French Revolution
Causes-Events-Effects-Results
The French Revolution 1789
France 1789
Background
Based on Enlightenment thought
Ideas and principles
Equality
Popular sovereignty
Challenging the existing power structure
Enlightenment Ideas (con’t)
Economic Problems
France population was expanding rapidly in the late 1700’s
heavy taxes made it impossible for people to make any profits
King Louis XVI kept taxing the people to pay
for his debts and elaborate lifestyle
Enlightenment Ideas (con’t)
Weak Leadership
King Louis XVI allowed problems to linger: He paid no attention to
his advisors
Louis put off dealing with France’s economic problems
until France became bankrupt
Enlightenment Ideas
Enlightenment:
New views about the nature of political power and the role of
government
people began to see government role to help the people be
Happy and harmonious, not oppressive
people began to see themselves as the source of governments’
power, not God (reject Divine Right)
Monarchy
Louis XIV –Sun King –great leader
Louis XV-poor leader
Louis XVI –poorer leader
Who’s Above All the Estates?
King Louis XVI (16th)
King Louis XVI
1780’s French King was Louis XVI, great grandson of King Louis XIV “Sun King”
Lived in the Palace of Versailles
Palace of Versailles
Palace of Versailles
Causes
Tax revenues
Debt
Poor leadership
Excessive spending
7 Years War
American Revolution
Effects/Events
Louis XV hires financial consultant Maupeou
Maupeou’s plan-tax nobility
Louis XV dies
Louis XVI fires Maupeou(public opinion)
Jacques Necker
Fired as finance minister
Necker’s plan-limit favors to nobility
Nobles unhappy
Necker fired
Calonne
New minister
Calonne’s plan
Internal trade
Lower taxes(salt)
$ for work
Govt regulation
Calonne contd
Property tax for all
Local taxes
Tax the Church’s property
Calonne fired
Necker back for now
Deadlock and Estates General
New minister-deBrianne-Archbishop
Estates General summoned by King to solve the problem
Estates General
Not until it was too late did Louis finally do something
May 5, 1789 King Louis XVI called for the Estates General
a meeting of representatives from all three estates to discuss tax reform and getting France out of
debt
This was the first such meeting in France in over 175 years!
Estates General (con’t)
The Revolution of 1789
Estates General→National Assembly
How?
The National Assembly
Estates General meeting the first two estates sided with the King: tried to silence members of the
third estate (the majority of French society)
On June 17, 1789 members of the third estate voted to establish the National Assembly
(like
Parliament)
This vote was the first step of revolution against King Louis XVI and the first two estates
French Society: 18th Century
French Society: 18th Century
Abbe Seiyes
What is the Third Estate?
Voting Rules of Estates
Breakdown of the 3rd Estate
The 3 Estates
Late 18th Century, French Society divided into 3 Estates (classes)
1st Estate
Church
(owned 10% of the land)
paid no
taxes
2nd Estate
Nobles
(owned 20% of the Land)
paid no
taxes
3rd Estate
Everybody Else
paid all taxes
The 3 Estates (con’t)
Doubling the Third Estate
Big mistake-why?
Consequence it doubled the size of the 3rd estate
Cahiers/Complaints
Govt waste
Taxes
Corruption
Hunting privileges
What do they want?
Periodic meeting of estates general
Equality in taxation
Local control
Unified weights and measures
Free press
Equality of rights
Concessions……possible
National Assembly How?
3rd estate and 2nd estate join =National Assembly
King makes mistakes
Locks them out
Effect =they have a meeting of their own
Tennis Court Oath
Oath to make a constitutional govt(written)
Vote by head rather than estate
National Assembly renames itself National Constitutional Assembly
Tennis Court Oath (con’t)
Tennis Court Oath (con’t)
June 20, 1789:
third estate representatives were locked out of their meeting room at the Estates General: they broke
down the door to an in-door tennis court
They pledged to stay there until they drew up a new constitution for France
This pledge is called the Tennis Court Oath
Tennis Court Oath
Shared Ideas
Written constitution
All estates treated equally
Liberal Goals-political, social, and economic reform
Bastille
Cause –effect/Event- Result
King brings in 600,000 troops to Paris
Famine-no bread
3rd estate collects arms
July 14, 1789-Parisians storm the Bastille looking for arms
Bastille Day: July 14, 1789
Bastille Day: July 14, 1789
Bastille Day: July 14, 1789
Treated as France’s Independence Day (Like 4th of July in America)
Members of the Third Estate were still upset about being locked out of the Estates General Meeting
Bastille: A Prison in Paris where political prisoners were held: people jailed for speaking out against the
King
Weapons for the French army were also stored in the Bastille
Bastille Day: July 14, 1789
Storming of the Bastille: July 14, 1789
Hundreds of members of the Third Estate storm the prison, free prisoners, and steal weapons: They’re
armed now!!
The French army was unprepared and unable to stop them
Storming was the symbolic beginning of the French Revolution against the King
July 15
Marquis de Layfayette-liberal general-fought in American Revolution
Public support
Louis XVI bows down
The Great Fear 1789
The “Great Fear”
Riots
Who is afraid?
Why?
Bread Riots 1789
October 1789 6,000 women in Paris rioted over the price of bread
They then marched on the palace of Versailles and killed two guards
They demanded the King and Queen leave their palace of Versailles and return to Paris (13 miles)
This signaled
the change of power from the King to the people
Declaration of the Rights of Man
Declaration of the Rights of Man
August 27, 1789 the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man
Guaranteed equal justice, freedom of religion and speech
Influenced by English Bill of Rights
Next step in the French Revolution
Declaration of the Rights of Man
What rights were given pg 555
Parisian Women March on Versailles
Why ?
When does a mother get mad?.....
Result –King comes back to Paris with….
Queen Marie Antoinette
Queen Marie Antoinette (con’t)
Louis’ wife Marie Antoinette was hated by the French people:
because she was Austrian (France’s enemy at the time)
because she spent so much money on
jewels and gifts
The Legislative Assembly
The Reconstruction of France
P=Constitutional Monarchy
E= Rationalism
S=Unregulated freedom
Protect property rights
Coalition 1st 2nd and 3rd estates
Constitution 1791
P=Power in the hands of unicameral Legislative Assembly
King could veto
Legislature-power to declare war and make treaties
+/- Who can play
Only 50k of 25m can play
Women 
+ propertied wealthy
Hereditary wealth
Olympe de Gouge
Women’s rights, radical
Declaration of the Rights of Women
Property
Citizens
Paternity
Equality
Education
NCA
Enlightenment
Local Districts
Departments(counties)
Court reform
Cruel and unusual punishment gone
E=Guilds power reduced
Liberated grain trade
Metric system
Chapelier Law
Unions banned
Peasants and workers lose
Assignates
Assignates=bonds=loans to the govt
Result =inflation
Church
Reduced Church officials
State pays Church officials that are elected
Dissolved religious orders
Mistake-oath to the state
Pope involved condemns Dec of Man and Civil Constitution
Church vs. revolution
Counterevolutionary Response
Enemies of rev
Pope and his followers
Aristocrats
EmigresKing’s brother Artois
Kings joins and gets caughts
Foreign support
Declaration of Pillintz
Austria-Leopold II –Marie bro
Prussia-Frederick William
Britain –noninvolvement
The End of The Monarchy Revolution Part Deux
Jacobins-Church radical Dominicans
Favored republic
Ex Rouseau-equality, popular sovereignty, civic virtue
Factionalism(splintering,divisions)-radicals, Girondists
Opposed counterevolutionaries
Emigres return or forfeit land
King vetoes
Declare war on Austria and Prussia
Goal-preserve the revolution
Women will fight
Paris Commune
Radical working class
Radicals vs. Swiss guard
King put in jail
San Culottes
Paris Commune kills 1200 Nobility, Church, and common criminals
Public Opinion down
Universal male suffrage
France declared a republic
Who are the San Culottes
Shopkeepers, artisans, wage earners, factory workers,
San Culottes goals
Relief from
Food shortages
Increased prices
Social equality
Right to subsistance
Hate aristocracy and king
 republic-people centered
Policies of Jacobins
Jacobins less radical than san culottes
Jacobins merge with san culottes
End of Louis XVI
Put on trial
Girondists try to save him
Convicted as a traitor
Executed
Revolutionaries next move
Declare war on European monarchies
Britain, Holland, and Spain
Enemies-Austria and Prussia
Who controls the military?
Who is the military?
The Emigres
Nobles and clergymen who fled France during the peasant uprisings.
They hoped to undo the Revolution and restore the old regime
The Sans-Culottes
wage laborers and small shop-keepers from Paris
They wanted a greater voice in government, lower food prices, and an end to food shortages
did not get a voice in government but they found a way to exert their will in government: by
influencing a political party that later seized control of France (the Jacobins)
The Jacobins
Formed an alliance with the Sans-Culottes
Jacobins: extreme radical revolutionaries, wanted to end the monarchy and establish representative
democracy (The people vote for elected officials to establish laws)
They eventually do take over the Legislative Assembly and the whole government
The Reign of Terror
The Guillotine
Maximilien Robespierre
Maniac leader of the Committee of Public Safety: responsible for tens of thousands of deaths
Committee of Public Safety
The Reign of Terror
July 1793-July 1794
A Group of 15 Jacobins take over the French Government:
The Committee of Public Safety
Led By Maximilien Robespierre
Publicly Executed anyone they deemed an enemy of the revolution (no trials)
Reign of Terror (con’t)
Impact
Over 40,000 people killed in one year
75%+ of those killed from 3rd Estate! (The Revolution was supposed to be for them!
Reign of Terror (con’t)
Death of King Louis XVI
January 21, 1793 Louis publicly executed by the Jacobins; Marie Antoinette executed 10/16/1793
Death of Robespierre
Eventually the public withdrew support of Robespierre: too many senseless killings
Other members of the Committee of Public Safety wanted to kill him before he killed them
July 28, 1794 Robespierre publicly executed in Paris
His death signals the end of the Reign of Terror
The Directory
After the Reign of Terror a new group of 5 Moderates take over the government: The Directory
The people wanted new less violent leadership
The Directory rules France from November 1795-November 1799
The Directory was ineffective and
corrupt: allowed for
________to eventually take over……
Napoleon Bonaparte
Bread Riots