The French Revolution!

Louis Failed Attempt At Escape Causes a Split…

The moderate Girondins wanted to keep a constitutional monarchy.

The radical Jacobins wanted the king to be gone!

VS.

A New ConstitutionAfter two years of arguing, the National Assembly

created a new constitution. This new constitution created a limited constitutional

monarchy. It also created a new legislative body (the Legislative Assembly) which could create laws and approve or reject declaration of war. The king

still has executive power.

Other DivisionsOutside the Legislative Assembly, there are other

divisions as well. The Émigrés (nobles and others who had fled from

France) hoped to undo the Revolution and restore the Old Regime.

The Sans-Culottes (“those without knee breeches”) were the Parisian workers and small shopkeepers who wanted the Revolution to bring even more

change to France.

Outside of FranceOutside of France, neighboring countries worried

that France’s revolutionary fever was contagious.

To keep it away, they issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which insisted that the French return

Louis XVI to the throne. The French saw this as hostile, so the Girondin-led

assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia.

Mob Mentality Strikes AgainThe war began badly for France. When a Prussian

commander threatened to destroy Paris if a member of the royal family was hurt, the French were panicked again and another mob formed.

The mob murdered the royal guard and imprisoned Louis, Marie Antoinette, and their children.

A new rumor begins that the supporters of the royal family were planning to break out of prison and take over the city.

Angry and terrified citizens raided the prisons and murdered over 1,000 prisoners.

Under pressure of the radicals, the Legislative Assembly got rid of the old constitution, declared the king powerless, and

elected new legislation called the National Convention. They announced that France was now a republic.

Mob Mentality Strikes Again

The Jacobin's Reign of TerrorDuring this time the radical group, the Jacobins, slowly

took control and power. Led by the Jacobins, the National Convention tried Louis XVI for treason, found

him guilty and executed him.

The Jacobin’s also had to address the war with Austria and Prussia and so the National Convention took an extreme step and

ordered a draft of 300,000 French citizens, between the ages of 18 to 40, including

women.

Jacobin’s Reign of TerrorNot everyone liked what the Jacobin’s were doing.

Many had found the execution of the king to be a step too far.

The Committee of Public Safety was created with the chief task to protect the Revolution from its enemies.The Jacobin’s, now led by Maximilien Robespierre,

wanted to create a “republic of virtue” by wiping away France’s past he soon became the leader of the

Committee of Public Safety.

The Reign of Terror Had Begun…

Reign of Terror Sketch-to-Stretch