The French Revolution
July 14, 1789 – August 10, 1792
Amanda Zhao
Period 5
Timeline of France
Fall of Bastille ->
Storming of Tuileries
The Bastille
• July 14, 1789
• Parisian crowds overtake old feudal fortress –
the Bastille – for weapons and ammunition
• Massacre soldiers (governor – de Launay –
• Dismissal
of Necker
onreplace
Julyroyal
11
head displayed
on pike) and
officials
Paris with revolutionary municipality
• Fear
ofofcounterrevolution
• Organize citizens’ militia
…leads to…
• Saved National Assembly and example of
popular support of French Revolution
• July 17: Louis XVI dons tricolor ribbon
The “Great Fear”
• Movement of fear and suspicion
• Little
subsistence,
economic advancement,
towards
nobles andlimited
anti-patriotic
threats and church dues place stress on
seigneurial
• Rumor that “brigands” in pay of
peasants
nobles come to villages to
destroy
harveststhat
-> force
• Now
suspicion
nobles hoarding grain to
peasants into submission
hamper revolutionary cause -> peasant insurgency
to…
• …contribute
Caused: Greater
hatred and
suspicion of peasants towards
nobles, prompted armed
mobilizations in villages, new
attacks on manor houses
August 4 Decree
• Night of August 4, particular deputies of the
nobility and clergy give up past privileges
• Led to:
– Decree of the French National Assembly
Abolishing the Feudal System (1789)
– Abolishment of church tithe, sale of royal
offices, tax and social privileges (ex. hunting
rights)
• Allowed construction of new regime
The Declaration of the Rights of
Man and Citizen (1789)
• Indicated intentions of new constitution
• Affirmed individual liberties and natural rights
– Ex. freedom of expression, religious conscience
“The aim of every political association is
the preservation
natural…rights
• But, introduced
obedienceoftothe
legitimate
law of
man. These rights are liberty, property,
• Outlined representation
and thetoseparation
security and resistance
oppression”of
(The Declaration of the Rights of Man and
powers
Citizen).
• Principles based on reason, rather than tradition
(liberal)
Opinions on the French Revolution
• Edmund Burke
– Reflections
on the Revolution in France
Edmund Burke
– Conservative view; government should be based on
traditional, well-tested institutions
• Mary Wollstonecraft
– A Vindication of the Rights of Man (arguing against
Burke; supporting republicanism)
– A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (argues for
Mary Wollstonecraft
more female equality)
• Thomas Paine
– The Rights of Man (1792) – refutes Burke
Thomas Paine
The New Constitution
• Created a limited monarchy with clear separation of
powers
– Sovereignty in the people
– Single-house legislature (elected through indirect voting)
– King had limited power; can choose ministers but can only use
delaying veto on legislation
• Equal civil rights and transfer of power from the
privileged to the propertied citizens
– Ex. 1790: nobles lose titles
• Tax-paying males can vote, excluded women
Political Culture
• Revolution generated new political culture
in French population:
– Great number of uncensored newspapers (ex.
The People’s Friend)
– Political clubs (ex. Jacobin Club)
– Public ceremonies: planting “trees of liberty,”
celebrating anniversary of Bastille in Festival
of Federation
Festival of Federation
The Debate Over Women’s Rights
• Revolution brought women’s political rights into debate
Nevertheless,
the revolution
promoted
greater
female
rights in:
(ex. pamphlets,
petitions
for women
suffrage,
education)
• Advocators:
• Political
involvement
political
clubs;ofwriting
political
– Olympe
de Gouges: through
“Declaration
of the Rights
Women”
(1791)
– Marquis de Condorcet: Published newspaper article advocating
pamphlets
for woman political rights (July 1790), women rights proponents
form Cercle Social (social circle)
• 1789-1794:
curbed
paternal
powers over children,
“Woman
born
freelegislation
and
lives equal
to man
her rights”
– isEtta
Palm
d'Aelders:
argued
forinequal
rights in education and
(Declaration
ofage
the Rights
of Woman)
lowering
of majority,
more equal property rights, both
marriage
spouses
have right to divorce, daughters
able to inherit
• But opposed:
Olympe de Gouges
property
– Notion of gender difference popularized by Rousseau (ex. Emile)
– Belief feminine wiles will negatively influence public policy
– Women should have maternal roles in the domestic sphere
Women in the Revolution
• October 1789:
– Parisian women led large demonstration to Versailles,
marching twelve miles from Paris in rain
– Forced king and queen to return to Paris
– Result of concerns over food scarcities, anti-aristocratic
views prompted by revolution, rumors of royals trampling
revolutionary tricolor (counterrevolution)
• Also participated in political writings, clubs (ex. Paris
Jacobin Club), societies, gatherings
– Example of women society: Society of Revolutionary Republican
Women, established May 1793 in Paris
Race and Slavery
• Debate on which groups are entitled to “the
rights of man”
– Ex. Eastern France’s Jews, free Mulattoes and
Negroes in France’s Caribbean colonies
• Assembly extended equality to Jews, but
hesitated for Negroes and Mulattoes when
white planters argued against equality
– Argument: Limited liberties of colored people =
maintenance of slavery
– Led to mulattoes rebelling and later, slave
rebellion under Toussaint-L’Ouverture
– Formed independent colony of Haiti
– (In 1794, French government abolished slavery
in all French colonies)
Reorganization of France
• Assembly reorganized France’s territory into eighty-three
departments: same size and institutions
• Further divided into districts, cantons, and communes
• Promoted local autonomy (local elections)
– But local govt. still subordinate to national Paris legislature
– Local govt. – promote national integration and uniformity
• New judicial system:
– Replace old regime’s parlements and law courts with a justice of
the peace per canton, civil courts, criminal courts, elected
tribunal judges
– Criminal defendants gain right to counsel
– French
Wanted
to makeDepartments
administration of justice faster and more
Revolution
accessible
Economic Reforms
• Removed internal tariffs and chartered
trading monopolies
– Laissez-faire ideology
• Abolished merchants’ and artisans’ guilds;
allowed right of citizens to enter any trade
• No more government regulation
• Individual freedom to cultivate fields for
peasants and landlords in countryside
– > Greater economic individualism
The Revolution and the Church
• Removed independence of church from state:
– Nationalized Church property (about 10% of land in France)
– “National lands” were then used to back paper notes called
assignats
– Caused: purchasers of land have interest in the revolution,
assignats become national currency after war with Austria and
Prussia begin -> severe inflation)
• Attempt to remove the privileges of the Church
• Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790)
– Caused tear of clergy between the Pope or the National
Assembly
– Result in schism of French Catholicism; polarized nation
– Link revolution with impiety and Church with counterrevolution
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790)
• Reduced number of bishops from 130 to 83
• Reshaped diocesan boundaries to match new
departments
• Bishops and parish priests were to be elected and be
paid as specified by a uniform salary scale
• Must take oath of loyalty to constitution
– Clergy believed selection of bishops and priests belonged with
the Pope or a Nation Church Council, however
• November 1790: Assembly demanded all clergy take
loyalty oath; or will lose positions
– Seven bishops and 54% of parish clergy took oath -> division of
French Catholics
The King Flees
• After July 14, multiple king’s relatives, nobles,
royal army’s officer corps leave country
(Émigrés)
• June 1791: King Louis XVI and family flee from
Paris
– Want to cross Belgian frontier into Austria for help
– Stopped at village of Varennes and returned to Paris
• King’s flight angered public
– King would abandon his people
XVI
– Journalist Jean-Paul MaratLouis
criticizes
treachery of king
(ex. in newspaper The People’s Friend)
Start of War
• Legislative Assembly convened on October 1, 1791;
wanting war
– Royalists: discredit new regime and restore monarchy
– Jacobins: stop foreign supporters of Émigrés and domestic
counterrevolutionaries
• Francis II ascend Habsburg throne March 1792; wants
war with France
• 1792: France war with coalition between Austria,
Prussia, and the Émigrés
• France is soon invaded
– Louis XVI vetoes Assembly’s order for arrest of refractory clergy
and additional guardsmen to protect Paris
– Legislature calls for one hundred thousand volunteers for French
army
End of the Old Regime
• As Prussian forces near Paris, commander –
Duke of Brunswick – threatens city if it resisted
or injured royal family
– Made Louis XVI seem in alliance with enemy
– Parisian militants cause an insurrection…
• August 10, 1792: Armed Parisians storm royal
palace at the Tuileries
– King taken off throne
– Old regime destroyed
Beginning to End
• Fall of the Bastille adds popular dimension
to French Revolution
– > Various reforms in France (ex. Declaration
of the Rights of Man)
– > Debates on rights of man and women
• Led to….
– > Austrian and Prussian coalition vs. France
– > Fall of monarchy, death of old regime
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