1789

Louis and Marie
 In 1789, Louis XVI and Marie
Queen of France.
 Louis XVI was descended from Louis
XIV. Like his ancestor, he was an absolute monarch.
 However, there were problems…

Louis and Marie
 Louis was a young guy, (only 19) who had been sheltered at Versailles.
 He was very smart, and highly educated, but didn’t really have an understanding of the real world.
 He relied on his advisors to help him make decisions.
 He inherited a lot of debt from his grandfather (Louis XV)
 Trying to be popular, Louis made the mistake of re-instating the parlements
 The parlements were groups of nobles who advised Louis on his decisions.
 This ended up being a bad choice for
Louis.

Louis and Marie
 Marie Antoinette was an
Austrian princess, who was married when she was only 14.
 She received little education.
 Marie would give up on her work, and her tutors, worried for their jobs, would finish it for her.
 She was not well liked at the French court.
 French courtiers called her the “Austrian Dog” and said she was a spy.

Louis and Marie
 The royal couple had personal problems.
 Marie disapproved of
Louis XV’s mistress.
 When she was married to Louis XVI, his grandfather, Louis XV was king.
 Marie and Louis also had problems with having kids.
 Why would a lack of children be bad for the couple?

Political Problems


Why would Louis be interested in helping the Americans?

 This was the major financial crisis of Louis’ reign.

Financial Crisis
 Louis realized that a way to get
France out of debt was to fix the tax system.
 He realized that most of the taxes were coming from the
Third Estate.
 Louis proposed increasing taxes on the First and Second
Estates.
 This was rejected by
Why would the Parlements reject
Louis’ parlements. the tax changes??

Financial Crisis
 The Parlements were aristocrats and clergy.
 They did not want to pay more taxes, so they convinced Louis to not tax the rich.
 Instead, Louis increased taxes on the third estate.
Why would this be a bad thing?
 Louis was trying to get the country out of debt. He had a good idea, but he was convinced by his advisors not to do it!
 Louis tried to do the right thing, but he wasn’t firm enough!
 He had given up his absolute power, relying on his advisors too much.

The Three Estates
 There were Three Estates in France.
 FIRST ESTATE
 The clergy of the Catholic church.
 Less than 2% of people in France. Very wealthy, own a lot of land
 SECOND ESTATE
 Less than 1% of people in France.
 Aristocrats, nobles, and the super wealthy.
 THIRD ESTATE
 Everyone else in France - 97%
 Made up of peasants (uneducated) and…
 Bourgeoisie - the new Middle Class!

The Three Estates
What does this cartoon say about the Three
Estates? How do you think it might be related to the French
Revolution? Who do you think drew the cartoon (First,
Second or Third
Estate, bourgeoisie or aristocratic…)
How does it make you feel?

Assembly of Notables
 Louis realizes that the tax collection system is not going to fix itself.
 The parlements are still blocking his new tax laws, though.
 Louis decides to go around them by making a new group to pass his laws.
 Louis makes…The
Assembly of Notables
 The Assembly of
Notables is going to agree with Louis, because they are all his buddies.
The parlements were angry that
Louis had found a way around them.
They needed to find a way to keep control.

Assembly of Notables
 The parlements looked back in the French law books.
 They found an old law that would mean that
Louis couldn’t create the Assembly of
Notables.
 The law said that, in times of crisis, the
King had to call a meeting of the
Estates
-General.

Estates-General
 The Estates-General was a meeting of representatives from
EVERY estate, not just the first and second.
 The last Estates-General had been called 160 years before.
 The law was so archaic, and so obscure, that Louis had forgotten about it.
Why do you think the Parlements would want to call a meeting of the Estates-
General? What advantage would it give them?

Estates-General
 The Parlements thought that they could control the Estates- General.
 The Assembly of Notables was a group of Louis’ friends.
 By calling the Estates-General, the parlements were making sure that Louis’ buddies didn’t have control of the government.
 The Parlements were made up of mostly people from the First and Second Estates. They thought that if the Estates-General was called, they would be able to control the people from the
Third Estate.
 The Third Estate was most of France. If you controlled many of them, you could get a majority and vote any way you wanted.
 BUT… the Parlements underestimated the Third Estate.

Estates-General
 The Parlements thought the
Third Estate would be made up of peasants.
 They didn’t realize that instead of peasants, the members of the Third Estate who showed up were the
Traders/Bankers/
Merchants/Teachers.
 These members of the
bourgeoisie were not stupid.
They had been reading the
Enlightenment.
The bourgeoisie wanted social change and the Estates-General was their chance!

Estates-General
 It took a while for the members of each Estate to assemble.
 By May, 1789, the
Estates-General was ready to meet.
 This is considered the un-official start of the French
Revolution.
IMPORTANT VOCAB of the
Third Estate
Bourgeoisie: The wealthier and well-educated uppermiddle class.
Sans-Culottes: The revolutionaries! More violent, more actionoriented.
Peasants: Uneducated but willing to join the fight if it makes their lives better.
The First and Second Estates thought they would be able to control the Third Estate. They were in for the shock of their lives!

Estates-General
 The Third Estate (made up of bourgeoisie and sans-culottes) demanded that the
Estates-General be disbanded.
 They thought instead, the Estates should be dissolved completely!
 They said there should be National Assembly basically a democratic government - to re-write the laws of France.
The First and Second Estates (Aristocracy and Clergy) agreed to this, but only because they were outnumbered and afraid!

Tennis Court Oath
 The next day, when the members of the Third
Estate showed up to the meeting room to discuss the National
Assembly, they found it locked!
 The First and Second
Estates thought that if they locked the doors, the bourgeoisie would give up and go home. They were wrong.
 The Third Estate wandered around the palace until they found the indoor tennis court.

Tennis Court Oath
In the Tennis Court, the members of the Third Estate
(bourgeoisie & sans culottes) said this:
“We agree never to separate, and to meet wherever circumstances demand, until the constitution of the kingdom is established and affirmed on solid foundations".
This is called the Tennis Court Oath.
In your notebooks, take a few minutes and rewrite this quote in your own words. What do you think it means?
For homework – write at LEAST two paragraphs (5 sentences each) as to why the Tennis Court
Oath is important to history.

Tennis Court Oath
The members of the Third Estate agreed to keep meeting until they had created a Constitution that was fair to all of France.
Though this was a good idea, other people caught wind of the Revolutionary ideas, and took a more violent route…

The Bastille
 Louis started getting scared. He was afraid of the National
Assembly, and was worried they’d get violent. So he called the army into Paris.
 The bourgeoisie in the city saw the soldiers, and thought they were in danger, so they attacked first.
 On July 14, 1789, the bourgeoisie stormed the Bastille.

Storming the Bastille
 The Bastille was a prison and armory.
 The bourgeoisie figured they could break into the prison, get extra weapons, and free the prisoners.
 The prisoners would support the bourgeoisie because they freed them.
 This was a SUCCESS.
 However, there were only 7 prisoners. Some were crazy. Some were really old and had been forgotten about.
 The weapons that they recovered were antiques and practically useless.
 The guards didn’t fire on the people - they were concerned about killing innocent citizens. The bourgeoisie responded by capturing the commandant and cutting off his head.

August Days
 In August, 1789, the National Assembly began to make changes to France.
 At this point, Louis XVI was still King.
 Because of the rebellions, and the popularity of the
National Assembly, though, he had to do what the
Assembly said.
 August 4th: The National Assembly abolishes feudalism.
 This gave land to the peasants
 Also abolished the tradition of land passing through families in the Second Estate (aristocrats)
 Also took land from the churches to give to farmers.
Why might this have caused problems?

August Days
 Problems with the Abolition of Feudalism
 “The Assembly was carried away by its enthusiasm, and in this enthusiasm nobody remarked the clause for redeeming the feudal rights and tithes… a clause terrible even in
its vagueness, since it might mean all or
nothing, and did, in fact, postpone… the abolition of feudal rights for five years – until
August 1793 .”
- Prince Peter Kropotkin (Russia )
What does this quote mean? Was the abolition of feudalism successful? What were some problems with it?

August Days
 August 26, 1789
 The National
Assembly writes
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
 This was based on the United States
Declaration of
Independence, but had some unique changes.

 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
Citizen was a huge step forward.
 However, it left out a big percent of the population.
 The Declaration did NOT include rights for women!
 Some people in the National Assembly (which was all men) said that they should extend the rights to women, but they were shot down.
 Prior to this point, women had been really active in trying to make social change.
 How do you think the women reacted to the
Declaration?

Why no Girls?
 Why were the women left out of the
Declaration?
 Women were considered intelligent but even the liberal men of the National
Assembly didn’t think they should be
involved in government.
 They said that the woman’s place should be mostly in the home.
 Women were considered “too emotional” to be involved in the political scene.
 Women who had been politically involved in the past were all royals or mistresses, and were all considered “meddlers”

Female Response
 Women of France had been highly involved in the Revolution up until this point.
 It was the women who hosted the meetings of the social/political elite.
 It was the women who spread the views of the Enlightenment.
 However, when they realized they were left out of the Declaration of Rights, they were not happy!
 How do you think they responded? What do you think they did?

The Response
 In response to the
Men’s Declaration,
Olympe de Gouges wrote her own
Declaration.
 Olympe was a political activist, playwrite, abolitionist, and a supporter of women’s rights.
 She was furious when she read the
Declaration of the
Rights of Man.

Declaration of Women
 Olympe wrote
Declaration of the
Rights of Women and the Female Citizen.
 This was almost identical to the Mens’ version, but was making fun of it.
 She believed that all people in France should be equal, regardless of sex, race, or social standing.
.

Declaration of Women
 Olympe argued that if women could be tried and executed for crimes, then they should have a chance to be represented in government.
 However, women would not get the vote in France until 1944.
 Other rights
(divorce, property ownership) came sooner.

Women March on Versailles
 In October, 1789, there was a scarcity of bread and flour in Paris.
The women were angry

Women March on Versailles
 The complaining over bread prices soon escalated into a protest, and the protest into a riot.
 The mob grew into the thousands.
Together, the women stormed a local armory and stole all the weapons.
Armed and angry, the women headed to
Versailles.

Women March on Versailles
 The women of Paris broke
 into Versailles and kidnapped
Louis XVI.
 At this point, remember, Louis was a figurehead still, though the
National Assembly had power.
 Why would they have wanted to keep him alive?
 When the women arrived at
Versailles, they were stopped by the Marquis de Lafayette.
Lafayette had helped the Americans during their revolution, but he was close to Louis XVI.
He was able to convince the women (and the several thousand supporters who had joined them) to not be violent.

Women March on Versailles
 The women kidnapped Louis, Marie
Antoinette, and their children.
 They loaded them into a carriage and took them back to Paris.

 Homework: Answer the following:
 What does this quote mean? Why was Louis
“the Baker”?
 What impact do you think the Womens’ March on Versailles had on the French Revolution?

Writing a Constitution
 By 1790 (one year after the start of the
Revolution), the National Assembly was focusing on creating a constitution.
 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
Citizen was not a French Constitution.
 It was more a combination “Bill of Rights” and
“Declaration of Independence”
 A Constitution would be the basis for the laws of a new, democratic France.
Declaration of the Rights of Man = Declaration of Independence

Writing a Constitution
 The National Assembly had taken down the power of the
Aristocracy (Second Estate)
 They had outlawed Feudalism, which took away the money and power that the Second Estate had.
 Even though it wasn’t a perfect system, it still made them less powerful.
 Now the National Assembly needed to deal with the First
Estate (Clergy).
 Not only did the National Assembly want to take over the church’s land, but to overhaul the church itself.

Writing a Constitution
 The National Assembly wrote the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy
 This set some new guidelines that the
French Catholic Church had to follow.
 The Civil Constitution of the Clergy said that the only priests who could preach mass would be those who were employed by the state.
 Priests and other Clergy were now salaried employees of the state.

Writing a Constitution
 If the Clergy are state employees, it means that the National Assembly controls their pay.
 This also means that there is no separation of church and state.
 Rather than making the government based in religion, however, the goal was to make the church less powerful.
 Priests had to preach the message of the
Revolution if they wanted to get paid.

Writing a Constitution
 The new French Constitution was written by July, 1791.
 It made France into a
Constitutional Monarchy.
 Louis XVI was still King, but his power was limited.
 Louis was scared by the changes to government. He tried to flee the country.
He had some support.
Some people wanted him to be back in power and helped him escape.
 He dressed as a servant - woman and escaped
Paris, but he was caught and placed under guard.

Writing a Constitution
 The National Assembly had a constitution ready to go, but thought that elected officials should make the laws.
 The National Assembly dissolved itself.
 In its place, the Legislative Assembly was formed.
 The Legislative Assembly was the group who would actually make the laws that would govern
France.
 It was split into two groups - one more liberal, and one more conservative.
 When the group met, the more radical members would sit in the left wing of the room - the conservative members in the right wing.
 These terms are still used today to describe political views!

Writing a Constitution
 Though there were Left and
Right Wing people in the
Legislative Assembly, most of the people were very anti-king.
 Even though France was now a constitutional monarchy, many people were in favor of removing the King altogether.
 This anti-Monarchy sentiment, and the fact that the French Revolution had been successful scared other Monarchs.

Declaration of Pillnitz
 In August of 1791, the Kings of Prussia and Austria were prepared to declare war.
 They said that if the Legislative
Assembly harmed
see it as an act of war and invade
France.
King Fredrick
Wilhelm II
(Prussia)
Emperor
Leopold II
(Austria)
Marie
Antoinette’s
Brother

Declaration of Pillnitz


Who Wanted War?
 Louis XVI wanted war
 He thought that if Austria and
Prussia got involved, they would win and he would be reinstated as king.
 He knew that the French army was disorganized.
 He was also hoping that many of the revolutionaries would die.
 He figured that, when the revolutionaries had started dying for their cause, everyone would get afraid, and would fall back in line.

Who Wanted War?
 Austria and Prussia wanted war.
 Emperor Leopold was Marie Antoinette’s brother. He wanted to support Marie and her husband.
 King Fredrick was allies with Austria.
 Both Kings wanted to support Louis XVI
 Also, both kings were afraid .
 The French Revolution had been more successful than anyone thought it would be.
 They were worried that, if it wasn’t stopped, it would spread.
 Austria and Prussia were both Absolute Monarchies as well, with unhappy middle classes…
King Fredrick
Wilhelm II
(Prussia)
Emperor
Leopold II
(Austria)
Marie
Antoinette’s
Brother

Who Wanted War?
 The Legislative Assembly wanted war.
 The Legislative Assembly was made up of the
Bourgeoisie.
 They had recently finished the French Constitution and wanted to show that the new democracy was strong.
 They also wanted to spread
Nationalism.
 The Revolution was popular with the bourgeoisie, but the peasants didn’t really know about it.
 The Legislative Assembly wanted war. They wanted the peasants to rise up and defend their new country.

Who Wanted War?
 The Legislative Assembly forced Louis to declare war on Prussia and Austria.
 Louis was happy to do this - he wanted war too. He was hoping Austria and
Prussia would invade, and save him!
 Prussia and Austria invaded France.
 The peasants rose up and defended their country.
 Everything was going according to plan for the Legislative Assembly!

WAR
 Prussia and Austria invaded France. They had several victories, but were forced out by the French.
 The French army then moved into the rest of Europe, taking land in the Netherlands
(owned by Austria), and Germancontrolled areas (Prussian).
 It looked like everything was going well for
France…

Sans Culottes
 However, in France there were people who were worried that France would lose the war.
 These were the sans-
culottes, the tradesmen.
 This group tended to be less political and more actionoriented than the bourgeoisie.
 The sans-culottes wanted to protect their new republic, and so they took extreme action.

The Convention
 The sans-culottes did not think the
Legislative Assembly was extreme enough. They invaded the Assembly and forced it to shut down.
 They instated their own, more radical government, called The Convention.
 The Convention wanted to get rid of the
King altogether.
 The Convention was radical. Whereas the
Legislative Assembly was conservative, and wanted to work within the guidelines of the law, the Convention wanted to overhaul the system altogether.

Regicide
 The Convention (sansculottes), put Louis XVI on trial for treason.
 In France at this time, treason was punishable by death.
 They said that Louis was an enemy of France, and an enemy of the
Revolution.
 Louis was stripped of his title of King, and called
“Citizen Louis Cabot”.
 Louis was found guilty, and executed by guillotine.

The Terror
 In this step of killing the King, the sans-culottes had made a huge change to the French Revolution.
 Suddenly, things were disorganized, and far more violent.
 This was the beginning of The
Terror.
 At the start of The Terror, the man in charge was Maximilien
Robespierre.
 Robespierre was head of a newly formed Committee for Public
Safety.
 The job of the Committee was to flush out Anti-Revolutionaries…