Economic Crisis of 1780s
1780s—Bad weather
 Poor harvests
 Peasants
– 90% of population
– 75% Landless
– Want end of feudal obligations
– Lower Taxes
 Urban workers
– Higher bread prices
– 60% of wages go to food

France on the Eve of Revolution
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Economic crisis
– War and debt:
– Louis XIV (1643-1715)—series of wars—Spanish Succession
– Louis XV (1715-1774)—Austrian Succession; 7 Years’ War
– Louis XVI (1774-1792)– American Revolution
Intransigence of aristocracy
– Growing Influence of Nobles
– Defense of Feudal privileges and seigneurial rights
– No taxation
Privileges of the clergy
Various royal schemes to raise money
– Finance Ministers like Necker and Calonne attempt to wrest power
and money from Aristocracy
– Nobles push for calling of Estates General to decide new taxes
The French Revolution
Origins: Failure of the old regime
 Significance: A new Europe
 A Revolution Unfolds
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Estates General
 “Doubling the Third”
 Abbe E. Sieyes What is the Third Estate?
 “liberty, equality, fraternity”
 National Assembly & Tennis Court Oath
 14 July 1789: Storming the Bastille
Estates General
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Last called in 1614
Noble Aspirations
Structure of Estates
– First Estate: Clergy
– Second Estate: Nobility
– Third Estate: Everyone else
Debate over Voting Procedures
– A) Tradition– each estate same number of reps
– B) Tradition—by Estate
– C) Voting by head
Decision
– May 1789: “Doubling of the Third”
– Number of Representatives doubles in Third Estate
– Voting still remains by Estate
14 July 1789: Storming the Bastille
The Summer of 1789:
Revolutionary Activity in City and Countryside

“Storming of Bastille”
– Popular Fears of Royal
Plot
– Historic function:
Prison
– Popular Beliefs:
Armory & Prison
– 14 July 1789
– Royal troops kill 98
people
– Significance?

“Great Fear”
– Rioting throughout
rural France
– Peasants anger toward
Noble Lords
 Consequences
– National Assembly
– 4 August 1789
 Renunciation of Feudal
Privileges
 End of Feudal
Obligations
 All French subject to
same Laws
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Language of Revolution
 August 4, 1789: Civic Equality
 Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, 27
August 1789
 March to Versailles, October 1789
 Administrative reforms: Departments
 Civil Constitution of the Clergy, 1790
 Constitution of 1791
– Active vs. Passive Citizenship
 Olympes de Gouges Declaration of the Rights of
Women
The King’s Dilemma
•June 20, 1791: Flees Paris, “Flight to Varennes”
•Reluctantly approves constitution
•Louis XVI as duplicitous monarch
•Plotting counter-revolution with Austria & Prussia to
defeat French Revolutionaries
•April 1792 declaring war on Austria then Prussia
•Hopes of French Defeat
•August 10, 1792: Arrested for treason
•September 22, 1792: France declared a republic
French Revolution
Assembly
of
Notables
convened
Estates General convened (May 5)
National Assembly declared (June 17)
Tennis Court Oath (June 20)
Fall of the Bastille (July 14)
Great Fear (Summer)
Nobles Surrender Feudal Rights (Aug. 4)
Decl. Of Rights of Man & Citizen (Aug. 27)
October Days
Civil Constitution
of the Clergy
Louis XVI executed
Committee of Public Safety est.
Levée en masse
Marie Antoinette executed
Women’s clubs banned
Cult of Reason Proclaimed
France declares war on Austria
September Massacres
Republic Established (Sept.)
Royal family flees
Constitution
established
Constitutional
Reforms 1789-1791 Constitutional Monarchy:
Sept. 1791 -- Aug. 1792
Directory est.
Execution of
Robespierre
Republic:
Aug. ‘92-Jl ’94
Thermidorian Reaction:
‘94-’99
Reign of Terror
June ‘93 - Jl ‘94
Economic Crisis
1787 1789 1790
Napoleon’s
Coup d’état
1791 1792
1793
1794 1795
1799
Cultural Revolution and the Creation of
a Republic of Virtue
Convention to “republicanize everything”
 Music—the national anthem “The Marseillaise”
 Festivals to celebrate the Revolution and the new Republic
– Festival of Federation (14 July); Festival of Unity (10
August)
 Flags—the Tricolor (red, white, and blue)—July 1789
– 1793: the mandatory cockade
 Patriotic Symbols: Marianne and the Personification of
Liberty
 Language—Patriots used informal ‘tu’
 New Calendar honoring reason and republicanism replace
Christian calendar
 New standards of measurement based on reason and
decimals: metric system
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The Final Step: End of the Royal Family
Louis XVI (“citizen
Capet”) tried for
treason and executed
on 21 January 1793.
 The queen, Marie
Antoinette, follow her
husband to the
guillotine in October.
 The dauphin dies in
prison in 1794
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The Republic of Virtue, the Marseillaise,
& the levée en masse
Allons enfants de la Patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrivé.
Contre nous, de la tyrannie,
L'étandard sanglant est levé,
l'étandard sanglant est levé,
Entendez-vous, dans la compagnes.
Mugir ces farouches soldats
Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras
Egorger vos fils,
vos compagnes.
Let us go, children of the fatherland
Our day of Glory has arrived.
Against us stands tyranny,
The bloody flag is raised,
The bloody flag is raised.
Do you hear in the countryside
The roar of these savage soldiers
They come right into our arms
To cut the throats of your sons,
your country.
Chorus: Aux armes citoyens!
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons!
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons.
Chorus: To arms, citizens!
Form up your battalions
Let us march, Let us march!
That their impure blood
Should water our fields
Amour sacré de la Patrie,
Conduis, soutiens nos bras
vengeurs,
Liberté, liberté cherie,
Combats avec tes defénseurs;
Combats avec tes défenseurs.
Sous drapeaux, que la victoire
Acoure à tes mâles accents;
Que tes ennemis expirants
Voient ton triomphe et notre
gloire!
Chorus: Aux armes citoyens!
Sacred love of the fatherland
Guide and support our vengeful arms.
Liberty, beloved liberty,
Fight with your defenders;
Fight with your defenders.
Under our flags, so that victory
Will rush to your manly strains;
That your dying enemies
Should see your triumph and glory
Chorus: To arms, citizens!
Protecting the Republic of Virtue:
The Terror
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External and Internal Threats
– Foreign enemies:
 Prussia, Austria, Spain, the Dutch Republic and Great Britain
– Counter-revolutionaries—nobles, clergy, “subversives”
– Rampant inflation and food shortages
National Convention’s 3 Goals:
– Win external war “levée en masse”—National Army
– Win internal war that threatened stability of nation
– Stabilize economy by implementing price controls and higher wages
Result:
– Martial Law
– Appointment of Committee for Public Safety
– Terror
Conserving the revolution: The Thermidorean
Reaction

Death of Robespierre (28 July—the 9th of
Thermidor)
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1794-1799: Thermidorean Reaction
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Weariness of Revolution and Turning back
Changes
• Undoing the Machine of Terror
• Continuing Instability and Uncertainty in
Politics (spectrum of possibilities)
• Ongoing War with European States
New Constitutional Government:
The Directory
Convention: 2 Legislative Houses:
Upper Body--Council of Elders
Lower Body– Council of 500
Executive: 5 Man Directory Elected from
Council of Elders
What’s Changed from Previous Assemblies
Rejection of Democracy and Radical Republicanism
Reassertion of Property Qualifications
Return of Middle Class Liberals
Removal of Sans-Culottes
Rejection of Radical Republicanism, “White” reaction
Return to Traditions of Family and Church