon
• November 9, 1799
• Napoleon makes his move
• Forces the five directors to resign
• Ends the Directory
• 3 consuls
•
•
One of them was Napoleon
THE END OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• 1800 a new constitution is approved
• Gave real ruling power to Napoleon
•
•
Consul for Life in 1802
Napoleon has the power of a dictator
• War still plagued France
• “Frenchmen, you want peace; your governments wants it even
more than you.”
• At war with the British
•
•
•
•
Not willing to be humiliated again
Afraid of Enlightenment ideals
France defeats the Austrians
1802 Britain signs a peace treaty
Beginning of Order in France
• After 10 years of Revolution
• People longed for stability
• Napoleon began to make reforms
• Established a national bank
• Balanced the national budget
•
•
Stopped rising prices
• People could now afford bread
Builds roads and bridges
The Napoleonic Code
• The Napoleonic Code
• Ensures several principles of the revolution
•
•
•
•
•
•
Equality of male citizens
The end of the Three Estates
The right to own property
Practice the religion of choice
Popular with bourgeoisie and peasants
Made him irresistible
• 1804 Napoleon is voted as emperor
• 15 years after the beginning of the revolution
The Grand Empire
• Napoleon was one of history’s greatest military
geniuses
• 1805-1809
•
Won battle after battle
• Gave pieces of Europe as gifts to his friends
• Joseph—Naples and later Spain
• Louis—Holland
• Jerome—Westphalia
• Elisa—the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italy
• All of Europe was under the control of the
Bonapartes
•
Except Great Britain, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire
A Disastrous Mistake
• June 1812
• Napoleon Decides to invade Russia
• 600,000 Troops
• Russia Retreats burning everything along the way
• September
• Napoleon reaches a burning Moscow
•
•
Puts out the fire and waits for five weeks
The Czar lets him wait
• The French Troops retreat
Retreat
• The men were wearing summer attire
• No more food
• Cold and Snow
• Horses died
• Food source for the men
• Wagons and artillery left behind
• Bloody footprints in the snow
• Cossacks appeared and attacked the French
• One of History’s greatest military defeats.
• 30,000 men returned to their homelands
Ultimate Humiliation
• 1814 enemy armies marched in to Paris and
Occupied the city.
• Napoleon is Exiled to Elba
•
Exile- to force a person to leave his or her own country and live
somewhere else.
• King Louis the XVIII becomes the new King
Return From Exile
• A few month’s later
• Napoleon escapes Elba.
• March 1st
• 1000 men
• Greeted by people who remember the days of glory
•
Already tired of Louis XVIII
• Royal Troops had been ordered to stop Napoleon
• Napoleon’s soldiers played the Marseillaise
•
•
•
•
•
Outlawed by the new king
“There he is! Fire”
“If you want to kill your emperor, here I am.”
“Long live the Emperor!.”
Louis the XVIII Flees
Waterloo
• Napoleon easily took control of the government and
raised and army.
• June 12 leaves Paris
• June 18, 1815 Napoleon takes his army to Waterloo
•
•
Small farming village near Brussels, Belgium
Heavy rain the night before
•
Too muddy for horses and artillery to move about
• Napoleon surveys his troops
• 74,000
• Duke of Wellington has about as many soldiers.
• “We have ninety chances in our favor,”
More Waterloo
• 11:30 The French begin to move
• Fierce fighting with the roar of cannons
• 4:30 50,000 Prussian troops arrive
• Support for Wellington
• The battlefield becomes soaked with blood
• Napoleon is overwhelmed and suffers defeat
• Wellington loses ¼ of his forces
• Napoleon looses half of his forces
• Napoleon is exiled to St. Helena off the coast of
Africa
What do we learn from the French Revolution?
• One of the bloodiest Revolutions in History
• The fall of the French Monarchy and the rise of the
middle class
• Napoleon’s armies carried the ideas of the French
Revolution throughout Europe
• 1800’s are marked with revolutions as the ideas of
liberty and equality spread
The Romantic Revolution
• Jean Jacques Rousseau
• The Noble Savage
• Romanticism
• William Wordsworth
• John Constable
• Ludwig van Beethoven
The Romantic Revolution
• Jean Jacques Rousseau is one of the fathers of the
Romantic Revolution
•
“man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”
•
•
Helped spark the Revolution
Rousseau was famous for claiming that human beings are born
good but are made worse by civilization and society.
•
Shocking idea
• To be “civilized” is good to be “uncivilized” is bad
Noble Savages
• “Noble Savages”
• American Indians of North America.
•
•
•
•
No fancy carriages and palaces
They appreciated streams and fields around them and the sun and
stars above them
Did not rely on servants to do their work for them
They lived a more healthy life
• Very few people agreed with Rousseau.
• He lived his life in accordance with his ideas
• His books influenced the whole generation of Romantic
writers, painters and musicians
Neoclassicism and Romanticism
The romantic artists of the late 1700’s and early
1800’s rebelled against the artistic ideas that
were accepted in their day
 Neoclassicm





Imitation
Heroes and leaders
Influenced by the
Enlightenment
They valued thought
reason and the life of the
mind
Very orderly and
systematic
 Romanticism





Doing their own thing
Everyday Subjects
More emphasis on feeling.
The heart is more
important than the head
in reasoning
Placed less emphasis on
order and more on
spontaneity
William Wordsworth
• English poet
• Wrote poems about everyday people
• Including Peasants and beggars
• Did not use fancy words and poetic phrases
• Used spoken language
• Tried to bring emotions and feelings into his poems
• “good poetry is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling”
• Get back in touch with nature
• One can learn more about life than walking in the woods on a
spring day than by reading all the books ever written
• Wordsworth felt the same way about children as
Rousseau and Indians
John Constable
• The Wordsworth of painting
• Tried to capture the beauties of nature in his landscape
paintings
• Loved to walk the roads and paths near his home,
studying the shapes of everything
• “Painting is but another word for feeling”
• Hay Wain of 1821
• The Hay Wain is an oil on canvas painting by John
Constable. It was finished in 1821 and shows a hay wain
near Flatford Mill on the River Stour at Flatford, Suffolk.
• Flatford Mill was owned by Constable's father, and the
house on the left side belonged to a neighbour, Willy Lott
(a tenant farmer), who was said to have been born in the
house and never to have left it for more than four days in
his lifetime. Willy Lott's Cottage has survived to this day
practically unaltered, but none of the original trees in the
painting exist today. The water level is also higher, as
that area of East Anglia has sunk into the sea by one foot
(30 cm) since Constable's time.
Ludwig van Beethoven
• Trained as a classical musician
• As he became older, his compositions and playing
style became more energetic and more turbulent
• When Beethoven played sad music his audiences
would weep
•
When he played happy music people stomped their feet
• Great walker and lover of nature.
• “No one can love the country as much as I do”
• “Pastoral Symphony”
•
•
Uses instruments to capture the sounds of nature
“Heroic Symphony”
•
Written for Napolean
The Legacy of Romanticism
• Beethoven, Constable, and Wordsworth works are
still popular today
• A set of ideas that many of us take for granted
•
•
•
•
Childhood
Creativity
Walking in the woods
Pouring out our feelings to our diary
• These ideas were developed during the French
Revolution