The French Revolution

The Revolution

that changed the world

Basics 4 Vocab

Three estates – France’s 3 social classes: the clergy (1st),

the nobility (2nd), and everyone else (3rd)

Bourgeoisie – the middle class and highest level of the 3rd

estate

Estates-General – France’s legislative, law-making, body

in which each estate had one vote

National Assembly – Revolutionary legislature formed

when the 1st & 2nd estates locked the 3rd estate out of the

Estates-General

Tennis Court Oath – Oath taken by the National Assembly

to not leave until there was a new French Constitution

More Basics 4 Vocab

Bastille – Parisian prison that was destroyed July 14th 1789

as crowds searched for weapons and gunpowder to protect

themselves from the French Army

Sans-culottes – working class revolutionaries who pushed

for a republic and wanted to end the monarchy

Jacobins – middle class lawyers and intellectuals who were

in favor of a republic

Émigré – clergy and nobles who fled France and

revolutionaries with tales of mob violence that frightened

many European monarchs

Last slide of Basics 4 Vocab

Suffrage – the right to vote

Robespierre – leader of the Committee of Public

Safety, a Jacobin, he took control of the French

Revolution and began the Reign of Terror

Reign of Terror – September 1793 – July 1794

which tried about 300,000 individuals and executed

17,000 “enemies of the revolution”

Nationalism – feelings of pride and love for one’s

country

King Louis XIV video

French Society: divided into three estates

First Estate: Second Estate:

Third Estate :

Third Estate

Divided into three sub classes:

1. Merchants and artisans

– Rich and well educated (liberal ideologies)

2.Working Class (cooks, servants, and others)

Poor wage earners

Price of bread was very important to them

3. Farmers (80% of people)

Heavily taxed, had to work for nobles/

clergy for free

France’s National Problems

1. Crop failures led to grain shortages

2. Large debt due to Wars (in the

Americas)

– Bankers refused to lend more money

3. Weak leader

King and Queen of France

Louis XVI-

– Great Grandson of Louis XIV

– Not very focused on his duties

• Wanted to have fun (hunt, play with locks, etc)

Marie Antoinette-

– Daughter of Austrian Maria Theresa

– big spender

Louis is forced to call the

Estates-General (May 1789) meeting of all 3 estates

first time in 175 yrs.

Each estate gets 1 vote

3rd Estate was always

outvoted by the other two estates

Estates-General of May 1789

Estates-General called at request of 1st & 2nd

Estates

– Goal: To limit the powers of the monarchy

• Similar to England’s Glorious Revolution

1st and 2nd Estate

– feared losing money from Louis’ big

spending…wanted to control him

3rd Estate

– complained about unequal voting rights.

– Estates-General refused to listen to them and the 3rd

Estate was locked out.

Tennis Court Oath (June 1789)

Third Estate met separately

New name=National Assembly

Declared that the Assembly, not the king, were the voice of the people

Tennis Court Oath (National

Assembly is formed)

Rumors start

Rumor of King’s army coming to

stop the NA meetings

People storm the Bastille to get ready (get gun powder)

King fears that the people are going

revolt

More rumors of nobles hiring troops to kill

peasants in countryside

Peasants react to the rumors by burning noble’s homes (The Great Fear-summer

of 1789)

Louis was so disconnected from

his people…

Louis was so disconnected from the

people that he wrote in journal (on the

day of the Storming of the Bastille)

“Rein” or “nothing happened”

referring to his afternoon hunt

Palace of Versailles (where King Louis is living)

The Great Fear (July 20th – August 5th 1789)

Declaration of the Rights of Man

– Issued August 26, 1789

– “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”

• Women were not included

• Right to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression

• Sets up a Constitutional Monarchy

Slogan of Revolution

“Liberty, Equality,

and Fraternity

(brotherhood)”

Women’s Bread Riot, October 5th 1789

Price of bread (and other necessities) rise

Thousands of women took up arms and marched 12

miles to Versailles (King’s palace)

Killed two guards

Forced the king and his family to move to Paris

Louis tries to escape France (June 1791)

On his way to Austria

– Stopped by townsmen and guards

Many argue that the King is not to be trusted

France’s Radical Groups: Émigrés:

nobles and clergy

who fled France

Far right supporters

Sans-culottes:

“those without knee

breeches”

mobs wage earners of

the cities

far left supporters

Political Spectrum:

Left

Liberal, wants

extreme change

Right

Conservative, wants

to go back to old

times

Europe turns against the Revolution Austria (Marie’s Homeland) feared that the

revolution against nobility would spread to other nations.

– Austria declared war on France in 1792, later joined by Prussia, Holland, Spain, and England..

– French Émigrés joined with the foreigners.

– Austrian and Prussian forces near Paris and threatened to destroy Paris if the Royal family was harmed

– Outraged Parisian mob kills the King’s Swiss guards and imprisons the royal family in a tower.

The Last Straw:

the September Massacre (1792) The Sans-culottes hear that

they are losing power and kill

over a 1,000 noble, clergy &

other prisoners

Power is transferred to the Left

Radicals called the Jacobins

– No longer interested in allowing a

Monarch to govern: now they

want a new form of government

King No More The

revolutionaries defeat the invading armies

The Jacobins establish a Republic.

Louis is beheaded by the Guillotine (Jan. 1793)

Guillotine

Decapitation was punishment for

nobility=now equal

New Leader:

Maximilien Robespierre Revolution goes past politics

Slavery is outlawed

Death penalty is outlawed (predict: why is this ironic?)

Religious Freedom for Jews and Protestants

Playing cards—no jacks, queens and kings

Calendar was changed to 12 months 30 days

each

– 10 day week, no Sundays

(religion seen as old fashion)

All churches were closed

Bread prices were controlled

Committee of Public Safety (July

1793 to July 1794) Led by Robespierre

Ordered to root out

traitors of the

Revolution

No one was safe

Neighbor turned on

neighbor

Reign of Terror

Run by the Committee of Public Safety

Killed:

– Marie Antoinette

– early leaders of the revolution

– fellow Jacobins

– Robespierre was killed (July 1794)

– About 40,000 people had been killed, most=commoners

The Directory

Five Moderates

– Next and final leaders of the revolution

• Corrupt and relatively weak

• Could not provide stability

• Bread prices increase again

• New movement to restore the Monarch

• Not ideal, but compared to the Terror it was breath of fresh air to the weary French people

Napoleon Bonaparte

…ends the Revolution

but that’s another

story…