French Revolution Notes
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French Society: Class structure broken into three estates.
-First Estate: The Clergy. Made up less than 5% of population. Not required to pay taxes
and could levy a 10% tax known as a tithe.
-Second Estate: The nobility. Did not have to pay taxes. Made up less than 3% of the
population in France.
-Third Estate: Everyone else in French society from peasants to the bourgeoisie (wealthy
middle class, but had no title). Made up over 90% of the population but had none of the
rights and privileges of the first two estates. Paid 100% of the taxes.
Louis XVI: King of France from 1774 to 1793. Marries Marie Antoinette at age 15 and
becomes king at age 20. Attempts to be Absolute Monarch spending millions of dollars
of fancy parties and feast. Lives in Versailles outside of Paris, which was built by King
Louis XIV. France becomes in debt from helping colonies in American Revolution and
bread shortage results in food shortage and starvation in France. Louis XVI extravagant
lifestyle and frivolous spending upsets members of Third Estate.
An attempt to fix problems in France bring Louis to call Estates General to session. May
5 1779. Estates General is meeting of three estates where each estate gets one vote on the
issue at hand. The first two estates always vote together, beating the third estate.
-Third Estate calls for voting to be based by each person getting a vote. This is denied in
Estates General resulting in Third Estate gathering and creating the National Assembly
June 10 1789 (assembly of the people). Invited other Estates to join them. However Louis
did not want them to meet and locked them out of the Estates General.
-Tennis Court Oath: June 20 1789. Third Estate meet on tennis court after being locked
out of Estates General and promise to continue to meet until a French constitution was
created.
Beginning of the Revolution:
-In response to the National Assembly Louis orders more troops be placed in Paris. Louis
also fires his financial minister Jacques Necker, who was a supporter of the people. This
made the Third Estate worry about Louis and his willingness to reform.
-Storming of the Bastille: riots and chaos in Paris. Members of third estate determine to
take weapons and ammunition from the Bastille, which also held prisoners who were
against the King. The bastille was a symbol of Royal power. Bastille was taken by the
people which scared Louis. French Revolution was now underway.
-National Assembly promoted liberty, equality, and fraternity.
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: Aug 26 1789. Document
promoting enlightenment ideas and equality of people and power comes from the people.
-Women’s March on Versailles: Oct 5 1789. Due to a bread shortage, women of Paris
march on Versailles to get action to help their situation. Also called for King and family
to move to Paris as a sign of good faith to the people. Women stormed Versailles killing
several guards until king agreed to their request and moved to Paris. Now under watch
from National Assembly.
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-King and Royal family attempt to escape France in June 1791 in order to avoid signing
the constitution put forth by the national assembly, which would limit the King’s power.
Escape attempt is discovered and Royal family brought back to Paris. King is no longer
seen as an ally of the people.
-Constitution of 1791: Created by National Assembly. Promoted popular sovereignty and
after some influencing, the King agreed to the Constitution. King was still head
executive, but power was limited.
-The legislative assembly (the former national assembly) took church lands and made
clergy loyal to the state, instead of the church.
-Threats from neighboring nations (Prussia and Austria) created panic in France and the
National Assembly militarized the government in preparation for war.
The Terror
-Parties developed in the Assembly as France was forced to go to war with Austria to
protect revolution. Jacobins: radical republicans that felt revolution should go farther and
establish a republic instead of the constitutional monarchy. Girondins: liberal republicans
who feared radicalization in Paris but was also in favor of republic. Sans-Culottes: lower
class who were more radical Jacobins who were the militant members of the movement
and made up a large portion of the revolutionary army.
-Maximillien Robespierre: Became leader of National Convention. Was known as the
Incorruptible. King Louis appeared to be working with outside nations making Louis a
traitor to the people and Louis is executed on Jan 21 1793 by guillotine. The guillotine
became the form of execution used for people seen as traitors to the revolution.
-The execution of Louis caused a coalition of nations to form to restore order in France.
This created more fear in Paris and the National Assembly became more extreme and
violent. The Constitution is revoked in favor of an oligarchy in which a few men are in
power.
-Committee of Public Safety: Under control of Robespierre. Created to deal with enemies
both outside of France and inside through counterrevolutionaries. During this time (17931794) around 17,000 people were executed and another 10,000 died in prison. The reign
of terror stopped internal resistance to the revolution and victory by the revolutionary
army created a sense in France that the aggressive actions by Robespierre were no longer
necessary. However, Robespierre continued executions and this resulted in the rest of the
Committee of Public Safety feeling unsafe, resulting in Robespierre’s arrest and ultimate
execution on July 28 1794 by the National Assembly.
End of Revolution:
-Execution of Robespierre marked end to revolution as new constitution was created
where a directory was established.
-Directory: Group of five men who ruled France and attempted to bring peace and
stability following the revolution.
-Napoleon Bonaparte: Directory’s issues with dealing with financial and political
problems lead to reliance on army. This leads to Napoleon gaining popularity within
France and on Nov. 9, 1799 Napoleon stages the Coup d’ etat, where Napoleon with his
army marches to the directory dismissing them and establishing a new government.
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Reign of Napoleon:
-Napoleon served as dictator of France until 1804 when he is declared Emperor of
France. During his reign he expanded his empire and had several successful campaigns
until his invasion of Russia, which resulted in defeat and forced Napoleon to abdicate the
throne in 1814 and exiled to Elba. In 1815 he returned to France and attempted to regain
power but after the defeat of Waterloo, he abdicated again and was exiled to the Island of
Saint Helena where he stayed until his death at the age of 51 in 1821.
---Significant events during Napoleon’s reign:
-Sold Louisiana territory in North America to U.S. for money for future wars. (1803) for
15 million.
-Napoleon centralized the government, instituted reforms in finances and education,
supported science and the arts, and attempted to improve relations between France and
the Pope, which had deteriorated during the French Revolution.
-Napoleonic Code: Legal system which is still basis of French legal system today.
Promoted government positions based on merit instead of birth, allowed freedom of
religion, and forbade privileges based on birth.
-Discovery of Rosetta Stone - Artifact that provided a key for Egyptian hieroglyphics, a
language which had been unreadable for almost 2000 years.