The French Revolution
Standard: WHII.6 The student will demonstrate knowledge of
scientific, political, economic, and religious changes during
the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries by
describing the French Revolution.
Objective: SWBAT demonstrate knowledge of the scientific,
political, economic, and religious changes during the French
Revolution by viewing History Channel/PBS videos,
completing Section Summaries from the textbook, and
exploring the timeline of events through the Age of Napoleon.
Essential Question: How did the ideas of the Enlightenment
contribute to causing the French Revolution?
Special Thanks to Ms. Stewart
The French Revolution
The French Revolution and the beginning
of a new United States of America both
happened in 1789
Liberty Leading the People
The French Monarchy:
1775 - 1793
King Louis XVI
Queen Marie Antoinette
Words to Describe Them
“He is an honest man and wishes to do
Louis XVI
good, but he has not either genius or
education.”
• Weak
• Impressionable
_____________________________________________
Marie-Antoinette
“Louis has a queen who controls his
• Dominant
weak mind. Her extravagance has
been a major cause of exhausting the
• Manipulative
government’s finances.”
• Extravagant
Europe on the Eve of Revolution
Key Terms
Revolution – great change over a short period of time; usually
pertains to establishing a new, better form of government
Estates – the class system in pre-revolutionary France
– Clergy – the Church
– Nobility – the upper class
– Bourgeoisie – the middle class
– Peasants – the lower class; 90% of the population
Nationalism - proud loyalty and devotion to a nation or excessive/
fanatical devotion to a nation and its interests, often associated
with a belief that one country is superior to all others
Estates-General – France’s legislative body
Coup d’etat – When a military government takes over a country
illegally
Class Division: Three Estates
France was divided into three classes, or
estates
Clergy
1st Estate
Nobility
2nd Estate
• The First Estate: The clergy (church),
were exempt from paying taxes
• The Second Estate: The nobility
(wealthy), held many of the leading
positions in the state and did not pay any
taxes
• The Third Estate included everyone else
from rich and educated bourgeois to poor
illiterate peasants and totaled about 97
percent of the population
Everyone
Else
3rd Estate
Causes of the French Revolution
Cartoon Analysis
People Under the Old Regime
This image shows "the
people" as a chained and
blindfolded man being
crushed under the weight of
the rich, including both
clergy and nobility. Such a
perspective on the period
before 1789 purposely
exaggerates social divisions
and would have found few
proponents before the
Revolution, but the image
does reveal the social clash
felt so intensely by the
revolutionaries.
Causes of the French Revolution
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Enlightenment Ideas
Religious Intolerance
Economic Distress
Social Injustice
Unpopular Method of Rule
Nationalism
Ideas of the Enlightenment and the
American Revolution
Ideas for a new and better form of
government:
• Enlightenment Ideas
•
•
Government gets power from people
Government separated into several
branches that share and check power
• American Revolution
•
•
Successful revolution
Colonies broke away from England
and formed a new government –
democracy – based on a
Constitution and Bill of Rights (no
king, people are equal, people have
rights and freedoms that the
government must protect)
The Salon
Religious Intolerance
• The Government of France was officially Catholic
• Protestants in France (known as Huguenots) were
persecuted, so they left France to find religious
freedom
Huguenot refugees leaving France for Holland
Economic Distress
• The French monarchy
SPENT TOO MUCH
MONEY!!
•
Luxuries: Queen, Marie
Antoinette, was especially
known for her extravagance
•
Wars: financial support of
the American Revolution led
to near collapse of the
French government
Economic Distress Continued…
BREAD!
•The French ate an average of two pounds of bread/day
•Poor harvests lead to high grain prices
•The people were hurting economically from a rise in
prices higher than any increase in wages
80
70
60
50
1787
1788
40
30
20
10
0
% of Income Spent on Bread
Social Injustice
The Third Estate carried the tax burden, which led to class resentment
Who owned the land? Who paid the taxes?
Unpopular Method of Rule
• King Louis XVI and
Queen Marie
Antoinette clung to
Absolutism,
allowing a little bit
of input from the
First and Second
Estates
• The Third Estate
wanted a
government that
would better
represent their
interests
Nationalism
• The French loved their country and wanted it to
become the best it could be
• Many of them thought that democracy was the best
way for this to happen
Estates General: June 1789
•
Louis XVI needed money so he
was finally forced to call a
meeting of the Estates-General,
the French parliament, which had
not met since 1614, 175 years!
•
Louis wanted to raise taxes to
fund his extravagant lifestyle
•
The First and Second Estates
wanted things to remain the same
(they didn’t want to pay taxes)
•
The Third Estate wanted a
constitutional government that
would abolish the tax exemptions
of the Clergy and Nobility
Results of the Meeting
• The King upheld the traditional
voting method of one vote per state
• The Third Estate reacted by calling
itself a National Assembly and
decided to draft a constitution
• Tennis Court Oath: The Third
Estate took an oath (promised) that
they would continue to meet until
they had finished drafting a
constitution
Storming the Bastille: July 14, 1789
• The Bastille, an armory
and prison in Paris, was a
symbol of years of abuse
by the French monarchy
• The commoners stormed
and dismantled the Bastille
looking for gunpowder and
to free political prisoners –
they killed the commander
and freed the prisoners
• The soldiers in and around Paris refused to stop the attach,
showing that King Louis had lost control of the army
• This demonstration of empowerment was a wake-up call to
Louis XVI and posed a challenge to the existence of the
monarchy
• This action became the “SPARK” of the French
Revolution
Awakening of the Third Estate
With the Bastille being destroyed in the background, a
member of the Third Estate breaks his shackles. Here,
the clergy and nobility recoil in fear, thereby
emphasizing the conflict between the estates.
Declaration of the Rights of Man & the Citizen
August 26, 1789: The National
Assembly adopted the
Declaration of the Rights of
Man and the Citizen
• Modeled in part by the American
Declaration of Independence
• Declared that men are born free and
remain free and equal in rights
• Emphasized rights to liberty, property,
security, and resistance to
oppression
• Called for an end to exemptions from
taxation
Women’s March on Versailles
October 5, 1789
• Thousands of Parisian women armed with pitchforks,
swords and muskets marched to the palace
• The target of their anger was the Queen and the lack of
Bread: “We want the baker and the baker’s wife!”
• The Women’s March was one of the turning points of the
French Revolution:
•
•
Showed that the peasants of
the Third Estate were a force
to be reckoned with
Showed that women could be
a driving force in history
The Constitution of 1791
• Adopted by the Legislative Assembly, the
Constitution established a new government
– Set up a limited monarchy in place of the absolute
monarchy that had ruled France for centuries
– The Legislative Assembly had the power to make
laws, collect taxes, and decide on issues of war and
peace
– Lawmakers would be elected by tax-paying male
citizens over age 25
Under duress, Louis XVI “Accepts”
the Constitution and the National Assembly
Signaled the end of the power of the monarchy in France
Imprisonment of the King
•
•
•
•
At first, the King seemed inclined to work with the
Revolution and try to solve the problems; however, the
influence of the Queen and courtiers was too strong
King Louis was encouraged to disregard all promises he had
made and flee from France in order to gain aid from Austria
to end the Revolution
August 10, 1792: Learning of
Louis’ intentions to betray his
people, the people of France
stormed the Tuileries Palace in
Paris where the King and his
family were staying
The royal family was arrested and
imprisoned at the Tour du Temple
End of the Monarchy
• This event signified the end of the monarchy in
France and started the official trial of the king
• The next day, the monarchy was abolished and France
was declared a republic
• The French Revolution was about to enter a more
radical phase
The Guillotine
• Decapitation machines had
been used throughout history
• Beheading had been reserved
for the nobility as a humane
way to die
• Traditional methods like the
sword or axe could prove
messy and difficult, especially
if the executioner missed or
the prisoner struggled; a
machine would not only be
fast and reliable, it would
never tire
Guillotine Video
http://www.history.com/videos/coroners-reportguillotine#coroners-report-guillotine
Fate of the King
• King Louis XVI was put on trial as a traitor of
France and found guilty
• On January 21, 1793, he died by guillotine
Marie Antoinette Executed
October 16, 1793
• Marie Antoinette was tried, convicted of treason and
executed by guillotine nine months after her husband;
she was only 37
Marie Antoinette on the way to
the guillotine. Pen and ink by
Jacques-Louis David
The Move to Radicalism
• After a National Convention in 1792, power went to
the sans-culottes (French for ‘without kneebreeches’)
• Led by the minister of justice, Georges Danton, the
sans-culottes sought revenge on those who had aided
the king and resisted the popular will
• Thousands of people were arrested
and massacred
• The sans-culottes were made up of
working people and the poor, as well
as merchants and artisans who were
the elite of their neighborhoods
A Foreign Crisis
• The execution of the king outraged European monarchies
• Spain, Portugal, Britain, and other monarchies formed a loose
coalition to invade France
• To respond, the National Convention formed the 12-member
Committee of Public Safety, led first by Danton and then by
Maximilien Robespierre, to defend France against foreign
enemies
• Under the Committee of Public Safety, France defeated its foreign
foes by the summer of 1794
Committee of Public Safety
• In addition to defending against foreign threats, the Committee
of Public Safety also worked to defend France from domestic
threats
• The Committee took steps to control France and bring order
• Enemies of the Revolution would be quickly tried and
guillotined
• A man and his family might go to the guillotine for saying
something critical of the revolutionary government; even
neighbors would turn each other in
Maximilien Robespierre
• Robespierre was a lawyer and activist, so known for his
honesty that he was called “The Incorruptible”
• He followed Rousseau’s ideas in The Social Contract,
and he believed that anyone who would not submit to the
general will as he interpreted it should be executed
• Robespierre was obsessed with
ridding France of its domestic enemies
• He was not able to remain
“Incorruptible” given his persecution of his
“enemies”: it appears that absolute power did
finally corrupt him
The Reign of Terror: 1793-1794
• Robespierre’s attempt at ridding
France of it’s domestic and
foreign enemies
• Lasted from September 1793 July 1794
• Some estimates say that 40,000 or
more people were killed during
The Terror (more than 12,000 by
guillotine and many others were
shot, drowned, or put to death by
other means)
Arrests During the Terror
The National Razor
The last guillotine execution in France was in 1939!
Comments about Robespierre
“The bastard isn’t satisfied with being the boss; he’s got
to be God as well.” – A sans-culottes
“…dictatorship…he believed, was the only way to stop
the spread of evil.” – Bertrand Barere 1832 (he sat on
the Committee with Robespierre)
“…a depraved monster of small talent.”
– A government official
Thermidor Reaction: 1794-1795
• A revolt in the French Revolution against the
excesses of the Reign of Terror
• It was triggered by a vote of the Committee of Public
Safety to execute Robespierre and several other
leading members of the Terror
• This ended the most radical phase of the French
Revolution
Death of Robespierre
• Many deputies of the National Convention feared
Robespierre and believed that the Terror had gone
too far
• Robespierre was arrested and tried
• He was guillotined on
July 28, 1794 at age 36
• After Robespierre’s death,
the Terror ended, and the
more radical members
lost power
Execution of Robespierre
The Directory
The government of France
1795 to 1799
The Directory: 1795 to 1799
• The National Convention created a new Constitution reflecting the desire
for stability
– It aimed at preventing one government group from gaining too
much control through a separation of powers
– The constitution called for a two-chamber legislature and gave
one chamber the power to propose laws and the other the power
to accept or reject them
Characteristics:
• Five elected directors acted as the executive committee, or Directory, of
France
• The period of the Directory was one of government corruption
• The Directory faced political enemies from both royalists and radicals
• It could not solve the country’s economic problems (lack of money, food
shortages)
• The Directory relied more and more on military might to stay in power
• On Nov. 11, 1799, a coup d’état – a sudden overthrow of the government–
led by the popular general Napoleon Bonaparte, toppled the Directory
• Napoleon took power
The Impact of the French Revolution
• The French Revolution became the model for revolution in the
modern world and left a powerful legacy for world history:
secular society, nationalism, and democratic ideas
– The power of nationalism was first experienced
during the French Revolution and it is still powerful in
existing nations and emerging nations today
– The French Revolution spread the principles of
liberty and equality, which are held dear by many
nations and individuals today
American, French, and Haitian Revolutions
Similarities
The American, French, and Haitian revolutions drew inspiration from Enlightenment ideas.
The French and American determination for independence was due to financial struggles in the government. In America the Tea Act, Sugar Act, etc.
raised the taxes on certain necessities, and the French government raised taxes on the nobility class when they could no longer raise enough from the
peasantry.
The Americans and the French both organized assemblies of the people. The French having the National Assembly and the Americans having the
Continental Congress.
The American and French revolutions both helped to establish some sort of constitution or declaration
The French policy supported North American colonists against British rule and they both prepared the way for a violent political and social
revolution against the Haitians.
Differences
The Americans wanted independence from British rule, but still wanted to keep British law, while the French wanted to completely redesign
political, social, and cultural structures.
Although the Haitians based their goals of sovereignty off of the Enlightenment concepts, the people striving for independence themselves were
different: instead of free white men/women, they were slaves.
In the Haiti the revolution was led by a single man: Toussaint L’Ouverture. In America and France the revolutions were led by groups of people;
The Continental Congress and The National Assembly respectively.
The Haitians' revolutionary success was more prominent than that of France because they destroyed slavery in Haiti and became the second
independent republic in the western hemisphere.
Unlike America and Haiti, France was incapable of maintaining a government institution, allowing Napoleon Bonaparte to seize control.
The Haitian and American revolutions were successful in achieving their goals while France's completely new society failed.
Timeline
of
Events
1774- Louis XV died leaving an even
1791-The Constitution of 1791 was
bigger debt from all of the wars France
was in during his reign.
1789- French peasants were mad
because of an unfair tax system and a
poor harvest in 1788.
May 5, 1789- Louis XVI called EstatesGeneral to a meeting in Versailles to
approve a tax plan.
June 17, 1789- The Third Estate
declared themselves the National
Assembly and made the Tennis Court
Oath.
July 14, 1789- The people of Paris
stormed Bastille. August 4, 1789- The
National Assembly announced the end
of feudalism and serfdom in France.
August 27, 1789- The National
Assembly issued the Declaration of the
Rights of Man.
October 5, 1789- Paris women invaded
Versailles.
1790- The Civil Constitution of the
Clergy was passed.
adopted.
June 20, 1791-Louis XVI and his family
tried to flee France but were arrested.
April 20, 1792- France declared war on
Austria.
September 1792-The National
Convention held their first meeting.
January 21, 1793- Louis XVI sentenced
to the guillotine.
August 1793- A national draft called for
all able-bodied men to join the army.
September 1793 to July 1794- The
Reign of Terror court sentenced 20,000
to 40,000 people to death.
July 27, 1794- The National Convention
arrested Robespierre.
July 28, 1794- Robespierre was
beheaded.
1795- A new Constitution was adopted.
1799- The Directory fell and ended the
French Revolution.