The French Revolution Unfolds
Pages 216-221
The Phases of the French Revolution
• Most historians divide the
French Revolutionary era
in 4 phases.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Moderate National Assembly (17891791)
The Radical Phase (1792-1794)
The Directory Phase (1795-1799)
The Age of Napoleon (1799-1815)
The Paris Commune
• Paris was home to many
factions trying to gain
power.
• A radical group called the
Paris Commune gained
power and replaced the
royal government in Paris.
• Soon radical factions
started to overtake
moderate factions calling
for the end of the
monarchy.
Vive la Hula Skirt!
The Moderate Phase
• The political crisis in 1789
coincided with the worst famine
in French memory.
• Starving peasants roamed the
countryside or flocked to cities.
Adding to unemployment.
• Question: Why is it dangerous
to have masses of people with
nothing to do?
• As the grain prices soared even
people with jobs were spending
80% of their income on bread.
The “Great Fear”
• Rumors began to spread
about government troops
seizing the peasants crops.
• Burned noble’s houses and
destroy tax records.
• Radical groups and
revolutionary newspapers
spread stories about corrupt
nobles, furthering the Great
Fear.
• This was just a taste of
things to come!
Marquis de LaFayette
• LaFayette ran a faction (a part
of a political group).
• The faction designed the
French flag.
• LaFayette had fought with
George Washington in the
American Revolution.
How did that get there?
The National Assembly Acts
• Peasant uprisings and the
storming of the Bastille
spurred the National
Assembly to action.
• On August 4, 1789 in an all
night meeting nobles of
the assembly voted to end
their own privileges.
• Agreed to give up:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Old Manorial dues
Exclusive hunting rights
Special Legal Status
Exemption from Taxes
However, most nobles did not give
up anything they had already lost.
Declaration of the Rights of Man
• In late August the
National Assembly
issued the “Declaration
of the Rights of Man and
the Citizen.”
• It modeled the U.S.
Declaration of
Independence written
13 years earlier.
The Declaration States
• The Declaration
Proclaimed:
1. All MEN were born free with
equal rights
2. Enjoyed natural rights to
“liberty, property, security,
and resistance to oppression.”
3. All MALE citizens were equal
before the law.
4. All MEN had equal rights to
hold public office.
5. Religious Freedom and Taxes
according to pay
It’s Raining Men!!!
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
• The Declaration of the Rights
of Man did not grant equal
citizenship to women.
• In 1791, Olympe de Gouges, a
journalist, demanded equal
rights in her “Declaration of
the Rights of Woman and the
Female Citizen.”
• Later on in the revolution
women met resistance.
• Gouges and many women
were imprisoned and
executed.
Not only women dislike the Declaration
• So does King Louis
XVI!!!
• He did not want to
accept the reforms of
the Assembly.
• The king along with his
nobles wanted to keep
the party going!!!
• In autumn of 1789,
anger turns to action!
You got to fight
for your right to
party!
Marie Antoinette
• Queen of France
• She lived a very
extravagant lifestyle.
• She retreated to her
personal home in
Versailles and kept
busy there during the
Revolution.
• “Let them eat
cake.”
• Did she really say it?
Historians are at
odds.
Some say she didn’t
say it.
Some say she meant
a fancy cake called
brioche.
Some say cake
meant pig slop.
I guess we’ll never
know.
If you want to get something done,
send a woman.
• The March to
Versailles
• Peasant women led a
march to Versailles
and demanded that
the King come out of
his palace and deal
with the Revolution in
Paris.
The March to Versailles cont’d
• The women escorted King Louis
XVI to Paris with a parade of
cannons.
• For the next 3 years King Louis
would be trapped in Paris.
“Demonstrations and Protests:
French Revolution.“
Britannica Online.
Follow the King…and the angry,
starving women!
• The National
Assembly followed
the women to Paris.
• They decided to put
Church land under
state control.
• The bishops and
some conservative
peasants got mad,
this caused more
anger in the people
of France.
The Constitution of 1791
• The Constitution was made
by the National Assembly.
• It set up a limited monarchy
and a Legislative Assembly
to make laws and collect
taxes.
• Lawmakers were to be
elected by citizens, and the
Church had no business in
government.
• It reflected many of the
Enlightenment ideas.
Get back here you wascally king!
• King Louis XVI and his
family try to escape
France.
• They are caught and
returned to Paris.
People called the
family traitors as they
marched home.
• This showed how little
King Louis cared about
the people of France.
Scaredy Cats!
• Other countries got
worried that the
French Revolution will
spread to their
people too.
• Some monarchies
threatened France
with war if they tried
to overthrow King
Louis XVI, so radicals
in France prepared
for war.
Republic!
• The Radicals
began to demand
a republic.
• A republic is a
government run
by the people
elected to it.
Personification of the French Republic
by J. Corseaux
The Jacobins are created
• The Jacobins were a
group of radical
middle class lawyers
and intellectuals.
• They took over the
Legislative Assembly
and declared war on
Austria, Prussia, and
Britain.
• This war would last
until 1815.
"Clôture de la salle des Jacobins”
The Stage is Set for a Grand Entry!
Funny
Pictures…
with a lesson
to be learned
Chuck Norris
• Coroners refer to
dead people as
"ABC's". Already
Been Chucked.