The French Revolution

Liberty


Equality
Fraternity
1
Key Concept:

How did the Enlightenment evolve and affect society and
government?
◦ The scientific revolution shattered long-held views about
the universe.
 This encouraged Enlightenment thinkers to question
society and government:
◦
◦
◦
◦
Locke (contract between government and governed)
Montesquieu (checks and balances)
Rousseau (individual freedom and civilization corrupts)
Voltaire (freedom of thought and expression)
◦ Their beliefs in the natural rights of man inspired the
American and French Revolutions.
◦ These ideas were RADICAL!
2
Key Concept…
Scientific
revolution
New
thinking
encouraged
New
thinking
leads to
revolutions
in America
and France
3
Ingredients for Revolution

1688: Glorious/Bloodless Revolution in England removes
James II
◦ William and Mary take over
 No more Catholic kings or queens
 No more absolute monarchy
◦ Parliament
◦ Bill of Rights



Enlightenment ideas
American Revolution (1776) and Constitution (1789)
The Estates in France
◦ 1st Estate = clergy = wealthy/no taxes = privileged
◦ 2nd Estate = nobles = wealthy/few taxes = privileged
◦ 3rd Estate = everybody else
 Bourgeoisie/middle class = some wealth = high taxes
= some rights
◦
◦
◦
◦
Bankers
Merchants
Professionals
Business owners
 Farmers and peasants
4
Ingredients for Revolution…

Monarchy: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
◦ Put country in debt
 Supporting American Revolution
 Personal luxuries
◦ Louis XVI
 Weak leader
◦ Couldn’t control country’s spending
◦ Couldn’t control wife’s spending
 Needed more money = taxes on the 2nd Estate
◦ 1789: 2nd Estate forces Louis to call a meeting of
Estates-General
 First such meeting in 175 years
 First two estates could out vote the 3rd
Estate, even though the 3rd Estate had
more people.
◦ Louis sides with 1st and 2nd Estates
5
The Fuse Is Lit!
◦ Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes gets 3rd Estate to declare themselves
the National Assembly and become government of France
 National Assembly locked out of their meeting room by king
 Tennis Court Oath: National Assembly breaks down door to
tennis court and vows to stay until a constitution is created
◦ Some nobles and clergy join

Painting of the National
Assembly in the tennis
court at Versailles
6
The Revolution Goes Off!

Rumors
◦ King to use military against National Assembly
◦ King to send troops to Paris to massacre French citizens


Citizens arm themselves with whatever they can
July 14, 1789: The Bastille prison is stormed by a mob
looking for weapons
◦ Release prisoners
◦ Take some guards hostage and killed others
7
The Great Fear Spreads

Rumor
◦ Nobles hiring outlaws to attack peasants

Citizens break into houses of nobles
◦ Destroy legal papers (can’t owe
king or lord what can’t be
proved)
◦ Kill nobles
◦ Burn houses

A chateau burns as peasants
riot in the countryside
8
The Great Fear Spreads…

October 1789: Women riot at
Versailles over cost of bread
◦ Demands:
 National Assembly provide bread
 King and queen return to Paris

August 1789: Great Fear spreads to
clergy and nobles, more of whom now
(out of fear) support National
Assembly
◦ National Assembly ends Estate
system
◦ Commoners/peasants now equal to
clergy and nobles
9
Statement of Revolutionary Ideals

August 1789: National Assembly adopts Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen
◦ Influenced by Enlightenment & U.S. Declaration of
Independence
 “Men are born and remain
free and equal in rights.”
◦ Rights included







Liberty
Property
Security
Resistance to oppression
Equal justice
Freedom of speech
Freedom of religion
 Revolutionary leaders adopt
“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”
as motto (fraternity = brotherhood)

Illustration of Declaration
of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen
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State-Controlled Church

National Assembly goes
after Catholic Church
◦ Takes lands
 Sale of church lands
helps pay off French debt
◦ Declares clergy will be
elected and paid as state
officials
◦ French peasants (mostly
Catholics) take offense
 Creates division in  Cartoon: “The Zenith of French Glory;
The Pinnacle of Liberty.” A French
revolution
revolutionary watches a beheading
while resting his foot on the head of a
hanging clergyman.
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Royals Arrested

June 1791: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette try to
sneak out of country
◦ Arrested near Austrian border
◦ Attempted escape made revolutionaries even angrier at
royalty

Arrest of Louis
XVI and his
Family,
Varennes,
1791
12
Divisions Develop



1791: National Assembly creates a new constitution
◦ Creates a limited constitutional monarchy
 Strips king of most authority
 Creates a Legislative Assembly
 King Louis XVI agrees (no choice!)
Old problems still exist
◦ Food shortages
◦ Government debt
◦ Poverty
Factions split revolutionaries
◦ Radicals/Left: get rid of king,
redo government
◦ Moderates/Center: wanted some
changes in government
◦ Conservatives/Right: wanted to keep
a limited monarchy with few changes in government
13
Divisions Develop…


Émigrés (the rich who fled France during the
revolution) took actions to try to undo the
revolution to get back their land
Sans-culottes (the lower-class in Paris) wanted
even more radical change
◦ They had no power in the assembly (but that didn’t
stop them!)

Movie poster for A Tale of Two Cities, based on
the novel by Charles Dickens about the French
Revolution and an émigré

Two illustrations of sans-culottes
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
War and Execution
Austria and Prussia fear revolution will spread.
◦ They pressure France to restore monarchy.
◦ 1792: France responds by declaring war.
Prussian commander warns that he will destroy
Paris if royal family is harmed.
 August 10, 1792: Parisians furious at threat.

◦ They storm the Tuileries (place where the royals were
under arrest).
 Mobs massacre royal guard, takes royal family
prisoners

Storming of the Tuileries
Palace, Paris
15
War and Execution…
 Rumor: King’s supporters in Paris prisons are
going to break out and retake Paris
◦ Mobs raid prisons, and murder over 1,000 nobles
 = September Massacres

Radicals force

New government
◦ Legislative Assembly to set aside the 1791 Constitution
◦ Creation of a new government, National Convention
◦ Abolishes monarchy
◦ Declares France a
republic
◦ Adult males given
right to vote

Illustration by Armand Fouquier
of the September Massacres
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War and Execution…

National Convention, led by radical Jacobians put
Louis XVI on trial and sentence him to death
◦ January 21, 1793: Louis beheaded by guillotine.

War with Prussia continues.
◦ Prussia and Austria are joined by
 England
 Holland
 Spain
◦ National Convention
takes extreme step of
ordering a draft of men
and women

Illustration of the
execution of Louis
XVI
17
Reign of Terror


Many groups in France fighting for power
◦ Peasants loyal to Catholic Church and/or king
◦ Clergy resisting government control
◦ Rival leaders in different regions of France
1793: Maximilien Robespierre gains power
◦ Vowed to build a “republic of virtue” by erasing
France’s past.
 Changed calendar
◦ Eliminated Sundays
 Closed churches

Reign of Terror = Robespierre = leader of
Committee of Public Safety and virtual dictator
◦ Goal = protect revolution from its enemies
 Bogus arrests, trials
 Lots of torture and death
◦ Many “enemies of the revolution” = personal
enemies of Robespierre because of their
challenges to his power
 Top: Robespierre
◦ Apprx. 40,000 killed
 Bottom: Poster for movie
◦ 85% = peasants or middle class, those
version of the Scarlet
Pimpernel, a story of
who were supposed to benefit from the
intrigues and love during
revolution
the Reign of Terror
18
End of Terror

1794: Fearing for own safety, members of
National Convention turn on Robespierre
◦ Demand his arrest and execution
 Reign of Terror ends on July 28, 1794
with Robespierre’s execution
◦ Public opinion shifts
 Tired of terror
 Tired of inflation for necessities
◦ 1795: National Convention creates third
government since 1789
 Gives more power to upper middle class
 Creates two-house legislature (like U.S.
Congress)
 Created Directory = five men acting as
executive body (like U.S. president)

Directory gives command of France’s armies
to Napoleon Bonaparte


Top: Illustration of the execution of Robespierre
Bottom: Painting of Napoleon Bonaparte
19
Review

Ideas are powerful!
◦ The scientific revolution shattered long-held views
about the universe.
 Enlightenment questioned society and government:
◦ Locke (contract between government and governed)
◦ Montesquieu (checks and balances)
◦ Rousseau (individual freedom and civilization corrupts)
◦ Voltaire (freedom of thought and expression)
◦ Their radical beliefs in the natural rights of man
inspired the American and French Revolutions.
Scientific
revolution
New thinking
encouraged
New thinking leads to revolutions
in America and France
20