BELL RINGER

Cabinet = KNOW THE MAIN IDEA AND WHY IMPORTANT

French Revolution

1789-1799

Causes

• Economic

• Political

• Social

Economic• BANKRUPT!

– Wars of expansion

– American Revolution

– Queen Marie Antoinette • Depression• Unemployment• Food shortages• Fear of famine

Political • Absolute monarchy

• Louis XVI = divine right of kings

• American Revolution overthrew monarchy

• People ruled

• French began to want this

Social

• Class conflict– Rights according to

class• First estate

– Clergy• Second estate

– Nobles• Third estates

– Everyone else

• Legally the first two estates enjoyed many privileges, particularly exemption from most taxation.

Third estate

• 93-98% of population

• Peasants want bread

• Rich want equality (Bourgeoisie)

• All paid taxes

• No rights compared to the first two estates

• “Inferiors revolt in order to be equals. And equals revolt to be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.”

–Aristotle

Three stages of the French Revolution

• Center

• Left

• Right

Center

• Economy bad– An inefficient and unfair tax structure, which

placed the burden of taxation on those least able to pay, the third estate

– Outdated medieval bureaucratic institutions– A drained treasury which was the result of:

• Aiding the Americans during the American Revolution• Long wars with England• Overspending

• King wants to tax wealthy

Where is the Money?• In this cartoon from the time, Louis is looking at the

chests and asks “Where is the tax money?“– The financial minister, Necker, looks on and says “The

money was there last time I looked." – The nobles and clergy are sneaking out the door

carrying sacks of money, saying "We have it."

• Calls Estates General to get approval of new taxes.

Center (moderates)• Louis XVI calls Estates

General– First time – 1614– Approve new tax laws– Voting became a problem

• One vote per estate• Only one vote to block

– 3rd estate mad– Have as many reps as

other two estates combined

• The delegates of the third estate insisted that the three orders meet together and that the vote be taken by head, rather than by order.

• Since there were far more delegates from the third estate, this plan would give them a majority.

• The King refused to grant their request.

• The third estate refused to budge. 

What Is the Third Estate?• "What is the Third Estate?" asked Abbe

Sieyes. "Everything!“  • This liberal clergyman rallied the

commoners of France to assert their power and take charge of the Estates General. – At his suggestion, they declared themselves

the National Assembly and invited the other two orders to join them.

– The next day they found their meeting hall locked.

– At the suggestion of one of the delegates they moved to a nearby indoor tennis court. 

Tennis Court Oath

• King worried about losing power

• Locked NA out of meeting rooms

• June 20th 1789

• “Will not stop meeting until a constitution was created”

King Asks Third Estate to Disperse

• Hearing of the oath, the King called a meeting of all three orders.– At the end of the meeting he ordered the third

estate to disperse. – They refused.

• One of the delegates declared that  "We are here at the will of the people, . . . and . . . shall not stir from our seats unless forced to do so by bayonets."

Revolution begins

• Louis gathers troops to Paris and Versailles

• People scared Louis XVI drive away the National Assembly

• No food

• Blame the king

• Rioted

Storming of Bastille• July 14 1789• Independence Day in

France today• Political Prison• Symbol of king• People revolted• Attacked the prison

– Weapons to protect new government

– Free the Political prisoner

• 4 forgers, 2lunitics,1 sexual offender

• Riots all over France

• New city Government in Paris

• National Guard created to protect new government– Tri Color

• Red white and blue

The Marseillaise Arise you children of our motherland, Oh now is here our glorious day ! Over us the bloodstained banner Of tyranny holds sway ! Of tyranny holds sway ! Oh, do you hear there in our fields The roar of those fierce fighting men ? Who came right here into our midst To slaughter sons, wives and kin.

CHORUS To arms, oh citizens ! 

Form up in serried ranks ! March on, march on ! And drench our fields With their tainted blood! 

The Great Fear• Peasants believed Nobles planned to attack them

and crush the French Revolution.

• Peasants want payback for oppression in their eyes.

• They attack nobles houses and monasteries. = Hatred of Old Regime and destroyed documents that contained taxes old the first two estates

• To settle people down passed a Declaration

Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen

• August 12-15th 1789• Similar to the Bill of

Rights (list of Freedoms)

• Absolved feudal privileges and unjust taxes

• No special privileges• Stated Goals of the

French revolution

• “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”

Women’s March to Versailles

• On October 4, 1789, a crowd of women, demanding bread for their families, marched toward Versailles.

• When they arrived, soaking wet from the rain, they demanded to see "the Baker," "the Baker's wife," and "the Baker's boy".

• The King met with some of the women and agreed to distribute all the bread in Versailles to the crowd.

Constitution of 1791• Constitutional

monarchy

• Kings power reduced

• He returned to Paris never to return to Versailles

• Elect new body called the Legislative Assembly

• One house parliament ran the Country– Ruled by Factions

• Conservatives = sat on the right• Radicals = sat on the left• Moderates = in the center

• Louis XVI plotted to overthrow new government

–Plotted with nobles

–Plotted with other countries to invade France

• Austria and Prussia (relatives of his)

• King tried to escape country and get help

• He was recognized by his picture on the money

• Family arrested and sent back to Paris

The San-Culottes

• At the beginning of the revolution, the working men of Paris allowed the revolutionary bourgeoisie to lead them.

• But by 1790 the sans-culottes were beginning to

be politically active in their own right.

• Brother of Marie Emperor Leopold II (Austria) and (Prussia) King Fredrick William II issued declaration = Do not touch the Monarchy!!!!!!

• Help the French Monarchy

• Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria (over whelming majority)

• BELL RINGER GREEN BOOK PAGE 133 Sentencing of Louis XVI

Left (Radicals)• France under

attack from Austria and Prussia

• People afraid Paris might fall

“To defeat them, gentlemen, we need boldness, and again boldness, and always boldness; and France will then be saved."

• September Massacres– Go to jails and get 1600

nobles/priest and beheaded them

– No trial

• Louis is arrested on belief of treason

• Office of King is suspended

• Need a new government

Republic of France

• New Government of France

• September 1792 first meeting

• Universal manhood suffrage

• Goals1. No more king

2. Suppress disorder at home

3. Fight the foreign invaders

• New government controlled by Factions

• The Jacobins became the leaders of the Government

• Lead by Georges-Jacques Danton, Maximilain Robespierre and Jean-Paul Marat

• Put Louis on trial for treason

Louis Executed

• The Verdict:

• Guilty

• January 21 1793 he was beheaded

Republic of France• All males vote

• Laws benefited the poor– Bread cheap– No taxes– School

• Want to spread Republic to other countries

• England, Prussia , Austria and other not like idea

• 1st Coalition– Invade France

Radicals take over

• Jacobins arrest political adversaries

• In response a women murders Marat in his tub.

• “It is necessary to annihilate both the internal and external enemies of the republic or perish with it.”

The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David

Radicals Take Over

• Maximilien Robespierre and radicals take over Republic

• Formed Army to defend France from First Coalition

• Set up a “Committee of Public Safety”– Protect France from

invasion– Find enemies within

Reign of Terror

• Find Enemies of the State– Supporters of the King

– Supporters of a constitution

– Supporters of free speech

– Anyone that stood up against the new government of Robespierre

• Send them to the Guillotine

Guillotine• Before only upper class

beheaded

• Lower class drawn and quartered

• 3/6/1791 The Assembly approved a text providing that "Every person condemned to the death penalty shall have his head severed".

• Very Enlightened

Guillotine• Total weight of a Guillotine was about 580

kilos (1278lb)

• The blade weighed over 40 kilos (88.2lb)

• Height of side posts was just over 4m (14ft)

• The blade drop was 2.3m (88 inches)

• Power at impact was 400 kilos (888lb) per square inch.

 

Reign of Terror

• Who was executed? One of the first to be executed was Marie-Antoinette, the former Queen.

• More than 18,000 were officially guillotined, but many others were shot, drowned, or put to death some other way. The Terror was supposed to help the revolution survive

Reign of Terror

• Eyewitnesses have reported that women often did their knitting while watching the executions.

• Those convicted persons were often greeted with cries of "Death to the Traitors" shouted from spectators.

• Little toy guillotine for children, women wore them as jewelry

• Jean-Baptiste Henry,• aged 18, convicted of

having sawn down a tree of liberty, executed 6th September, that same day

• Marie Plaisant,• seamstress,

convicted of having exclaimed that she was an aristocrat and that she did not care a fig for the nation, condemned to death and executed the same day

• Henriette Francoise Marboeuf, convicted of having hoped for the arrival of the Austrians and Prussians and of keeping food for them, condemned to death and executed that day.

• A Woman was charged with the crime of having wept at her husband’s execution…she was condemned to sit for

hours under the blade which shed upon her, drop by drop the blood of her dead

husband…”before she was

released by death…”

• In Lyons, a Jacobin ordered 300 people to be executed by cannon fire as the guillotine was ‘too slow’.

• At Nantes, barges containing 2000 people were towed into the middle of the River Loire and sunk.

• Birds hovered above the water, eating dead flesh.

• “One’s duty is to punish traitors, to help the needy, respect the weak, defend the oppressed, do good to one’s neighbor and behave justly.” “Terror is nothing but quick and hard justice.” “ I detest the death penalty.” “..in a revolution the state is at war, it doesn’t have to follow all the laws.”

» Robespierre

• 30,000 to more than 40,000 people were killed!

The Right (Conservative)

• July 1794 Robespierre was arrest and sent to the guillotine.

• End the Reign of Terror

• New government

• Directory

Directory

• Five man executive

• Business men

• Very conservative compared to Republic

Directory• France winning war• Invading the rest of

Europe• At home inflation, food

shortages and people suffering

• Could not solve problems

• Lead to its down fall• Napoleon's coup

d'etat

Napoleon• 1799 was so popular he

took over the country• Set up a dictatorship

– Absolute rule• Ended the French

Revolution• First Modern Dictator• “If you wish to be

successful in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”

» NAPOLEON