The French Revolution

Preliminary Stage

Causes of the French Revolution

Inept Ruler? King Louis XVI

Financial Crisis

50% of revenue went to pay off debts

Series of bad harvests 1787 & 1788

Need for tax reform

Estates General

First Estate:Catholic clergy

Second Estate: Nobles

Third Estate: Serfs, peasants, urban

workers

By Abbe Sieyes, a clergyman who became a revolutionary, 1789

“What is the Third Estate? All. But an ‘all’ that is fettered (chained) and oppressed. What would it be without the privileged order? It would be all; but free and flourishing. Nothing will go well without the Third Estate; everything would go considerably better without the other two.”

Discussion Questions

What were the similarities between the long-term causes of the

American and French Revolutions? Differences?

Initial Stage(1789-1791)

Calling of the Estates-General

May 5, 1789

The National Assembly

Liberty, Equality,

Fraternity

June 20, 1789

Storming of the Bastille

French citizens fearing King Louis XVI would use violence to put down the revolution stormed the Bastille on 14 July 1789

Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen

Passed August 26, 1789

Not a Constitution

Women’s March

Storming of VersaillesOctober 1, 1789

The Constitution of 1791

• Limited monarchy and representative assembly

• Consent of the governed

• Church under state control

Crisis Stage(1792-1794)

Radicals Take Control

Arrest of Louis XVIAugust 10, 1792

Execution of Louis XVI

January 21, 1793

Radical Reforms of the Jacobins“National Convention”

All men can vote

Abolished slavery

Universal military conscription

Spirit of nationalism

Set price controls & seized crops from farmers

Reign of Terror

“The first maxim of our politics ought to be to lead the people by means of reason and the enemies of the people by terror.”

Led by Maximilien Robespierre

16,000+ died under the guillotine

British View of Reign of Terror

Perspective of the counter-

revolutionaries:

"The Radical's Arms", it depicts the infamous guillotine.

"No God! No Religion! No King!

No Constitution!" is written in the

republican banner.

End of the Terror

July 28, 1794

Discussion Question

How were the actions of American radicals and French

radicals similar? How were they different?

Recovery Stage(1794-1815)

Napoleon Bonaparte

The Directory:Failed to solve economic

problems of France

Napoleon staged a coup d’etat in 1799Becomes emperor in

1804

Domestic Policies of Napoleon

Greater internal stability and protection of property

Freedom of Religion

Denied rights of women

Restricted speech and expression

Napoleon’s Empire

Left: Napoleon’s Empire by 1912

Above: Napoleon’s Retreat from Russia

Napoleon on Elba

This should NOT be a prison

Battle of Waterloo

Discussion Question

At what point in time were the French closest to achieving their original goals of

the revolution?

Legacy of the French Revolution

Global Independence movementsHaitian RevolutionLatin American independence

• Triggered by Napoleon’s invasion of Spain

Egypt broke away from Ottoman Empire

Slave Trade and SlaveryEngland abolished slave trade in 1807; slavery in 1833Brazil—Last to abolish slavery (1888)

Abolition of serfdomExcept in Russia

Legacy of the French Revolution

Women’s RightsPlayed major role in the revolutions

• Sewing uniforms, nurses, running businesses, some even fought

Lost many rights after revolution• Napoleon

Feminist Movements• Mary Wollstonecraft

Spread of nationalism in EuropeGerman and Italian unificationGreek independence