The French Revolution
Unfolds
Objectives
•
Summarize the reforms enacted by the
National Assembly.
•
Identify the basic principles of the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Essential Question
What political and social reforms
did the National Assembly
institute in the first stage of the
French Revolution?
Historians have divided the period of
the French Revolution into 4 different
phases.
National • France became a constitutional
Assembly
monarchy
Reign of
Terror
A radical phase with escalating violence
• End of the monarchy
•
Directory • A period of reaction against extremism
Age of
• Consolidation of many changes
Napoleon • A period of war throughout Europe
Timeline of Events
Summer 1788 – Louis XVI calls for a meeting of
the Estates-General in May of 1789 to help solve
the problems facing France
 May 1789 – Estates-General Meets

◦ Arguments ensue about how the estates should vote

June 1789 – Third Estate takes daring step and
calls themselves the National Assembly and take
the Tennis Court Oath
◦ Royal troops surround Paris
◦ Reform-minded clergy and nobles join the National
Assembly

July 14, 1789 – Storming of the Bastille
Political Crisis Leads to Revolt
The political crisis of
1789 in France coincided
with the worst famine in
memory.
•
Rumors were rampant and created panic.
•
Known as the “Great Fear,” peasants
believed government troops were seizing their
crops.
•
Thought nobles were trying to reinstate
medieval dues, peasants panicked and set
fire to old manor records.
Between June and
the beginning of
August there were
riots in the
countryside.
Peasants burned
their nobles'
chateaux,
monasteries and
buildings which
housed public
records. They
particularly
targeted
documents which
contained records
of their feudal
obligations. It was
called "The Great
Fear" and spread
quickly
throughout
France.
In Paris, the revolutionary center of
France, several factions competed for
power.
National
Guard
Moderate
• Led by the Marquis de Lafayette
• A mainly middle-class militia
•
Radical
• Replaced the royalist government of
Paris
• Mobilized violent action for
the revolution
•
Paris
Commune
The National Assembly Acts
On August 4, 1789, the
National Assembly voted to
end the privileges of the
nobility.
•
Nobles …
• gave up old manorial dues and exclusive
hunting rights.
• ended their special legal status and
their exemptions from paying
taxes.
• All males citizens were equal
before the law.
At the end of August, 1789, the National
Assembly issued the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and the Citizen.
Modeled after the American
Declaration of Independence, it
announced
• Free and equal rights for all
men
• Natural rights for all men
• Equality before the law for all
men
• Freedom of religion for all
citizens
• Taxes levied fairly for all
citizens
The Declaration of the
Rights of Man did not
please everyone.
Women such as
Olympe de Gouges
called for equal
citizenship
for women.
Louis XVI did
not want to accept
the reforms of
the National
Assembly.
DECLARATION OF THE
RIGHTS OF MAN
ACTIVITY
Some 6,000 women marched on Versailles
on October 5, 1789.
•
They were angry about the
famine and resented Queen
Marie Antoinette, who lived
a life of luxury
•
They demanded to see
the king.
•
The women brought the
king and queen to Paris,
where they lived as virtual
prisoners.
On October 4, 1789, a crowd of women demanding bread for
their families gathered other discontented Parisians, including some
men, and marched toward Versailles, arriving soaking wet from the
rain. They demanded to see "the Baker," "the Baker's wife," and "the
Baker's boy". The King agreed to meet with some of the women
and promised to distribute all the bread in Versailles to the crowd.
The arrival of the National Guard on the scene determined to take
the King back to Paris complicated things for the King.
Some of the crowd got into the Queen's quarters and Marie
Antoinette barely escaped by way of a secret passage (still partly intact
at the Palace at Versailles) to the King's room. He agreed to address
the people from his balcony. "My friends," he said, "I will go to Paris
with my wife and my children." It was a fatal mistake. It was the last
time the King saw Versailles.
The National Assembly Presses Onward
 To pay off the huge government
debts, they placed the Church under
state control and sold the lands and
churches owned by the Roman
Catholic Church.
 Bishops and priests were elected
and became salaried officials.
This move was condemned by the pope, many bishops
and priests, and large numbers of French peasants.
The National Assembly produced the Constitution of
1791. This set up a limited monarchy.
The new
Legislative
Assembly had the
power to
• Make laws
• Collect taxes
• Decide on issues of
war and peace
Moderate reformers considered that the Constitution
of 1791 completed the French Revolution.
At the time of the creation of the
Constitution of 1791, Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette attempted to escape France.
To many, this attempt meant
that Louis was a traitor to the
revolution.
The emperor of Austria and king
of Prussia signed the Declaration
of Pilnitz supporting Louis and
threatening to intervene to
protect Louis XVI and his family.
As French émigrés spread fear of
revolution in other nations,
France prepared for war.
POLITICAL CARTOON
PAGE 222
Radicals Take Over
The sans-culottes and the Jacobins
pushed the revolution to more radical
action.
•
Sans-culottes demanded a
republic and an end to
monarchy.
•
Jacobins gained the upper
hand in the Legislative
Assembly and declared war
on Austria, Prussia, Britain,
and other states.
•
Fighting began in 1792 and
lasted on and off until 1815.
USING THE POLITICAL
SPECTRUM WHO WOULD
YOU HAVE BEEN DURING
THIS TIME PERIOD IN
FRANCE?
Terms and People
•
factions – dissenting groups of people
•
Marquis de Lafayette – the leader of the
National Guard, a largely middle-class militia;
fought alongside George Washington in the
American Revolution
•
Olympe de Gouges – a journalist who believed
that the Declaration of the Rights of Man should
grant equal citizenship to women
•
Marie Antoinette – Austrian-born queen of
France; Louis XVI’s wife
Terms and People (continued)
•
émigré – a person who flees his or her country
for political reasons
•
sans-culottes – working-class men and women
who made the French Revolution more radical
•
republic – system of government in which
officials are chosen by the people
•
Jacobins – members of a revolutionary political
club made during the French Revolution