Conditions in France - 1789
Series of events
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Bad harvest, less wheat produced
Bad weather – cold winter
Foreign wars – expensive
King’s luxury – expensive
Unfair taxation system
Lack of political representation
Public discussion
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Estates General had not met in 175 years
No public forum to discuss issues
Monarch has complete control
Monarch reluctant to change policies
People are hungry
• Peasants are starving
• Bread price rose
steeply (wheat
shortage)
• France could not
afford to import wheat
• France is in debt –
cannot pay all its bills
• Louis wants to tax the
Nobles – they refuse
He’s not hungry
Street protests
• “Bread” riots break
out in Paris
• Louis calls a
meeting of the
Estates General
• All three estates
prepare notebooks
of complaints
(cahiers in French)
Cahiers
People had many complaints
• Taxes
• Service to masters (the boss)
• Press freedom
• Regulations & restrictions
• Lack of Estates General
meetings
“20 million must live on
half the wealth of France
while the clergy…devour
the other half.”
May, 1789
• Estates General met –
each estate got one vote
• Third estate wanted
reforms
• Third estate wanted a vote
based on overall number
of delegates
• No agreement could be
reached with the 1st and
2nd estates
National Assembly declared
• 3rd estate declared
itself the National
Assembly in June,
1789
• They were then
locked out of the
meeting room
• Moved to an indoor
tennis court
Tennis Court Oath
• On the tennis court, the delegates swore to:
“Never to separate and to meet
wherever circumstances might
require until we have established
a sound and just constitution.”
To the Bastille
• Storming the Bastille
A funnier version
BBC Horrible Histories
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Reading of The Rights of Man and of Citizen
Chronology – first phase
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Meeting of Estates General
Lock-out of 3rd Estate
Declaration of National Assembly
Tennis Court Oath
Storming of the Bastille
National Assembly issues a Declaration of Rights
of Man and of the Citizen
• King approves the “rights” declaration
Chronology – foreign threats
• King and Marie-Antoinette
attempt to flee Paris: they are
captured and returned to Paris
• Threat of foreign invasion to
protect royalty
• October, 1791 – National
Assembly is elected
• High inflation – value of currency
falls
• The sans-culottes (without
breeches) radicalize the
revolution
Chronology – push for a republic
• Sans-Culotte team with Jacobins (intellectuals
and lawyers) seeking a republic
• National Assembly declares opposition to
tyranny everywhere
• National Assembly declares war on Austria,
Britain, Prussia and other states that oppose
the revolution
Chronology – radical phase
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1792 – king’s guards slaughtered by mob
1793 - King is tried & beheaded (Jan)
France declared a republic
1793 – Marie-Antoinette tried & beheaded
(Oct.)
• The Committee for Public Safety is formed
• Reign of Terror begins (25,000 beheaded)
The guillotine rules France
• “It (the reign of terror) is necessary to stifle
the domestic and foreign enemies of the
Republic or perish with them….the first maxim
of our politics ought to be to lead the people
by means of reason and the enemies of the
people by terror….if the basis of popular
government in time if peace if virtue, the basis
of popular government in time of revolution is
both virtue and terror.” – Maximilien Robespierre, 1794
History Channel documentary
• French Revolution - History Channel
Chronology – return to a single ruler
• 1794 – Revolution ends
• 1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte becomes emperor
• France has a new absolute ruler