Causes
• Using prior knowledge, try to think of one
to two SPECIFIC examples for each.
– What do you think the Social (people) causes
of the revolution were?
– What do you think the Economic reasons
were that caused the Revolution?
– What Political problems caused the
Revolution?
Beginnings of Revolution
Objectives
• Describe the social divisions of France’s
old order.
• List reason’s for France’s economic
troubles in 1789.
• Explain why Louis XVI called the EstatesGeneral and summarize what resulted.
• Understand why Parisians stormed the
Bastille.
A Flawed System
• Even in Enlight. The Old
Regime stood
• Three estates
– 1st:Clergy( less than1%)
– 2nd: Nobles (2%)
– 3rd: Rest (98%)
3rd Estate
• Third Estate breakdown:
– 1st group was bourgeoisie who had money
but were not given rights.
– 2nd group were poor city workers
– 3rd group were the peasants
– High taxes (up to 50%), low employment, no
land ownership = discontent.
Three Estates
Factors of Discontent
• Crushing taxes and
poverty
• Enlightenment ideas
• Agricultural problems
-Bad Harvests in 1780s =
increase of food prices
Money Problems
• Debt from Louis XIV – How?
• Seven Years War and American Revolution –
expensive wars
• Deficit Spending {spending more money then
what you take in}
• Jacques Necker – Louis XVI’s financial expert;
his own abilities and ideas lead to his downfall
-What did he call for?
• Louis XVI responds to growing crisis by calling
the Estates General (had not been called for 175
years) why not?
Louis XVI
• Weak leader, not in
touch w/ people
• Marie Antoinette
disliked by people
• May 5, 1789 meeting of
Estates-General b/c of
ineffectiveness.
– OWN WRONGDOING
• How do you think the
Estates General would
react?
Beginning of Revolution
• Louis called for each Estate to prepare a cahier
{for grievances}
• How did voting work in the E.G?
• 3rd Estates problem?
-only delegates with land could vote
-wanted votes to be counted “by head”
• Abbe Sieyes
– Argument
Abbe Sieyes, “What is
the Third Estate?
Everything.
What has it been up to
now in the political
order? Nothing.
What does it demand?
To become
something herein.”
Tennis Court Oath
• June 17, 1789 – 3rd Estate breaks from E.G.
• Declared they represented the people as a
National Assembly
• Delegates to the N.A. met in Tennis Court
after original meeting hall was locked
• Delegates swore to “never separate and to
meet wherever the circumstances might
require until we have established a sound and
just constitution” this is known as the Tennis
Court Oath
Rebellion
• June 17, 1789 3rd Estate form National
Assembly. 1st act of revolution.
• Tennis Court Oath
New Ideas
• 1). How are Sieyes’ ideas different from
the norm?
• 2). In what way did Louis XVI deal with the
situation with the 3rd Estate? How could he
have handled it differently?
Bastille
• Some members of 1st
and 2nd Estates join the
National Assembly 
Swiss mercenaries hired
out of fear  panic
• July 14, 1789 Parisians
storm Bastille in search
of weapons.
• Led to peasant rebellions
throughout country
• What does the Bastille
symbolize?
Open Rebellion
• In the countryside peasants destroyed old
records, stole grain What is this event called?
• In Paris – various factions come to power,
chiefly amongst them was the Paris
Commune
• Marquis de Lafayette – ran the National
Guard (mostly middle class) – many
moderates looked to him, where else do
we know him from?
Great Fear
p. 578
• Rumors, fear spread through countryside.
• Feudal ties no longer keep peasants on land.
Noblemen give up rights.
• Spread to nobleman. Led to August 4, 1789 in
the National Assembly. Fear driven speeches.
• IMPORTANT IDEA!!
– RADICALS BEGIN TO HOLD MORE POWER OVER
THE MASSES.
Ending Privilege
• August, 4 1789 – National Assembly voted
to abolish traditional rights of the nobles,
including exemption from taxes.
• First major step towards providing all male
citizens equality “Feudalism is abolished”
Declaration of the Rights of
Man and the Citizen
• August 27, 1789 Nat. Assembly adopted
the Declaration which guaranteed:
– Men born equal
– Equal right to hold office – merit based
– Liberty, property, security, resistance to
oppression. Who does this remind you of?
– Freedom of speech, religion
– “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”
• Similar to which ideas we have studied?
• How did Louis XVI react?
Olympe de Gouges
• Writer of “Declaration of the Rights of Women
and the Female Citizen”
• Called for equality for both males and females
• Not universally accepted, some women were
persecuted for their thoughts later on in the
revolution.
Bread Riot
Oct. 5, 1789 riot over
bread led to march
on Versailles.
• Return of monarchy
to Paris (Held
hostage)
The Civil Constitution of the
Clergy
•
•
•
•
Issued 1790 by the National Assembly
Bishops, priests and other clergy are elected
Dissolved convents and monasteries why?
What did the government do to clergy who did
not support this?
• Did this have universal support?
Constitution of 1791
• Set up limited monarchy
• Established the Legislative Assembly
-could make laws, collect taxes, declare war or peace
• Election of lawmakers by tax paying males over
25
The Monarch – Traitor to the
Revolution
• Louis and co. attempted to escape France in
June 1791
• Was found and escorted by armed soldiers
back to Paris.
• Louis is viewed as a traitor to the
revolutionary ideals how can we make that
conclusion?
Emigres and other External
Threats, p. 583
• Emigres, often told horror stories of out of
control peasants, loss of noble rights etc…Who
are emigres?
• Prussia and Austria and the Declaration of
Pilnitz following the failed escape of the King
and his family.
• what did this document say? How did
revolutionary forces in France take it?
Divisions in France
• New constitution/government (Sept.1791).
Gave power to a LEGISLATIVE
ASSEMBLY. (Louis not included)
• New political factions b/c people wanted
more changes.
– Radicals- sans-culottes (left)
– Moderates (middle)
– Conservatives- Emigres (right)
What form of Government did the SansCulottes call for?
War
-April 1792 L.A. declares
war on Austria. Prussia
joins in. Why?
• Fighting was from 1792
and lasted on and off until
1815
• Initial heavy losses by
French paved way for
innovation later.
Beginning of the Radical Phase
18.3
• August 10, 1792 – slaughter of kings guards,
Louis and family escaped to L.A.
• September Massacres – attacked prisons,
looking for enemies of the revolution, end up
killing 1,200 people.
• Most participants were not radicals – just taken
advantage of by radicals
1.The leader of the Jacobins
2.This replaced the National Convention to defend
France against internal and external threats
3.The main tool of the Reign of Terror.
a.Marat b. Girondist c. Robespierre
d. Guillotine e. Convention f. None of the Above
4. Feeling of pride or devotion to one’s country.
5. The vote
National Convention
• L.A. overtaken by radicals, called for
election of new body called the National
Convention
• Suffrage extended to all males what is
suffrage?
• Real power on streets (1792). Jacobin
Club was most powerful/violent.
-Girondists
– Marat
– Danton
End of Louis
• National Convention
abolishes monarchy. All
males have right to vote.
• Louis tried for treason and
convicted by Jacobins.
• Jan. 21, 1793 Louis
beheaded by guillotine.
• Marie Antoinette was
executed in October.
Committee of Public Safety
• Louis’ execution angered
Europe’s leaders. Aus, Prus,
Sp, Port, UK, Neth, all joined
forces to undo Revolution
• Desperate times lead to
C.O.P.S. led by 12 men
(Jacobin leadership)
C.O.P.S.
• The Convention creates the Committee on Public
Safety (12 member)
• C.O.P.S. issued levee en mass {total war effort/tax}
• Committee of Safety ruled for almost a year (93-94).
Protect from foreign and DOMESTIC threats.
Robespierre “the incorruptible” was leader. Problems
with this?
• Robespierre thought the general will was source of all
legitimate law. “Liberty cannot be secured…unless
criminals lose their heads”
Republic?
COPS designated France as a
Rep. Of Virtue based upon
reason/thought.
• Slavery abolished, price
controls attempted, gov’t.
agents, etc. tried but failed bc
of lack of support by whom?
• De-Christianization attempted,
move toward reason, new
calendar, etc. Unsuccessful
why?
The Reign of Terror 1793-1794
• Violence rules the course
• Girondists are executed. Why?
• Courts killed over 17,000 people by guillotine.
• Anyone who spoke out was tried.
– Lyon with 1,800 dead
– “Bloodletting only temporary” until “true” French
were left
Failure of the Revolution
• “That republic was, then, willed, planned,
intrigued for, even, in the end, fought for,
by men whose scale of values ranged into
heights or depths at any rate into
extremes-most uncomfortable, indeed,
quite uninhabitable, for ordinary men. Yet
these heroes, or demons, attained
power only because moderate men
failed to hold it.” Brinton, A Decade of
Revolution 1789/1799
End of the Fear
• Total war effort
– Over 1 million soldiers. All
parts of society involved with
the army. “People’s Wars”
• 1794 wars come to an end.
Rep. Of Virtue and COPS is
questioned. The fear is gone
and people start thinking
rationally.
• Robespierre beheaded.
The Directory 1795-1799
• New constitution/gov’t. setup
– Bi-cameral leg elected by
“electors”.
– 5 chosen as executive
(Directors)
• Problems
– Corruption, money problems,
war, etc.
– Opulence/overindulgence
• Similar to?
• People unhappy, Napoleon
stages a coup d’etat.
Impact of French Rev.
• Increase of Nationalism in France {strong
feelings of pride and devotion toward one’s
country}
• New forms in Government and reform
• Spread of Enlightenment ideals