Chapter 18
The French
Revolution
The French Monarchy:
1775 - 1793
Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Section 1 The Crisis of the French
Monarchy
Jacques Necker
Charles Alexandre de Calonne,
portrait by Marie Louise
Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.
1. Why has pre-Revolutionary France been
called a rich nation with an impoverished
government? How did the financial weakness of
the French monarchy lay the foundations of the
revolution of 1789?
2. What did Chancellor René Maupeou do in an
attempt to collect new taxes?
2. How was Necker's approach to dealing with
France's financial difficulties different from
Turgot?
3. What were Charles Calonne's economic
proposals? Why was he shocked at the refusal of
the Assembly of Notables to endorse them?
4. What was the impact of the American
Revolution on France and on the rest of Europe?
5. Why was the Estates-General reconvened
after a century and a half?
Financial Problems
in France, 1789
a Urban Commoner’s
Budget:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Food
Rent
Tithe
Taxes
Clothing
TOTAL
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
80%
25%
10%
35%
20%
170%
a King’s Budget:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Interest 50%
Army
25%
Versailles 25%
Coronation 10%
Loans
25%
Admin.
25%
TOTAL
160%
Where is the tax money?
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Marie
Antoinette
and the
Royal
Children
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Marie Antoinette’s
“Peasant Cottage”
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Marie Antoinette’s
“Peasant Cottage”
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
The Necklace Scandal
1,600,000 livres
[$100 million today]
Y Cardinal Louis René Édouard de Rohan
Y The Countess de LaMotte
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Section 2 The Revolution of 1789
1. In the local elections which
ultimately sent representatives to
the Estates General, which groups
held a majority in each Estate?
2. What was Abbé Sieyès's view of
the third estate? Why did the third
estate clash with the other
privileged estates?
3. What was the intent of the
nobility when the Estates General
was called into session? What was
the reaction of the Third Estate?
4. How was the Estates General
transformed into the National
Assembly?
Abbé Sieyès
1748-1836
Section 2 The Revolution of 1789
5. What events led to the Tennis Court
Oath on June 20, 1789? Why did Louis
XVI falter & support the nobles?
6. What was the significance of the fall of
the Bastille? Why did it help save the
National Assembly and the Revolution?
7. Trace and account for the increasing
intervention of the peasants and other
commoners in the summer and early
fall of 1789.
8. What was the Great Fear? What was its
impact on the National Assembly?
9. What principles of the new state were
created in the August 26, 1789
Declaration of the Rights of Man? What
role did women play?
10. What were Louis XVI’s most serious
mistakes during the French Revolution?
Had he been a more able ruler, could the
French Revolution have been avoided or
a constitutional monarchy could have
succeeded? Did the revolution have
little to do with the competence of the
monarch?
“The Tennis Court Oath”
by Jacques Louis David
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
June 20, 1789
T he Great Fear: Peasant Revolt
(July 20, 1789)
Y Rumors that the feudal aristocracy [the aristos]
were sending hired brigands to attack peasants and
pillage their land.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he Path
of the
“Great
Fear”
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Night Session of August 4, 1789
Y Before the night was over:
 The feudal regime in France had
been abolished.
 All Frenchmen were, at least in
principle, subject to the same laws
and the same taxes and eligible for
the same offices.
Equality & Meritocracy!
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
National Constituent Assembly
1789 - 1791
Liberté!
Egalité!
Fraternité!
August Decrees
August 4-11, 1789
(A renunciation of aristocratic privileges!)
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
BUT . . . . .
Y
Feudal dues were not renounced outright
[this had been too strong a threat to the
principle of private property!]
Y
Peasants would compensate their landlords
through a series of direct payments for
obligations from which they had supposedly
been freed.
 Therefore, the National Assembly made
revolutionary gestures, but remained
essentially moderate.
Their Goal
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Safeguard the right of private
property!!
T he Tricolor (1789)
The WHITE of the
Bourbons + the RED &
BLUE of Paris.
Citizen!
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he Tricolor is the Fashion!
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Section 3 The Reconstruction of
France
What was the difference between ‘active’
and ‘passive’ citizens?
How did the new Constituent Assembly
raise money?
What changes too place under the 1790
Civil Constitution of the Clergy?
Who were the émigrés?
What was the Flight to Varennes? Why
did this take place? What were its long
•“Let them
term ramifications?
What was the Declaration of Pillnitz?
cake”?
How did this declaration unite the
divided revolutionary factions against
the monarchy & other European
monarchies?
eat
Revolutionary Symbols
Cockade
La Republic
Revolutionary
Clock
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Liberté
T he Declaration of the Rights of
Man and of the Citizen
August 26,
1789
V Liberty!
V Property!
V Resistance to
oppression!
V Thomas Jefferson
was in Paris at this
time.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he Declaration of the Rights of
Man and of the Citizen
Posed New Dilemmas
1. Did women have equal rights with men?
2. What about free blacks in the colonies?
3. How could slavery be justified if all men
were born free?
4. Did religious toleration of Protestants
and Jews include equal political rights?
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
March of the Women,
October 5-6, 1789
A spontaneous demonstration of Parisian
women for bread.
We want the baker, the baker’s wife
and the baker’s boy!
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Olympe de Gouges (1745-1793)
V Women played a vital
role in the Revolution.
V But, The Declaration
of the Rights of Man
did NOT extend the
rights and protections
of citizenship to
women.
Declaration of the
Rights of Woman
and of the Citizen
(1791)
By: Susan M. Pojer
T he “October Days” (1789)
The king was thought to be surrounded by evil
advisors at Versailles so he was forced to move to
Paris and reside at the Tuileries Palace.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
How to Finance the New Govt.?
1. Confiscate Church Lands (1790)
One of the most controversial decisions of the
entire revolutionary period.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
2. Print Assignats
V Issued by the National Constituent Assembly.
V Interest-bearing notes which had the church lands as
security.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he Civil Constitution
of the Clergy
July 12,
1790
Jurying
vs.
Non-Jurying
[refractory]
The oath of allegiance permanently
divided the Catholic population!
Clergy
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
New Relations Between
Church & State
V Government paid the salaries of the French
clergy and maintained the churches.
V The church was reorganized:



Parish priests  elected by the district
assemblies.
Bishops  named by the
department assemblies.
The pope had NO
voice in the
appointment of
the French clergy.
V It transformed France’s
Roman Catholic Church
into a branch of the state!!
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Pope Pius VI
[1775-1799]
T he French Constitution of 1791:
A Bourgeois Government
V The king got the “suspensive” veto [which
prevented the passage of laws for 4
years].


He could not pass laws.
His ministers were responsible for their
own actions.
V A permanent, elected, single chamber
National Assembly.

Had the power to grant taxation.
V An independent judiciary.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he French Constitution of 1791:
A Bourgeois Government
V “Active” Citizen [who pays taxes
amounting to 3 days labor] could vote vs.
“Passive” Citizen.
 1/3 of adult males were denied the
franchise.
 Domestic servants were also excluded.
V A newly elected LEGISLATIVE
ASSEMBLY.
GOAL  Make sure that the country
was not turned over to the mob!
83 Revolutionary Departments
February 26, 1790
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he Royal Family Attempts
to Flee
Y June, 1791
Y Helped by the Swedish Count Hans Axel
von Fusen [Marie Antoinette’s lover].
Y Headed toward the
Luxembourg
border.
Y The King was
recognized at
Varennes, near
the border
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he First Coalition &
T he Brunswick Manifesto
(August 3, 1792)
Duke of Brunswick if the Royal Family is harmed,
Paris will be leveled!!
FRANCE
17921797
AUSTRIA
PRUSSIA
BRITAIN
SPAIN
PIEDMONT
This military crisis undermined the new
Legislative Assembly.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
French Soldiers & the Tricolor:
Vive Le Patrie!
V The French armies
were ill-prepared for
the conflict.
V ½ of the officer corps
had emigrated.
V Many men disserted.
V New recruits were
enthusiastic, but
ill-trained.
V French troops often
broke ranks and fled
in disorder.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
French Expansion: 1791-1799
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Sir Edmund Burke (1790):
Reflections on the Revolution in France
The conservative response
to the French Revolution
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Section 4 The End of the
Monarchy: a Second Revolution
What was the Revolution of 1792 & why did it
occur?
What were the policies of the Girondins? What
groups supported them?
What happened when Francis II became
Emperor of Austria?
Who were the sans-culottes & how did they
become a factor in the politics of the period?
How influential were the sans-culottes during
‘the Terror’?
Section 4 The End of the
Monarchy: a Second Revolution
Who were the Jacobins? What did they stand for?
Why did the Jacobins and sans-culottes cooperate at
first?
Who was Citizen Capet? What was his fate?
T he “Second” French
Revolution
 The National Convention:
 Girondin Rule: 1792-1793
 Jacobin Rule: 1793-1794
[“Reign of Terror”]
 Thermidorian Reaction:
 The Directory  1795-1799
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
1794-1795
Attitudes
& actions
of
monarchy
& court
Fear of
CounterRevolution
Religious
divisions
The Causes of
Instability in France
1792 - 1795
Economi
c
Crises
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
War
Political
divisions
T he Jacobins
Jacobin Meeting House
 They held their meetings in the
library of a former Jacobin
monastery in Paris.
 Started as a debating society.
 Membership mostly middle class.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
 Created a vast network of clubs.
T he Sans-Culottes:
T he Parisian Working Class
 Small shopkeepers.
 Tradesmen.
 Artisans.
They shared many of the
ideals of their middle
class representatives in
government!
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he Sans-Culottes
Depicted as Savages by a British Cartoonist.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he Storming of the Tuilieres:
August 9-10, 1792
This was triggered in part by the publication in
Paris of the August 3 Brunswick Manifesto,
which confirmed popular suspicions concerning
the king’s treason.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he September Massacres, 1792
(T he dark side of the Revolution!)
 Rumors that the anti-revolutionary political prisoners
were plotting to break out & attack from the rear the
armies defending France, while the Prussians attacked
from the front.
 Buveurs de sang [“drinkers of blood.”] over 1000 killed!
 It discredited the Revolution among its remaining
sympathizers abroad.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he National Convention
(September, 1792)
 Its first act was the formal
abolition of the monarchy on
September 22, 1792.
 The Year I of the French Republic.
 The Decree of Fraternity
 it offered French assistance to any
subject peoples who wished to
overthrow their governments.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S.
Chappaqua, NY
When France sneezes,
all of Europe catches cold!
T he Political Spectrum
TODAY:
1790s:
Montagnards
The Plain
(swing votes)
Girondists
(“The Mountain”)
Monarchíen
(Royalists)
Jacobins
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he Politics of the
National Convention (1792-1795)
Montagnards
 Power base in Paris.
 Main support from the
sans-culottes.
 Would adopt extreme
measures to achieve their
goals.
 Saw Paris as the center of the
Revolution.
 More centralized [in Paris]
approach to government.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Girondists
 Power base in the
provinces.
 Feared the influence
of the sans-culottes.
 Feared the dominance
of Paris in national
politics.
 Supported more
national government
centralization
[federalism].
T he “Purifying” Pot of the
Jacobin
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Louis XVI as a Pig
c
c
For the Montagnards, the king was a traitor.
The Girondins felt that the Revolution had
gone far enough and didn’t want to execute
the king [maybe exile him].
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Louis XVI’s Head (January 21, 1793)
c
c
c
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
The trial of the king
was hastened by the
discovery in a secret
cupboard in the
Tuilieres of a cache of
documents.
They proved
conclusively Louis’
knowledge and
encouragement of
foreign intervention.
The National
Convention voted
387 to 334 to
execute the monarchs.
T he Death of “Citizen” Louis Capet
Matter for reflection
for the crowned
jugglers.
So impure blood
doesn’t soil our land!
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Marie Antoinette as a Serpent
The “Widow Capet”
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Marie Antoinette
on the Way to the Guillotine
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Marie Antoinette Died in
October, 1793
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Section 4: Europe at War With
the Revolution
On what points did Edmund Burke attack the
Second French Revolution in his book Reflections
on the Revolution in France?
What were the political consequences of the
French Revolution on British politics?
What were the consequences of the French
Revolution upon Poland?
Why did France go to war with Austria in
1792? What were the benefits & drawbacks for
France of fighting an external war in the midst
of a domestic political revolution?
Section 4: Europe at War With
the Revolution
Section 5: The Reign of Terror
What nations formed the First Coalition against France?
What were these nations seeking to achieve in going to war
against revolutionary France?
What was the result of the War of the First Coalition?
Napoleon at the Battle of Rivoli, by Felix Philipoteaux
T he Levee en Masse:
An Entire Nation at Arms! – 500,000 Soldiers
An army based on merit, not birth!
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Section 5: The Reign of Terror
What were the causes of the Terror?
What was the Committee of Public
Safety?
How did the Jacobins use the sansculottes to secure power in the
Convention in 1793?
What was the Levée en Masse? Why
is it considered such an important
aspect of early modern history?
What was the ‘Republic of Virtue’?
Who was its leader?
Why did the Jacobins attempt to deChristianize France? What was
Robespierre’s reaction to this attempt?
T he Reign of Terror
Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible. -Robespierre
Let terror be the order of
the day!
c
c
The Revolutionary
Tribunal of Paris alone
executed 2,639 victims
in 15 months.
The total number of
victims nationwide was
over 20,000!
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Different Social Classes
Executed
8%
7%
28%
25%
31%
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he De-Christianization Program
1. The adoption of a new Republican
Calendar:
abolished Sundays & religious holidays.
months named after seasonal features.
7-day weeks replaced by 10-day
decades.
the yearly calendar was dated from
the creation of the Republic
[Sept. 22, 1792]
The Convention symbolically divorced the
state from the Church!!
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he New Republican Calendar
New Name
Meaning
Time Period
Vendemaire
Vintage
September 22 – October 21
Brumaire
Fog
October 22 – November 20
Frimaire
Frost
November 21 – December 20
Nivose
Snow
December 21 – January 19
Pluviose
Rain
January 20 – February 18
Ventose
Wind
February 19 – March 20
Germinal
Budding
March 21 – April 19
Floreal
Flowers
April 20 – May 19
Prairial
Meadow
May 20 – June 18
Messidor
Harvest
June 19 – July 18
Thermidor
Heat
July 19 – August 17
Fructidor
Fruit
August 18 – September 21
A New Republican Calendar Year
I
1792 – 1793
II
1793 – 1794
III
1794 – 1795
IV
1795 – 1796
V
1796 – 1797
VI
1797 – 1798
VII
1798 – 1799
VIII
1799 – 1800
IX
1800 – 1801
X
1801 – 1802
XI
1802 – 1803
XII
1803 – 1804
XIII
1804 – 1805
XIV
1805
The Gregorian System returned in 1806.
Section 5: The Reign of Terror
What brought about an end to
the Terror? What events led to
the downfall of Robespierre &
the Committee of Public Safety?
How did Robespierre bring about
his own downfall?
What happened during the
Thermidorian Reaction? What
social class emerged triumphant
from the Revolution?
What was the Directory? What
sort of government did it
establish?
How did General Napoleon
Bonaparte secure a hold on
power during the Directory?
T he “T hermidorian Reaction”
V Curtailed the power of the Committee
for Public Safety.
V Closed the Jacobin Clubs.
V Churches were reopened.

1795  freedom of worship for all cults was
granted.
V Economic restrictions were lifted in
favor of laissez-faire policies.
V August, 1795  a new Constitution is
written

more conservative republicanism.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
Characteristics of the Directory
V The Paris Commune was outlawed.
V The Law of 22 Prairial was revoked.
V People involved in the original Terror
were now attacked  “White” Terror
V Inflation continues.
V Rule by rich bourgeois liberals.
V Self-indulgence  frivolous culture;
salons return; wild fashions.
V Political corruption.
V Revival of Catholicism.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
T he Government Structure of the
New Directory
V 5-man executive committee or oligarchy [to avoid
a dictatorship].
V Tried to avoid the dangers of a one-house
legislature.
 Council of 500  initiates legislation.
 Council of Elders [250 members]  married or
widowed males over 40 years of age.
o They accepted or rejected the legislation.
By: Susan M.
Pojer
Horace
Greeley H. S.
Chappaqua,
NY

Both houses elected by electors who owned or
rented property worth 100-200 days’ labor [limited
to 30,000 voters].

The electors were elected by all males over 21 who
were taxpayers.
Political Instability: 1795-1796
 April, 1795  Inflation; bread riots.
 May 20, 1795  Revolt of Prairial [Year III]
 October, 1795 :
 Vendée and Brittany
revolted.
 Military suppressed
them.
 May, 1796  First
“communist” revolt
 Gracchus Babeuf and
the Conspiracy of Equals”
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY
18 Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799)
 Coup d’état by
Napoleon.
 Approved by a
plebiscite in
December.
 Abbe Sieyès:
Confidence
from below;
authority from
above.
By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley H. S. Chappaqua, NY