Four Phases (Periods) of the
French Revolution
National Assembly (1789-1791)
Bourgeoisie Phase
Legislative Assembly (1791-1792)
Convention (1792-1795)
Directory (1795-1799)
Radical Phase
(Reign of Terror)
Convening the Estates General
May, 1789
Last time it was called into session was 1614!
Representatives in the Estates General
300
Upper Clergy
1st Estate
Aristocracy
2nd Estate
300
Injustice:
648
Commoners
3rd Estate
1.Bourgoisie (middle class)
2.Proletariat (urban working class poor)
3.Peasants (poor farmers)
Each Estate gets
one vote, so the
representatives of
500,000 people
(1st/2nd Estate)
have more of a
vote than the
other 25 million
(3rd Estate)
First
Estate =
1 Vote
for
130,000
people
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes
1
What is the Third
Estate?
Everything!
2
What has it been
until now in the
political order?
Nothing!
3
What does it demand?
To become something!
Abbé Sieyès
1748-1836
“The Third Estate Awakens”
Y The commoners finally presented their credentials
not as delegates of the Third Estate, but as
“representatives of the nation.”
Y They proclaimed themselves the “National
Assembly” of France.
Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789)
The Third Estate declared itself to be the National Assembly.
Louis XVI responded by locking the Third Estate out of the meeting.
The Third Estate relocated to a nearby tennis court where its members vowed to
stay together and create a written constitution for France.
On June 23, 1789, Louis XVI relented. He ordered the three estates to meet
together as the National Assembly and vote, by population, on a constitution for
France.
Tennis Court Oath by Jacques Louis David
The Tennis Court Oath
“The National Assembly, considering that it has been
summoned to establish the constitution of the
kingdom, to effect the regeneration of the public
order, and to maintain the true principles of
monarchy…Decrees that all members of this
Assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath not
to separate, and to
reassemble wherever
circumstances require, until the constitution of the
kingdom is established and consolidated upon
firm foundations…”
“The Tennis Court Oath”
by Jacques Louis David
June 20, 1789
Storming the Bastille
July 14, 1789
Louis XVI did not want a constitution. Rumors spread that
the king was planning a military coup against the National
Assembly. A mob of Parisian workers attacked this
castle, mostly to get weapons.
18 died.
73 wounded.
7 guards killed (their
heads were put on
spikes and paraded
around the city)
It held 7 prisoners
(5 ordinary criminals
& 2 madmen)
Uprising in Paris
People of Paris seized
weapons from the Bastille
• July 14, 1789
• Parisians organized their
own government which
they called the Commune
• Small groups – factions –
competed to control the
city of Paris
Uprising spread
throughout France
“The Great Fear”
• Nobles were attacked
• Records of feudal dues
and owed taxes were
destroyed
• Many nobles fled the
country – became known
as émigrés
• Louis XVI was forced to fly
the new tricolor flag of
France
The Great Fear: Peasant Revolt
(July 20, 1789)
Rumors that the feudal aristocracy were sending hired
gangs to attack peasants and take their land. So peasants
began attacking the aristocracy.
The Path
of the
“Great
Fear”
National Assembly Responds:
Night Session of August 4, 1789
Before the night was over:
 The feudal regime in France had
been abolished.
 All Frenchmen were, at least in
principle, subject to the same laws
and the same taxes and eligible for
the same political positions.
Equality & Meritocracy!
National Assembly
1789 – 1791
SLOGAN:
Liberté!
Egalité!
Fraternité!
The New Tricolor Flag (1789)
The WHITE of the
Bourbons + the RED &
BLUE of Paris.
Citizen!
How to Finance the New Govt.?
1. Confiscate Church Lands (1790)
One of the most controversial decisions of the
entire revolutionary period.
2. Print Assignats
-
New form of money issued by the National Assembly.
Interest-bearing notes which had the church lands as
security (inflation quickly became a problem with these).
New Relations Between Church & State
Government paid the salaries of the French clergy and
maintained the churches.
The church was reorganized:



Parish priests  elected by the district assemblies.
Bishops  named by the
department assemblies.
The pope had NO
voice in the
appointment of
the French clergy.
It transformed France’s
Roman Catholic Church
into a branch of the state!!
Pope Pius VI
[1775-1799]
Adieu, Versailles!
• The Parisian Commune feared that Louis XVI
would have foreign troops invade France to
put down the rebellion
– Marie Antoinette, was the sister of the Austrian emperor
• A group of women seeking bread attacked
Versailles on
October 5, 1789
and forced the
royal family to
relocate to Paris.
Tuileries Palace (Paris, France)
Royal family spent next several years in
the Tuileries Palace as virtual prisoners
Changes under the National
Assembly (1789-1791)
Abolishment of
guilds and labor
unions
Declaration of
the Rights of
Man
Abolition of
special privileges
Constitution of
1791
Equality before
the law (for men)
Many nobles left
France and
became known
as émigrés
Reforms in local
government
Taxes levied
based on the
ability to pay
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen
August 26,
1789
V Liberty!
V Property!
V Resistance to
oppression!
V Thomas Jefferson
was in Paris at this
time.
Declaration of the Rights of Man
Freedom of
religion
Freedom of
speech
Freedom of
the press
Guaranteed
property
rights
“Liberty,
equality,
fraternity!”
Right of the
people to
create laws
th
26
Right to a
fair trial
Aug
1789
Olympe de Gouges (1745-1793)
V Women played a vital
role in the Revolution.
V But, The Declaration
of the Rights of Man
did NOT extend the
rights and protections
of citizenship to
women.
Wrote Declaration of
the Rights of Woman
and of the Citizen
(1791)
Declaration of the Rights
of Woman
Journalist Olympe de
Gouges argued in her
Declaration of the
Rights of Woman that
Madame Jeanne
women are equal
Roland also served as
citizens and should
a leader in the
benefit from
women’s rights
governmental reforms movement, and was
just as men did.
able to heavily
influence her husband
(a government official).
Women did gain some
rights during the French
Revolution, but these
were designed for
purposes other than
liberating women.
• Women could inherit
property, but only
because doing so
weakened feudalism and
reduced wealth among the
upper classes.
• Divorce became easier,
but only to weaken the
Church’s control over
marriage.
End of Special Privileges
• Church lands were seized, divided, and sold
to peasants
• Civil Constitution of the Clergy required
that Church officials be elected by the people,
with salaries paid by the government
– 2/3 of Church officials fled the country rather than
swear allegiance to this.
– Extremely divisive issue during the revolution
• All feudal dues and tithes were ended
• All special privileges of the First and Second
Estates were abolished
Reforms in Local Government
• The 30 provinces and their “petty tyrants”
(Intendants) were replaced with 83 new
departments
– Ruled by elected governors
• New courts, with judges elected by the
people, were established
The French Constitution of 1791:
A Bourgeois Government
France is now a Constitutional Monarchy
“Active” Citizens could vote [who pays taxes
amounting to 3 days labor]
(so called Passive” Citizens couldn’t)
 1/3 of adult males were denied the franchise.
 Domestic servants were also excluded.
Newly elected LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
now makes all the laws.
GOAL  Make sure that the country
was not turned over to the “mob”!
Limits of Bourgeoisie Reform:
Y
Feudal dues were not completely renounced
[this had been too strong a threat to the
principle of private property!]
Y
Peasants would compensate their landlords
through a series of direct payments for
obligations from which they had supposedly
been freed.
 Therefore, the National Assembly made
revolutionary gestures, but remained
essentially moderate.
Their Goal
Safeguard the right of private
property!!
Review Questions:
2. What human rights
were established in
France by the
Declaration of the
Rights of Man?
3. How did Olympe
de Gouges fight for
women’s rights?
4. How did the
reforms of this period
affect the 1st and 2nd
Estates?
4. What were émigrés,
and why did French
revolutionaries view
them as a threat?
5. In what ways were
the Reforms of the
National Assembly
limited? Why?
Bibliographic Resources
« “Hist210—Europe in the Age of Revolutions.”
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/history/courses/europe1/
chron/rch5.htm
« “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality: Exploring the
French Revolution.”
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/
« Matthews, Andrew. Revolution and
Reaction: Europe, 1789-1849. Cambridge
University Press, 2001.
« “The Napoleonic Guide.”
http://www.napoleonguide.com/index.htm