What is going on in France
during the late 1700s?
What is going on in France?
The Enlightenment
•
•
•
•
Liberty
Equality
Reason
John Locke’s Ideas:
– Fair government and private
property
• Voltaire attacked noble’s
privileges and the Church's
authority
What is going on in France?
The American Revolution
• American Revolution
(1775 to 1783)
• Enlightenment ideas
in action
• French helped the
Colonies
• Put Louis XVI in
debt
What is going on in France?
Failing Economy
• National Debt:
4 billion livres
• Inefficient and
uneven tax
system
What is going on in France?
Outdated Class System
First Estate
Second Estate
Third Estate
Clergy
(Roman Catholic
Priests)
Nobles (Rich
upper class
people)
Peasants (98% of
the people were in
this class
What is going on in France?
Louis XVI
• Weak King
• Indecisive
• Marie-Antoinette
was allowed “to
dispense patronage
amongst friends.”
What is going on in France?
Peasants’ Situation is Unbearable
• Peasants’ are…
–
–
–
–
Overtaxed
Land-starved
Subsistence Farmers
Paying half of their
income to taxes
What is going on in France?
Harvest Failures
• Failures from 1787 to
1788
• Less food available
• Higher prices
• Businesses failed
• Unemployment in the
cities
The Outbreak of a Revolution
• Money problems forced
Louis XVI to call the
Estates-General into
session.
• Each Estate casts ONE vote.
Elected Delegates Represented
First Estate
Second Estate
Third Estate
100,000
clergymen
400,000 noble
men and women
24.5 million
people
Outbreak (cont’d)
• Main disagreement: Representation
– Should the estates vote by estate or by individual?
– Third estate argued that all delegates should sit
together and vote as individuals.
– Third estate demanded as many delegates as the
First and Second Estates combined.
National Assembly
• June 1789 the delegates of
the Third Estate declared
themselves to be “The
National Assembly”
• This was the beginning of
the representative
government for France.
Tennis Court Oath
• Promised to make a new constitution.
Louis’ Attempt at Peace
• Louis ordered the First
and Second Estates to
join the National
Assembly.
• Rumors started that
Louis ordered Swiss
soldiers to attack the
French citizens.
Storming the Bastille
• On July 14, an
angry mob
stormed a
French prison
to get
gunpowder for
their weapons
in order to
defend the
city.
Great Fear
• Great Fear swept
through the country
– Peasants broke into
and burned nobles’
houses
– Tore up documents
that had forced them
to pay fees to the
nobles
Great Fear
• Late 1789, a mob of women marched to the Palace of
Versailles
– Angry about high bread prices
– Demanded the King come to Paris
– Hoped he would end the hunger in the city
• King and Queen left Versailles.
National Assembly Makes Changes
August 4, 1789
• Abolished all noble
privileges
– Tax exemptions and
monopolies
– Obliterated remnants of
feudalism
Declaration of the Rights of Man
and of the Citizen: August 26, 1789
• Declared Natural
Rights
– Private Property
– Liberty, Security, and
Resistance to
Oppression
• Declared Freedom of
Speech, Religious
toleration, and liberty
of the press.
The Execution of the King & Queen
• Louis and Wife tried to flee house arrest in Paris
but were caught and charged with treason
• Louis XVI was executed by the guillotine in Jan of
1793
• Marie Antoinette was executed by the guillotine in
October of 1793
Reign of Terror
• The Revolutionary Council- The Committee for Public
Safety led France through a time of over 15,000
executions by the guillotine for “crimes against the
revolution”
Reign of Terror
• Maximillian Robespierre was the leader of the council
and ordered the executions of many of his enemies and
one time allies
• He was eventually also executed by the guillotine