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Influenced by Enlightenment ideas.
› Thinkers such as Voltaire & Rousseau began
to question the absolutist monarchy.
› Enlightenment thinkers spoke of equal rights
and abolishing the class system.

The American Revolution also influenced
the French as some Frenchmen had
been exposed to its ideals.


The Estates-General, law making body in
France at the time, met on May 5, 1789. They
could not decide if they should vote by
counting each person (this would give the
lower class an advantage) or by class (giving
the upper classes the advantage).
On June 17, the lower class decided to simply
split off from the others forming the National
Assembly.


A few days later the National Assembly was
locked out of its meeting place. The members
instead assembled on the king’s indoor tennis
court and swore to not leave until they had
drafted a new constitution.
The king urged the nobles to join the Assembly
which then became the National Constituent
Assembly though he was raising troops to go
against it at the same time.

On July 14, 1789, a
Parisian mob
stormed the Bastille
prison which to them
was a symbol of
political oppression.


This was the new constitution issued on August
26, 1789. It changed the government from an
absolute monarchy to a constitutional
monarchy lowering Louis XVI’s powers to simply
a provisionary veto.
It was meant to end the class system, bringing
forth the revolutionary principles of Liberty,
Equality, and Fraternity.


After watching Louis XVI try to keep his ruling
power by declaring a war on Austria that
ended in utter failure for the French, citizens
grew tired of trying to pursue justice through
legislative means.
The citizens decided to take matters into their
own hands and on August 10, 1792, stormed
the Tuileries palace. The king and his family
managed to take shelter, but the mob
managed to destroy much of the of the inside
of the palace as they greatly outnumbered the
palace guards.
Though the monarchy was seen as over
after the 10th of August, the National
Convention did not vote to officially
abolish the monarchy on September 21,
1792.
 At this point, the country officially
became the French Republic.


After being
convicted for
treason, Louis XVI
was guillotined on
January 21, 1793 at
the Palace de la
Revolution for all to
see.



Maximilien Robespierre rose up to become a
leader after the end of the monarchy. He was
extremely radical and sent anyone who even
slightly opposed him or his ideas to the
guillotine.
The Reign of Terror ended in 1794 with
Robespierre being overthrown and executed.
After this, there was a period of instability as
different groups vied for power until Napoleon
managed to stay in power in 1799.

Look over this page to review what you
have learned in this presentation in
French
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Currier, N. (1848). The French revolution: scene in the throne-room of the
Tuileries. Retrieved from http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b50245
French History Timeline. Retrieved from
http://www.uncg.edu/rom/courses/dafein/civ/timeline.htm
French Revolution. (2010). In Encyclopedia Britannica online. Retrieved from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/219315/FrenchRevolution
Haïne, M. Le dernier assaut. In La révolution française (42). Retrieved from
http://www.diagnopsy.com/Revolution/Rev_042.htm
Michelucci, P. (1996, July 25). Course no7 histoire: 1715-1804. Retrieved
from http://french.chass.utoronto.ca/fre180/Cours7.html
Mort de Louis XVI, le 21 janvier 1793 Place de la Concorde. Retrieved from
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c24552
The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Retrieved from
Photos.com/Jupiterimages