Causes of the French Revolution
Take notes from the film
1. List the 3 causes of the French Revolution.
2. Describe who are the 3 Estates.
• First Estate –
• Second Estate –
• Third Estate 3. What U.S. document gave the French peasants the
incentive to revolt?
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/18457-thefrench-revolution-causes-of-the-revolution-video.htm
What do we
see in the
picture?
People of France were divided into three
estates:
1. FIRST ESTATE: made up of clergy of the Roman
Catholic Church;
• scorned Enlightenment ideas ---• (owned 10% of all land)
2. SECOND ESTATE: made up of rich nobles
• Held the highest offices in government
• Disagreed with Enlightenment ideas
• Owned 20% of all land
3. THIRD ESTATE: included bourgeoisie, urban lower
class, and peasant farmers
• Had no power to influence government
• Embraced Enlightenment ideas
• 98% of population
WEAK LEADERSHIP:
• Louis XVI became king in 1774
• Liked to spend large amounts of
money
• Borrowed heavy in order to help the
Americans with their war
• Bankers refused to lend the
government any more money
• Louis XVI spent his time hunting, or tinkering with
locks instead of attending to the details of
governing
• Married Marie Antoinette when he was 15 and she
was was 14
• Marie was from Austria, enemy of France
• Very unpopular with the people
• Liked to spend
money on
jewels, gowns,
and gifts
• Became known
as “Madame
Deficit”
The Marble Court
Latona Basin
Chapel Royal
REVOLUTION BEGINS:
• Third estate unhappy with the heavy
taxes & started to rebel
• Storming of the Bastille: July 14,1789,
mob tried to get gunpowder and
weapons from the prison at Bastille.
• Bastille =‘ed tyranny to the peasants
• Angry crowd stormed the prison and
took control
•
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/17945-the-french-revolution-the-storming-of-the-bastillevideo.htm
Became a symbol for the revolution
(national holiday today, similar to the U.S.
Fourth of July)
TERROR GRIPS FRANCE:
• Radicals execute the
King in 1792
• Jacobin Club: radical
group made up of
middle class citizens,
found the king guilty
of treason and
sentenced him and
his wife to be killed
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/10844-napoleon-the-french-revolution-and-the-reign-of-terror-video.htm
• Maximilien Robespierre: leader
of the radicals, started the
“Reign of Terror”—1793-1794
• Killed thousands of people who
were “enemies of the republic”
• 85% were common people
•
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/18303-the-french-revolution-thereign-of-terror-video.htm
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE:
7 Causes of the French Revolution
1.
Inequalities
among
classes
7.
Parisians
Storm the
Bastelle
2. Third
Estate
ready to
revolt
French
Revolution
6. Bread
Riots
Spread
5. Soaring
Food
Prices
3. Soaring
national
debt
4. Failed
Economic
Reform
Answers
1. C – it had no political voice
2. A –The Third Estate is the backbone of France