Understanding Influences
• For this activity, you will work with a group
and analyze a section of the Declaration of
Independence.
• Your group will need to put the excerpt into
your own words.
• Your group will also need to determine what
documents or philosophes influenced the
ideas included in your assigned section.
Thoughts on the Declaration of
Independence
• What was the worst thing the king required of
or did to the colonists? Why?
• Do you think the British acts warranted
rebellion?
• Will these events influence the French
Revolution? Why?
The French Revolution
King Louis XVI & Queen Marie
Antoinette
• Lived at Versailles
• Very wealthy
• Absolute power
The Nobility & Clergy
• Also very wealthy
• Enjoyed special privileges from the King
• Clergy paid no taxes
The Rest of France: Commoners
• Many in France lived in
poverty
• There was a small middle
class, but they did not
have any power
• The commoners in France
paid high taxes and
struggled in hard times
The Estates General
• An historical group that represented the
three main groups in French society
• The three groups were:
– First Estate (representing the clergy)
– Second Estate (representing nobles)
– Third Estate (representing
commoners/the majority of France)
• Called together by the King at the urging of
his financial minister Jacques Necker
The Estates General
• One vote per
estate
• Clergy and
nobility usually
joined together
to out-vote the
Third Estate
• Met in Versailles
in May 1789
• Voting
controversy
A meeting of the Estates General
The Estates General are divided
• First and Second Estate
want to keep their
privileges, pay no taxes,
and have the Third
Estate pay more
• The Third Estate wants
taxes to be more evenly
distributed among all
French citizens,
meaning all the estates
would have to pay taxes
How would you vote?
Do you think the vote should be taken by estate or by person?
Vote by
Estate
Vote by
Person
The King decides...
• Clergy and nobility enjoy many privileges; King
Louis XVI is a devout Catholic and he does not
want to anger the nobility
• King Louis decides to vote on the proposals by
estate, rather than by person
• Third estate creates the National Assembly to
vote on matters independently.
• King Louis locks them out of the meeting hall
The Tennis Court Oath
“I swear an oath to God and nation never to be separated until we have
formed a solid and equitable Constitution as our constituents have asked
us to.”
The National Assembly is born
• The result of the Tennis Court Oath is the
creation of a Constitutional Monarchy
• The King must now rule with the new National
Assembly, a group that represents all of France.
(Louis reversed his previous position)
• However, King Louis XVI still has the power to
veto any proposed law
France is starving
Despite the creation of a new government, the
financial situation in France gets worse:
•Bread prices skyrocket
•Nobles begin to flee France as commoners begin
to grow restless
•The public begins to distrust the King more and
more
Storming of the Bastille
• Rioting in Paris in
early July
• Firing of Finance
Minister Necker
(who supported
the people)
• July 14th: a mob
storms and takes
the Bastille
• French soldiers
refuse to stop the
attack
The Great Fear
• Rebellion spreads
• Peasants destroy
the countryside
• End of feudal
privileges
The Declaration of the Rights of
Man and Citizen
• Adopted by National
Assembly on August 27th,
1789
• Enlightenment ideals
• Outlined basic freedoms
held by all
• Asserted the sovereignty
of the people
• “Liberté, Egalité,
Fraternité”
The March of Women
• Lower classes still
unsatisfied
• Thousands of
starving women
and peasants
march on
Versailles
• Louis forced to
return to Paris
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Cartoon depicting the confiscation of Church lands
• Financial crisis
• National
Assembly
confiscates and
sells off church
lands
• Church also
secularized,
reorganized
• Clergy oath of
loyalty
Flight of the King
• Émigrés
• Louis XVI and his
family attempted to
flee France
• They were arrested
at Varennes
The capture of Louis XVI at Varennes
Reaction from Other Countries
• Declaration of
Pillnitz
• Possible foreign
intervention
Illustration
depicting
Prussian King
Frederick
William III,
Austrian
Emperor
Leopold II, and
the Comte
d’Artois, Louis
XVI’s brother
New Constitution
• Constitutional
monarchy
• New Legislative
Assembly
• Sans-culottes
Painting depicting the 1791 constitution
War With Austria
• France
declares war
• War of the
First
Coalition
• Levee en
masse
Painting of the Battle of Valmy, 1792
The Radicals Take Over
• Paris mob
stormed
Tuileries
• Louis and
family seek
aid of
Legislative
Assembly
• Arrested and
deposed
Paris crowds storm the Tuileries
The National Convention
• First met on
September 21,
1792
• Revolutionary
Calendar
• Monarchy
abolished; France
officially becomes a
republic
• Factions: Jacobins
vs. Girondins
A Jacobin club
Robespierre
• Lawyer
• Radical Jacobin
• Most controversial figure
of the French Revolution
The unfortunate fate of Louis XVI and his family
The Committee of Public Safety
• Created to cease
an internal
rebellion in 1793
• Given dictatorial
power
• Ruled France for
nearly a year
A citizen petitions the Committee of Public Safety
The Reign of Terror
• July 1793–
July 1794
• Executions
• Death of
Robespierre
The execution of Marie Antoinette
But peace and democracy don’t
follow…
• Reign of Terror: Over 40,000 people are
guillotined for “acting against the revolution”
• The Reign of Terror is led by Maximilien
Robespierre
• He is eventually guillotined as well
The Thermidorean Reaction
• Robespierre
overthrown on 9
Thermidor
• Committee of Public
Safety dismantled
• Jacobin clubs
disbanded
• New constitution
adopted in August
1795
• Executive branch
known as the Directory
9 Thermidor meeting of the National Convention
The Directory
• 1794 - 1799
• Promoted middle class
interests
• Financial crisis
• Food shortages
• Riots in Paris
• Rise of Napoleon
Cartoon
depicting the
errors and bad
judgment of
the Directory
And then…
• A general named Napoleon Bonaparte comes
to power
• He builds France’s army and conquers much of
Europe
• He crowns himself emperor in 1802
Legacies of the
French Revolution
• End of absolutism
• Power of nobles ended
• Peasants became
landowners
• Enlightenment ideals
• Nationalism