French Revolution
1789-1815
Causes of French Revolution
1. Drought: No grain to feed the people. The French
diet consisted of mostly bread. The price of
bread doubled. Many people faced starvation.
2. Enlightenment: The new idea was that people
should be involved in the government. When the
government does not do what the people want
them to they have the right to overthrow the
government.
▫ Equality, liberty, and democracy
▫ American Revolution inspired them
Causes of French Revolution
3. Debt: The monarchy was wasting the country’s
money.
•
•
Giving money to the Americans so they could defeat
French’s enemy the British.
Spending money on court extravagances. Marie
Antoinette was ordering custom made dresses daily.
Causes of French Revolution
4. Estates
First two social classes
• There are two privileged classes
• Had access to high offices and were exempt from
paying taxes
• First estate
▫ Clergy of the Roman Catholic Church; owned 10% of
land in France. Provided education and services to
the poor and contributed about 2% of income to the
government.
• Second Estate
▫ Rich nobles – most of wealth from land; 2% of
population; 30% of land and no taxes
▫ Scorned Enlightenment ideas as radical notions
Third Estate
• 98% of population
• Eager for change
• 3 groups within the third estate
▫ First – bourgeoisie– merchants and artisans; well
educated; Enlightenment ideals of liberty and
equality accepted; high taxes and little privileges even
though some had the money that nobles had.
▫ Second – Workers from the city – cooks, servants,
and others; low taxes and frequently out of work and
hungry; mobs might steal or rob to find food.
▫ Third – Peasants – largest; 80% of the 26 million
people; ½ income in dues to nobles, church, and
taxes; Resented clergy and nobles for privileges.
Causes of French Revolution
5. Weak Leader
• Louis XVI was indecisive
▫ Paid little attention to governing
▫ preferred to hunt and tinker with locks
• Marie Antoinette – wife – they married when he
was 15 and she was 14
▫ spent so much money on gowns, jewels, and gifts that
she became known as “Madame Deficit”
• Instead of cutting expenses he tried to tax the
second estate
▫ Second estate forced him to call a meeting of EstatesGeneral
▫ First meeting in 175 years
Revolution Dawns
• Estates-General
▫ Each estate received one vote. First and Second estate would
always outvote Third
▫ Third Estate wanted each delegate to have a vote
▫ Third Estate gets mad and leaves
▫ Third Estate is told by radicals to form the National
Assembly to pass laws and reforms in the name of the
French people
 This proclaimed the end of absolute monarchy and the beginning
of representative government
 This is the first action of revolution
▫ Three days later – Third Estate Delegates locked out of
meeting room.
▫ Broke down a door to an indoor tennis court, pledging to stay
until they had a new constitution – Tennis Court Oath
Storming of Bastille
• King orders nobles and clergy to join the Third Estate
in the National Assembly out of fear.
• King stations his mercenary army of Swiss guards in
Paris
• Citizens afraid that the army was sent to Paris to
destroy the National Assembly. To protect themselves
they storm the Bastille to get gunpowder
• They stormed the Bastille, released the prisoners, and
killed the commander of the prison. They destroyed
the prison, and paraded down the street with the
commander’s head on a stake.
• July 14 has become a French National Holiday
A Great Fear Sweeps France
• Great Fear – wave of senseless panic that spread through France
• Rumor spread throughout Paris that the King and Queen were hoarding
all the grain
▫ 6,000 women along with some men marched 12 miles to Versailles
▫ Broke into Palace and killed two guards. Marie Antoinette narrowly
escaped
▫ King and Queen forced to Paris
King & Queen being forced to Paris
Women’s March to Versailles
The Assembly Reforms France
• National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the
Rights of Man
▫ “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”
▫ It is influenced by the Enlightenment and Declaration
of Independence
▫ Guaranteed freedom of speech & freedom of religion
▫ “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” becomes the slogan of
the Revolution
▫ Women not included
▫ Olympe de Gouges was executed for writing the
“Declaration of the rights of Women and the Female
citizen”
War and Extreme Measures
• Monarchs in other European countries concerned that the
French Revolution could led to peasant revolts in their
country
• Austria proposes that the French put Louis back on the
throne
• National Assembly declares war on Austria & Prussia
• French forces take Louis at his palace in Paris and imprison
the royal family
• National Convention met in Paris
▫ Abolished monarchy and declared France a republic
▫ Tried Louis XVI for treason and found him guilty
• guillotine kills Louis and many others during the Revolution
Guillotine
•Efficient, humane
& democratic
•Victims had to
endure a 1 ½ hour
procession through
city streets
The Terror Grips France
•
•
•
•
•
How do you contain and control enemies?
Peasants were horrified by the death of the king
Priests don’t like the government
Rival leaders stir up rebellions
Maximilien Robespierre gets control of France
(dictator)
▫ Attempts to create a “republic of virtue”
▫ Every bit of life changed for the French
▫ Committee of Public Safety – people are convicted of
being an enemy of the republic – NO ONE IS SAFE –
you are tried in the morning and die in the afternoon
Reign of Terror
• Says it enabled French citizens to remain true to
the ideals of the revolution
• Marie Antoinette killed in the Reign of Terror
• Revolutionaries are killed for being less radical
than Robespierre (those who helped form the
republic)
• 3,000 people killed in Paris alone during the
terror, and 40,000 all together; 85% of which
were peasants.
End of Reign of Terror
Execution of Robespierre
•National Convention turns
on Robespierre. Felt that they
were not safe
• “Down with the Tyrant”
•July 28, 1794 – Robespierre
is guillotined
•New constitution gives power
to a two house legislature and
an executive body of 5 men
(Directory)
•Directory found the right
general to command the
French armies – NAPOLEON
BONAPARTE