Causes of the French Revolution
(signified with *)
*Old order and ‘ancien regime’
a.) First Estate (clergy) less than 1% of population
-They get tithes
-They were tried in church courts
-Pay no taxes
b.) Second Estate (nobility) less than 2% of population
-Paid little taxes
-They controlled 1/3 of the land
-Held key positions in the government and military
c.) Third Estate Paid crippling taxes 97% of population
-Bourgeoisie factory (owners and professionals)
-Sans-culottes (working class in the city)
-Peasants (farmers)
*Enlightenment Thinkers
Philosophes (French Philosophers of the Enlightenment) were secular in thinking – they used
reason and logic, rather than faith and religion to answer important questions
a. Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau
b. Jefferson’s ‘Declaration of Independence’
c. American Revolution
*Financial Crisis
-Deeply in debt from wars
-Queen and court were spending money
-Borrowing a lot of money
-Hail storm killed crops
-Severe winter
Meeting of the Estates General (1789) (The plan was to raise taxes on the Third Estate)
-Each of the estates had one vote
-They brought note books (cahiers)
-3rd Estate wanted more votes because they had more people (National Assembly: name of new
government)
-King Louis XVI got mad and locked them out of the Estates General
-The members of the ‘Third Estate’ went to an indoor tennis court where they took the ‘Tennis Court
Oath.’ They will not disperse until they had written a new Constitution for France.
Storming of Bastille
-Citizens of Paris went to Bastille to get weapons to protect themselves from the Army.
-Mob tried to negotiate with the Commander, but negotiations broke down
-Broke into the prison, took the weapons, killed the Commander, put his head on a pike and paraded
through Paris.
Great Fear
-Scared of a rumor about foreign soldiers from the king that were sent to punish the ‘Third Estate’ in
retaliation for the storming of the Bastille
-The goal of the peasants was to burn the records of ‘Feudal Dues’ (property records), they burned many
chateaus as well.
Creating the nation
*Legislating new rights
-Declaration of the rights of man and the citizen
- Olympe de Gouges -Declaration of the Rights of Women (Doesn’t Pass)
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
“The representatives of the French people, . . . believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the
rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have
determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man. . .
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. . .
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the. . . rights of man. These rights are liberty,
property, security and resistance to oppression. . .
5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. . .
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through
his representative, in its formation. It must be the same for all. . .
7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms
prescribed by law. . .
9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared guilty. . .
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. . .
12. A common contribution [tax] is essential. . . This should be equitably distributed among all the
citizens in proportion to their means.”
*Restrictions on power
-Louis XVI called troops to Versailles to protect his throne
-The Bread March (7,000 women marched through rain from Paris to Versailles. They go for bread, they
escort the king and queen to Paris he moved to the Tuileries.)
-National Assembly seized church lands & sold them to pay off France’s debt.
*Formation of New Government
-The National Assembly completed its constitution, change its name to the Legislative Assembly.
-King and queen tried to escape and were brought back.
*Intervention of Foreign Power
-Austria & Prussia say if king and queen are harmed then France will be attacked.
-Put 50,000 on France’s border.
-Legislative Assembly, declared war on Austria and loses their first battle.
-Legislative Assembly fled from Paris (FEARED THE AUSTRIANS WOULD WIN THE WAR) and a new
government is elected, called the National Convention.
6.2
A Radical Government (National Convention)
+Factions (MONTAGNARD, GIRODIN, and THE PLAIN)
-Mountains (montagnard)
A) Some were members of Jacobin club
B) WANTED TO Execute the King
C) Marat (radical leader)
D) MOST WERE FROM THE LOWER CLASSES
- Girondins supported a CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY
A) Mainly from provinces
- Plain
A) Swing vote
B) Originally sided with Girondins but then sided with Mountain
Radical Leaders in the NATIONAL CONVENTION
+ Marat
-A) Addict of violence
B) Leader of Sans-Culottes
+ Danton
A) Violent agitator
B) Popular with public
C) Came to oppose violent excesses of revolution
+ Robespierre
A) Intense dedication to the Revolution
B) Led National Convention
Execution of King
+ National Convention-the Louis XVI was put on trial and executed
+ Louis XVI was executed utilizing the ‘guillotine’
+ His head was held up after the execution
The National Convention tightens control
+THE Committee of Public Safety
A. Defended France from foreign enemies (other countries)
B. drafted unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 45 into the army
+Revolutionary Tribunal
Defended France from internal/domestic enemies (defended the revolution from
Frenchmen that opposed it)
-Transforming Society
+Metric System
+Changed Calendar
-10 days in the week
-Change names of months
+Replaced Catholicism with the Cult of the Supreme Being
Reign of Terror
-Outbreak of Civil War
+Peasant voted to end feudal dues
+Fear of Counter Revolution
+Mountain initiates a series of tribunals
+Vendee
A. Civil War began
B. Government punishes them after the Revolution was QUELLED
+Revolutionary Tribunal
-Robespierre declared a need for TERROR
-People who criticized the Revolution were in danger
-The accused were often forbidden from defending themselves
-Death by Guillotine was the most common sentence.
A. The Guillotine could execute more than one person per minute.
B. Girondists were targeted
C. Executions became so common in Paris that the people were complaining about blood
overflowing the city’s ditches.
-The Terror’s Victims
A. Anyone could be killed.
B. The peasants and laborers the same people the revolution was supposed to aid formed the
largest group of victims.
C. King and Queen, Olympe de Gouges, Danton, Robespierre
D. 300,000 people were arrested and 17,000 were executed.
-After the Terror
Directory
A. New government
B. Ruling council of FIVE MEN
C. Only men who had property could vote.
D. Government was weak and would soon fall.