Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité
The French Revolution
Detail From Triumph of Marat, Boilly, 1794 (Musee des Beaux-Arts)
Setting the Stage

Louis XVI –
Absolute Monarch
– Versailles Lifestyle
– Marie Antoinette

Enlightenment –
– Enlightenment ideas popular within French society
– French philosophers: Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire
– Success of ideas in American Revolution
Setting the Stage

Before the Revolution
French people were
divided into three
groups:
– First Estate
– Second Estate
– Third Estate
The Third Estate
The First Estate

The First Estate = Clergy
– Consisted of both rich and poor
– Wealthy church officials, members of
the aristocracy, lived in luxury from
wealthy church lands
– Poor parish priests, lived much like
peasants
– Pay no taxes
The Second Estate

The Second Estate = Nobility
– Inherited titles, wealth from the land
– Most enjoyed privileges and wealth
– Some nobility had little money, but still
had all the privileges of noble rank
– Pay little or no taxes
The Third Estate

The Third Estate = Common People
– 98% of the population of France
– Included:
 Wealthy merchants
 Doctors and lawyers
 Shopkeepers
 Urban poor - Paris
 Peasants on the land
– Tax burden was the heaviest
Financial Crisis
France was bankrupt in 1789
 The crisis resulted from:

– Unfair tax burden on the Third Estate
– An empty treasury the result of:
 Overspending on luxury – Versailles
 Years of war with England
 Aid to the American Revolution

Declining supply and high cost of bread
– Greatest impact on the poorest of the Third
Estate
Calling the Estates General

Louis XVI tried to solve the financial crisis
by removing some of the nobility’s tax
exemptions and collect more taxes

Louis XVI was forced to call a meeting of
the Estates General in 1789
– Had not met in 175 years
– Second Estate expected to “vote” down new taxes
with help from First Estate
– Third Estate has different ideas
The meeting of the Estates General May 5, 1789
To Vote by Head or by Order

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Traditional vote was 1 vote per order
(another name for estate)
Third Estate delegates insisted that
the three estates meet together and the
vote be taken by head, rather than by
order
Third Estate would have a majority with
more delegates
Louis XVI refused their request
The Third Estate would not back down
The Tennis Court Oath
The Third Estate declares itself a
National Assembly
 The delegates agree to an oath:

– Known as the Tennis Court Oath
– It said: "The National Assembly, considering
that it has been summoned to establish the
constitution of the kingdom... decrees that all
members of this assembly shall immediately
take a solemn oath not to separate... until
the constitution of the kingdom is
established on firm foundations..." June
20, 1789
The Tennis Court Oath by Jacques Louis David
Triumph of the Third Estate
Louis XVI orders the Third Estate to
disperse the National Assembly
 Third Estate refuses; Louis XVI was
unwilling to use force and ordered the
First and Second Estates to join the new
National Assembly
 The new National Assembly created the
influential document The Declaration of
the Rights of Man

– Based on ideas of the Enlightenment
Declaration of the Rights of Man
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The Declaration of the Rights
of Man and the Citizen
"Men are born free and
equal in their
rights....These rights are
liberty, property, security
and resistance to
oppression.
The fundamental source
of all sovereignty resides
in the nation.
The law is the expression
of the general will. All
citizens have the right to
take part personally, or
through representatives,
in the making of the law."
Revolution Spreads to Common People

Price of bread extremely high and supplies
short due to harvest failures
– Rumors spread that the King and Queen were
responsible for the shortages

French troops marched to the capital
– Rumors spread quickly among the already
restless mobs that Louis XVI was intending to
use them against the people

On July 14, 1789 the Paris mob stormed the
Bastille
– A prison and fortress in Paris, symbol of repression
– Arm themselves for expected clash with French troops
The Fall of the Bastille
Revolution Spreads to Common People

July and August 1789 peasant riots
in the countryside
– It was called "The Great Fear"
– First and Second Estates give up feudal
rights; feudalism dead in France

October Women’s March to Versailles
– Demand bread and force Louis XVI and
family to return to Paris
Women's march to Versailles
The End of Constitutional Monarchy

Louis XVI becomes increasingly unpopular
and foreign monarchies attack France out of
fear Revolution will spread
– Many believe Marie Antoinette is aiding her
native Austria

National Convention establishes a radical
republic and put Louis XVI on trial
– Executed by guillotine January 1793
– Marie Antoinette executed October 1793
The Reign of Terror
After the death of Louis XVI, Reign of Terror
implemented to prevent counter-revolution
 Robespierre mastermind of the Reign of Terror

– Committee of Public Safety
– “Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe,
inflexible...”
2,400 people executed in Paris by July 1794;
across all of France 30,000 people executed
 Support for Robespierre and the Terror ends

– Robespierre himself was arrested and sent to the
guillotine, the last victim of the Reign of Terror
Napoléon Bonaparte
By 1795, the radical
republic replaced by the
conservative Directory
 Napoléon – strong military
leader, won victories,
popular with people
 Coup d'etat of Napoléon
Bonaparte in 1799
 France and Europe enter a
new era
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