THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

G U I L L OT I N E S F O R E V E RYO N E .

T H E F I R S T R E P U B L I CI N W H I C H L O U I S X V I C O N T I N U E S TO

M A K E P O O R C H O I C E S .

LOUIS XVI VS. THE CONSTITUTION• Louis XVI refused to sign the Declaration of the Rights of Man and

Citizen

– He was an absolute monarch, and it would have limited his powers, and the powers of

the nobility and the Church

• Furious at the king, a group of heavily armed women march from Paris to

Versailles

– Insist that the royal family and National Assembly move to Paris– closer to the

Revolution

– Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette live under virtual house arrest

• The National Assembly drafts a proper Constitution, and forces Louis XVI to

sign it in 1791→ France is now a constitutional monarchy

AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA ATTACK

• While France was in disarray, other European states attempted to

take advantage

– Austria and Prussia, two large Germanic superpowers with strong

absolute monarchs, wanted to make sure that the French ideas about a

revolution didn’t spread

– The Austrian emperor was Marie Antoinette’s brother → wanted to

help his sister and brother-in-law reestablish absolute rule

• French soldiers lost many, many early battles → poor supplies,

not enough food, not enough training

– Looked like the Austrian-Prussian alliance might take Paris, leading to the

mass execution of royalist sympathizers in Paris

FLIGHT TO VARENNES

• In order to try and launch a counter-revolution, Louis XVI and Marie

Antoinette and their family try to escape Paris

– Head towards the Austrian boarder, hoping to unite with some loyalist military officers

and support from Marie Antoinette’s brother

– Caught in Varennes, only a few miles from the border

• The king is arrested, and brought back to Paris → stripped of his title

– Charged with treason

• Any trust between the people and Louis XVI is broken

– Legislature declares a new Constitution → a true republic, with no king at all

R A D I C A L R E V O L U T I O NW H O N E E D S A K I N G A N Y WAY.

TRIAL AND EXECUTION

• Citoyen Louis Capet (Louis XVI) tried for treason in December

of 1792

• In the legislature, two major groups:

– Girondist → slightly more moderate → the king committed treason, but

should be exiled, not executed

– Jacobins → leader Maximilien Robespierre→ extremely radical group

→ the king committed treason, and the only punishment is death

• Louis XVI sentenced to death by ONE vote → publicly executed

by guillotine on January 23, 1793

CREATING A NEW WORLD• Robespierre and other Jacobin leaders form the Committee of Public

Safety

– Theoretically an emergency government due to the European wars, really a 12 man

dictatorship with Robespierre at the head

• Creating a “Republic ofVirtue”

– New emphasis on science and rationality → all churches and Church land seized by

the state, most priests and nuns required to leave their positions

– Creation of the metric system, a new calendar, new methods of timekeeping

– No more nobility → all French people to be addressed as “citizen” to eliminate class

differences

• Anyone who didn’t show enough support for the new French Republic was a

threat

THE REIGN OF TERROR• Massive numbers of people executed via guillotine on charges of treason between 1793-

1794

– At least 40,000 victims, most of whom were commoners

– Marie Antoinette executed for treason

• Environment of suspicion, rumor, and fear → people could be denounced by their

neighbors, have their names published in the newspaper, and be executed in a matter of

days

• By the summer of 1794, the war with Europe was going better, so some members of the

legislature called for the Committee of Public Safety to step down → they were executed

• Legislature turns on Robespierre, plans to arrest him and the Committee

– Robespierre and his allies attempt to kill themselves before their arrest, but fail → execution by

guillotine

• Death of Robespierre ends the Reign of Terror

T H E D I R E C T O R YI N E F F I C I E N T A N D B A D AT T H E I R J O B S , B U T AT L E A S T T H E Y A R E N ’ T G U I L L OT I N I N G E V E RYO N E .

TRYING TO REIGN IN THE CHAOS

• After 1794, France adopted ANOTHER constitution, this one with a 5-man

executive branch called The Directory

– Very inefficient, corrupt

• The Directory does nothing to manage the faltering economy

• Only the military is a bright spot for France →Austria and Prussia begin

retreating

• One military leader in particular is quite famous → General Napoleon

Bonaparte

– Returns to France from fighting in Egypt as a hero

– Decides to stage a coup d'état