The Beginning of the
French Revolution
PHASE ONE:
From Estates-General to
National Assembly
Causes of Revolution
• Enlightenment ideas
• American Revolution
• Old Regime
• Privileges of 1st & 2nd estate
• Burdens of the 3rd estate
• Financial crisis – impending bankruptcy…
Any thoughts on how France found itself
on the brink of bankruptcy?
French Financial Crisis
• Extravagance (Versailles)
• Debt from wars
• Aid for American
Revolution
• Banks refuse to
lend money
• Crop Failure
Horrible Histories: Wife Swap
French Financial Crisis
• France Needed Money!!!!
• Louis XVI called a meeting
of The Estates General in
1789 - hoping to agree on new
taxes to be applied to the First & Second
Estates
National Assembly &
Tennis Court Oath
• The Estates-General
had not met since 1614
• Made up of delegates representing each
Estate
• They met separately, but the 3rd Estate
wanted all 3 Estates to meet together
• King refused – locked out 3rd Estate!
National Assembly
& Tennis Court Oath
•Tennis Court Oath:
•Instead of leaving,
the Third Estate formed the National
Assembly
•They met on the palace tennis courts &
promised not to disband until they had
written a constitution for France
National Assembly
& Tennis Court Oath
• First deliberate act of the revolution!!
• Why was the creation of the National
Assembly an act of revolution?
Call to Revolt
• King ordered other
estates to join the
National Assembly, BUT called in troops
in Paris
• Debates and sometimes violence took
place in the streets
Call to Revolt
• Rebellion grew
• King gathered more
troops
• Paris citizens became
fearful that the King
would dissolve the National Assembly &
halt reforms so they took action…
Storming
the
Bastille
• The Bastille is a prison in
Paris
• Symbol of the injustices of
the monarchy
• Huge mob surrounded
Bastille & attempted to
steal weapons (to defend the
National Assembly)
• Forced way into prison;
freed prisoners
• Mob took over prison (July
14, 1789)
Liberated prisoners parading later in the day
The Great Fear
• After Bastille, waves
of violence spread
through France
• Rumors spread about nobles hiring
robbers to kill & steal from peasants
The Great Fear
• Peasants react;
get weapons
• Drive nobles off their
land
• The First Wave of the French
Revolution had struck!