Long-term Causes of the French
Revolution
Everything previously
discussed
• Absolutism
• Unjust socio-political
system (Old Regime)
• Poor harvests which left
peasant farmers with
little money for taxes
• Influence of
Enlightenment
philosophes
Also
• System of mercantilism
which restricted trade
• Influence of other
successful revolutions
• England’s Glorious
Revolution (16881689)
• American Revolution
(1775-1783)
Short-term Causes of the French
Revolution
Bankruptcy
• Caused by deficit
spending
• Financial ministers
(Turgot, Necker,
Calonne) proposed
changes
• But these were
rejected
• Assembly of
Notables voted down
taxation for the
nobility in 1787
Great Fear
• Worst famine in
memory
• Hungry,
impoverished
peasants feared that
nobles at EstatesGeneral were
seeking greater
privileges
• Attacks on nobles
occurred throughout
the country in 1789
Estates-General
• Louis XVI had no
choice but to call for
a meeting of the
Estates-General to
find a solution to the
bankruptcy problem
• All three estates
• Had not met since
1614
• Set in motion a series
of events which
resulted in the
abolition of the
monarchy and a
completely new
socio-political system
for France
Meeting of Estates-General
Background Information
• Parliamentary body for France
• Had not met since 1614
• King Louis XVI only called them in session
due to France being on the verge of
bankruptcy.
• Met separately by Estate & voted as a
Block & not by head.
Reasons for Calling it into
Session:
• King & his ministers had attempted a few reforms like
ending forced labor & establishing judicial reforms.
• Jacques Necker, the economic minister, wanted to tax
everyone & needed the approval of the Estates-General
for it.
• King tried to get the regional Parlements to cooperate
with reforms.
• They were in the hands of the nobility and opposed any
threat to their privileges or tax-exempt status.
• Louis was frustrated by the lack of nationalism and
disobedience on the nobles’ part to his reforms.
• Nobility insisted that only a national assembly, the
Estates-General, could authorize new taxes.
Preparing for the Estates-General
• Winter of 1788-1789
– Members of the estates elected
representatives
• Cahiers
– Traditional lists of grievances written by the
people
– Nothing out of the ordinary
• Asked for only moderate changes
Electing Representatives
• During winter of 1788 & spring of 1789,
elections were carried out.
• Qualifications were based on wealth &
property.
• Tax-paying men 25 years or older were
allowed to vote for their representatives,
but each Estate handled the elections
differently.
Electing Representatives
• All the clergy was eligible for election &
were elected directly by other clergy in
their district.
• The noble delegates were also elected
directly.
• The Third Estate voters first chose village
representatives who then elected the
delegates to the Estates-General.
Demographics/Make-Up of
Representatives
• Most of the Third Estate delegates were
lawyers.
• 25% of the Third Estate delegates were
businessmen & civil servants.
• Rest were soldiers, scholars, & landowners.
• Only 1 peasant attended as a delegate for
the Third Estate.
Voting Practices
• Each estate had 300 delegates voting as a bloc.
• Each estate had 1 vote.
• Thus, the First & Second Estates could easily
outvote & block any reforms of the Third Estate.
• The Third Estate was upset over this, so the
King allowed them to have 600 delegates.
• But they still had only 1 vote.
• The Third Estate wanted to vote by head, since
they could outnumber the First and Second
Estate delegates with their size & the support of
the poor parish priests & liberal nobles.
Meeting of the Estates-General:
May 5, 1789
• Voting was conducted by estate
– Each estate had one vote
– First and Second Estates could operate as a bloc to
stop the Third Estate from having its way
◊ First Estate + ◊ Second Estate - vs. - ◊ Third Estate
• Representatives from the Third Estate demanded
that voting be by population
– This would give the Third Estate a great advantage
• Deadlock resulted
First
Estate =
1 Vote or
130,000
Votes
Key Events
• Several delays to the meeting, because the
King’s supporters hoped to postpone the
meeting indefinitely.
• Finally convened on May 5, 1789
• Great ceremony: King in finery, First Estate in
rich scarlet robes, Second Estate in satin, silks,
plumed hats, and swords, but Third Estate
ordered to wear plain black suits.
• This was to make the social class distinction
clear.
Key Events
• Weeks of endless, empty debate.
• June 16, 19 poor parish priests joined the Third Estate
delegates. Renamed it the National Assembly.
• Two days later, National Assembly realized meeting
separately from the First & Second Estate delegates
made them powerless.
• Rumors began to circulate that the King, Queen, and
other nobles were going to dissolve the Estates-General
and fire Necker.
• Jean Sylvain Bailly was elected the National Assembly’s
president.
The caption to this painting states,
"That's right...separate checks," says
one representative of the Three Estates
In the eighteenth century some publications
depicted the shifting of economic and social
responsibility within the Estates General through
restaurant scenes.
In the drawing above, a request for three separate
checks shows the Upper Estates finally paying their
share instead of letting the Third Estate carry the
responsibility, as in the past. Popular belief rumored
that a meal between the Three Estates would ease
any disagreements
Key Events
• June 20-National Assembly arrived to find the
doors to their meeting hall locked on orders of
the King.
• 500 delegates then moved into the indoor tennis
courts of Versailles, soaking wet from the rain,
and took the Tennis Court Oath.
• The oath stated that they would “never leave
until a constitution for the kingdom” had been
drawn up.
• After this, they still shouted Long Live the King.
This showed they had not given up on him yet.
Tennis Court Oath
• The Tennis Court Oath was a result of the growing discontent of the Third
Estate in France in the face of King Louis XVI's desire to hold onto the
country's history of absolute government.
• The deputies of the Third Estate were coming together for a meeting to
discuss the reforms proposed by Necker, the Prime Minister.
• These reforms called for the meeting of all the Estates together, and to hold
a vote by head instead of by estate.
• This would have given the Third Estate, at least nominally, a stronger voice
in the Estates General.
• The men of the Third Estate were ardent supporters of the reforms, and they
were anxious to discuss these measures.
• When the members of the Third Estate arrived at their assigned meeting
hall, Menus Plaisirs, they found it locked against them.
• The deputies believed that this was a blatant attempt by Louis XVI to end
their demands for reform and they were further incensed at the King's
duplicity.
• Refusing to be held down by their King any longer, the deputies did not
break up. Instead they moved their meeting to a nearby indoor tennis court.
Tennis Court Oath
• A debate quickly ensued as to how the Third Estate could protect
themselves from those in positions of authority; those who wanted to destroy
them.
• Some deputies believed that they should retreat to Paris where the people
would be more likely to protect them from the King's army.
• Mounier warned that such a step would be blatantly revolutionary and
politically dangerous.
• Therefore, Mounier proposed that the Third Estate adopt an oath of
allegiance.
• The proposed oath was to read that they would remain assembled until a
constitution had been written, meeting wherever it was required and
resisting pressures form the outside to disband.
• The proposal was a success.
• It was promptly written and signed by 577 members of the Third Estate.
Later, the document was named the Tennis Court Oath.
Tennis Court Oath
The Third Estate declared itself to be the National Assembly.
Louis XVI responded by locking the Third Estate out of the meeting.
The Third Estate relocated to a nearby tennis court where its members vowed to
stay together and create a written constitution for France.
On June 23, 1789, Louis XVI relented. He ordered the three estates to meet
together as the National Assembly and vote, by population, on a constitution for
France.
Tennis Court Oath
The Tennis Court Oath
“The National Assembly, considering that it has been summoned
to establish the constitution of the kingdom, to effect the
regeneration of the public order, and to maintain the true
principles of monarchy; that nothing can prevent it from
continuing its deliberations in whatever place it may be forced
to establish itself; and, finally, that wheresoever its members
are assembled, there is the National Assembly;
“Decrees that all members of this Assembly shall immediately
take a solemn oath not to separate, and to reassemble
wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the
kingdom is established and consolidated upon firm
foundations; and that, the said oath taken, all members and
each one of them individually shall ratify this steadfast
resolution by signature.”
Impact of Tennis Court Oath
• The Tennis Court Oath was an assertion that the
sovereignty of the people did not reside with
King, but in the people themselves, and their
representatives.
• It was the first assertion of revolutionary
authority by the Third Estate and it united
virtually all its members to common action.
• Its success can be seen by the fact that a scant
one week later, Louis XVI called for a meeting of
the Estates General for the purpose of writing a
constitution
Key Events
• The National Assembly began demanding a
constitution that had freedom of press & end to
unfair taxation.
• The King was pissed over the actions of the
Third Estate & reamed them out.
• The King agreed to ask their consent for new
taxes & to take some limited steps towards
freedom of speech.
• But the King denied the commoner’s claim to
separate status, refused to change any of the
privileges of the First & Second Estates, & would
not let the public attend the sessions.
Key Events
• This turned the National Assembly against the King.
They refused to leave & said “We are here by the will
of the people and will be removed only by the force of
bayonets.”
• When the King heard about their refusal to leave, he
shrugged his shoulders & said “They want to stay?
Well, dammit, let them.
• The King then called for his royal troops to arrive in
Versailles & Paris get ready to put down any
rebellions.
• He then fired the popular finance minister, Jacques
Necker, who wanted reform.
• This outraged the people of Paris. The stage for
revolution was set.
National Assembly
(1789-1791)
• Louis XVI did not
actually want a
written constitution
• When news of his
plan to use military
force against the
National Assembly
reached Paris on
July 14, 1789,
people stormed the
Bastille
Uprising in Paris
People of Paris seized
weapons from the Bastille
Uprising spread
throughout France
• July 14, 1789
• Parisians organized their
own government which
they called the
Commune
• Small groups – factions
– competed to control the
city of Paris
• Nobles were attacked
• Records of feudal dues
and owed taxes were
destroyed
• Many nobles fled the
country – became known
as émigrés
• Louis XVI was forced to
fly the new tricolor flag of
France