French Revolution Anticipation
French Revolution Anticipation
French Revolution Anticipation
French Revolution Anticipation
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…with one stroke severed his head
from his body. The youngest of the
guards, who
seemed about eighteen, immediately
seized the head, and showed it to the
people as
he walked around the scaffold. At first
an awful silence prevailed, at length
some
cries of “Long Live the Republic!”
were heard...the voices multiplied and
in less
than ten minutes this cry, a thousand
times repeated, became the universal
shout
of the multitude, and every hat was in
the air
21 January, 1793
French Revolution Anticipation
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...to the right were the benches
on which the accused were
placed in several rows...to the
left was the jury...
...the weighty knife was then
dropped with a heavy fall; and,
with incredible rapidity, two
executioners tossed the body
into the basket, while another
threw the head after it...
...the next unfortunate soul was
placed in position...
October, 1793
The Three Estates
Brainpop
1st estate – less than 1% of population
2nd estate – 2% of population
3rd estate – 97% of population
T he French Monarchy:
1775 - 1793
Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI
The Old Regime and the Estates General
Absolutism & Old Regime  strict social, political
& economic divisions
(three social classes w/ very different roles & rights)
1. First Estate 1% – Catholic Clergy
2. Second Estate 2% – rich nobles who owned
20% land & paid almost NO taxes
3. Third Estate 97% - Commoners
– upper-class, educated bourgeoisie
– workers who were paid low wages & often
went hungry
– peasants – 50% of income paid in taxes
T he French Urban Poor
80
70
60
50
1787
1788
40
30
20
10
0
% of Income Spent on Bread
Let T hem Eat Cake!
Y Marie Antoinette
Y Marie Antoinette NEVER said that!
Y “Madame Deficit”
Y “The Austrian Whore”
Marie Antoinette’s
“Peasant Cottage”
Marie Antoinette’s
“Peasant Cottage”
Marie
Antoinette
and the
Royal
Children
Forces of Change
3rd Estate was discontent, restless & many were
hungry & angry
King Louis XVI – huge debts: support of American
Revolution, Seven Year’s War, & luxury spending
1789 – Louis is forced by nobles to call a meeting of
the Estates General (legislature of all 3 estates)
because he tried to tax the 2nd Estate
Educated revolutionaries encourage 3rd Estate to get
involved & demand rights & powers in government –
ENLIGHTENMENT IDEALS HAVE A HUGE IMPACT!
T he Number of Representatives
in the Estates General: Vote by Head!
300
Clergy
1st Estate
Aristocracy
2nd Estate
300
648
Commoners
3rd Estate
T he Suggested Voting Pattern:
Voting by Estates
Clergy
1st Estate
Aristocracy
2nd Estate
Commoners
3rd Estate
Louis XIV insisted that the ancient distinction of the
three orders be conserved in its entirety.
Convening the Estates General
May, 1789
Last time it was called into session was 1614!
Abbé Sieyès
What is the Third
Estate? Everything!
What has it been
heretofore in the
political order?
Nothing!
What does it demand?
To become something
therein!
Suggested that 3rd Estate
delegates name themselves
the National Assembly and
make laws for the people of
France
Abbé Sieyès
(3rd Estate Layer)
1748-1836
“T he T hird Estate Awakens”
Y The commoners finally presented their credentials
not as delegates of the Third Estate, but as
“representatives of the nation.”
Y They proclaimed themselves the “National
Assembly” of France.
“T he Tennis Court Oath”
by Jacques Louis David
June 17, 1789
The Tennis Court Oath
– French citizens of the Third Estate voted to
establish the National Assembly.
– This, in effect, ended the monarchy and
began representative democracy.
– Three days later the Third Estate
Delegates were locked out of their meeting
room.
– They broke down the door to an indoor
tennis court and pledged to stay until a
new constitution had been written.
Storming the Bastille July 14, 1789
Y A rumor that the king was planning a military coup
against the National Assembly and planned to use
foreign troops to massacre citizens
Y Mob tried to get
gunpowder from
the Bastille
Y Angry mob
overwhelmed the
king’s soldiers
Y Bastille fell into
hands of citizens
Y July 14th is
French
Independence
Day
T he Declaration of the Rights of Man
August 27,
1789
V Liberty!
V Property!
V Resistance to
oppression!
V Freedom of speech
and religion!
V Thomas Jefferson
was in Paris at this
time.
T he Declaration of the Rights of
Man
 ***This angered women***
 The Old Regime in France had been
abolished.
 All three estates (all Frenchmen)
were subject to the same laws and
the same taxes and eligible for the
same offices.
T homas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
was in Paris at this
time – Why is this
significant?
V France supported the
Independence of the
US
V Thomas Jefferson
was there to help
them write their own
Declaration of
Independence.
V He was also there to
determine how to pay
France back
Slogan of the Revolution
Liberty
Equality!
Fraternity!
T he Tricolor (1789)
The WHITE of the
Bourbons + the RED &
BLUE of Paris.
Citizen!
T he Tricolor is the Fashion!
T he “Liberty Cap”: Bonne Rouge
Revolutionary Symbols
Cockade
La Republic
Revolutionary
Clock
Liberté
Great Fear (October 1789)
King and Queen Leave Versailles
6,000 Parisian women rioted over rising price of bread.
Seizing knives and axes they marched on Versailles. They
killed two guards and demanded the royal family come to
Paris. The family left- never to return.
This event signaled the change of power.
T he Royal Family Attempts to Flee –
June 1791
Y Helped by a Swedish Count
Y Headed Austrian Netherlands
Y The King was recognized near the French
border
Y His attempt to escape France angered his
radical enemies and sealed his fate
Louis XVI Accepts the Constitution
& the National Assembly-1791
-After his attempted escape, Louis gave
Legislative Assembly the power to make
French laws and approve or prevent any war
the king declared
-Food shortages and debt still plagued the
new government
National Convention
• Members of the Legislative
Assembly gave up the idea of the
limited monarchy
• They set aside the Constitution of
1791- declared the king disposed,
dissolved their assembly, began a
new legislature known as the
National Convention, and declared
France a republic
War and Extreme
Measures
Austria and Prussia proposed that France put Louis
back on the throne
The Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria
(Prussia joined Austria)
FRANCE
1792
AUSTRIA
PRUSSIA
This military crisis did not go well for the French. Prussian
commander threatened to destroy Paris if royal family was
harmed. This statement infuriated the Parisians and
20,000 men and women invaded the Tuileries, captured and
imprisoned the royal family.
Execution of a King
• During the summer of 1792 leaders of
mobs controlled power in France
• Citizens joined political groups, the most
radical group being the Jacobins
• Jacobins wanted to remove the king
• Delegates reduced King Louis XVI to a
common citizen and prisoner
• Guided by the Jacobins- they tried Louis
for treason, found him guilty, and by a
close vote sentenced him to death
• January 21, 1793 – beheaded by the
guillotine
and Queen
• Marie Antoinette was
beheaded on October 16,
1793, two and a half weeks
before her thirty-eighth
birthday
• She wore a simple white
dress
• Her last words were,
"Pardon me Sir, I meant not
to do it," to the executioner,
whose foot she accidentally
stepped on before she was
executed by the guillotine
Reign of Terror
• Foreign armies, peasants horrified by the
beheading of the king, priests who
disliked gov’t control, and rival leaders all
threatened the power of the French
republic
• Maximilien Robespierre gains power
• Summer of 1793- Robespierre became
leader of the Committee of Public Safety
Reign of Terror
• From July 1793-July 1794 he governs
France almost as a dictator and this
period becomes known as the Reign of
Terror
• 3,000 people died – mostly peasants and
middle class citizens
End of Terror
• July 1794 – members
of the National
convention turned on
Robespierre
• Beheaded him
• 1795 – moderate
leaders drafted the
third form of gov’t in
France in less than 10
years
• A two house
legislature and an
executive body of five
men known as the
Directory