The French Revolution





Feudal land turns its back on aristocratic tradition.
Most important event in Western history
Developments like “capitalism” will rival it
Democracy to France
Established a whole new order of society





1770—Royal Court
Versailles- 1682 crowning masterpiece of Louie XIV
Distance from the commoners
Prince Louie (Cappe? Later King Louie XVI) about to take a bride (15)
Political union between Hapsburgs of Austria and Burbons of France. Her
name is Marie Antoinette.
For the first time France and Austria become allies not enemies.
Marie—a teenager, blonde with blue eyes.
Outside the monarchy—people were starving
France lost the 7 Years War (French and Indian War)
People are starving
New age of ideas is brewing—the Enlightenment






Division of Classes:
 Reason and Science challenge this order
 Movement which says don’t trust authority. Don’t trust anything you’ve been
told.
 Voltaire, Rousseau
 Liberty, Equality
 American Revolution – Louis sends troops to America
 American Revolution bankrupts France
 The French cannot pay this debt

Marie Antoinette
o Hair styles symbolize lavishness
o Madame Deficit
o Does not produce a male heir—7 years
o They have their first child—Marie Therese







Shortage of bread
Robespierre writes about the lavishness of the monarch.
Nobility doesn’t pay taxes
Flour is the essence of life
Bread—the measure of existence
Cost of a loaf of bread—a month’s earning
Hunger turns to rage
Estates of France
1. Clergy 1.5%
2. Nobility 1.5%
3. Peasants 97%
Third estate only had 1/3 of the deputies. Felt it was unfair that the people could be
outvoted by the Clergy and Nobility.
Robespierre
 Called for Nobility and Clergy to pay taxes.
 Tennis Court—they will not stop meeting until they have a new meeting.
 Tennis Court Oath
 A new National Assembly—true representative of the people of France






King disperses the army around Paris
The people want gunpowder—the Bastille
July 14th – Attacking the Bastille
The people are acting—we take the side of the Revolution
The people storm into the Bastille
Severed head
Is it a Revolt—no sire it is a Revolution
What is the significance of the storming of the Bastille?
 a prison—a sing of despotism
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
 Class distinctions are to be abolished
 Sovereignty belongs to the people
 The Assembly was seizing the power of the people from the king
 National Assembly
 Demanded Equal rights
 Justice under reasonable laws
 Increased freedom of the press
 Mara? The newspaper—the Friend of the People
 October 5 1789—
o The people are marching to Versailles
o Made up of women
o Poor women impacted by the shortage of food
o “let them eat cake” – a myth
o 20,000 people camped outside the palace
o The mob demands the people move to Paris
o “Give me her entrails”
o They wanted to tear her to pieces
o 60,000 strong
o The King and Queen were forced to go back to Paris
o
o
o
o
With decapitated guardsmen
They must stay in Paris— they are the prisoners of the capital City
Power is now with the people
France will have democracy, new laws…
The Guillotine:
 May 1791
 Jacobin club—
 France is now a constitutional monarchy
 Forced to sign away his power and the clergy’s
 June 21, 1791
 The Queen and King try to run from Freedom.
 They try to escape to Austria
 The people arrest him and take him back to Paris
 The monarch tried to abandon his people
 This was the breaking point between Louis and his subjet
 The king was a traitor
 Royal family
 Robespierre: Liberty, equality, fraternity
Guillotine
 To kill anti-revolutionaries
Austria vs. France
 King and Queen act like they are going along with the Revolution.
 Aiding Austria
 They are trying to survive
 Reality—they are liars




August 10, 1792 the people attack the Twillary Palace
The French Republic is born
Robespierre and the birth of the new republic
1,000 people arrested
Monarch—Constitutional Monarch—Republic
Mara—Slaughter the people in the prisons






September massacre 1,600 people are killed
London Times “Are these the rights of man?”—Parisian Animals
The Revolution has taken a turn
Robespierre rises as he who will guide the revolution
Robespierre believes there is no room for the king
France will put its own king on trial











What will be the punishment
The moderates—spare Louis’ life
Jacobin call for blood
Why did the Jacobins want to kill the king?
MR: You have to kill the king so the Revolution can live
MR: If the king is right then the revolution is wrong
King must suffer the death of a traitor
Penalty for treason is death
If the king is guilty of betraying the country he must suffer the fate of a traiot
Jan 20th 1793—sentence is read, the king must die.
Execution of Louis XVI



Giordan—rural people? Vs. Jacobin
Mara—called for the execution of 200,000
July 1793
o Charlotte Cordet
o She “carries a list of traitors”
o She kills Marat
o He becomes a martyr
o The pieta comparison in ar
Marie is put on trial and executed in 1793

1793—four years into the Revolution
Reign of Terror:
 Paranoia
 Neighbors denounce neighbors
 Secret police
 Committee of Public safety—12 man dictatorship
 Robespierre—the guiding force of the committee
 His voice calls for more blood
 Used to be an opponent of death penalty
 Reinstates censorship
 De Christianization
 Destroy the power of the Catholic Church
 “Saint” streets are renamed
 Religious icons are replaced with Marat
 Revolutionary Calendar against Christian belief
 No more Sundays
 Meanwhile—Napoleon Bonaparte great military feats
 Republic of Virtue
 The great terror (Spring 1794)
o 800 per month executions
o June 6, 1794
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Robespierre—a new religious holiday
The Goddess of Reason
The Cult of the Supreme Being
The only thing to end the terror is the fall of Robespierre
The terror dies with Robespierre
Rights of Man, Republic will outlive his death
Five years before power would be consolidated
Historians disagree over the end of the Revolution