The French Revolution

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The French Revolution

• Birth of a Republic

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Background

• Louis XIV aka The Sun King
• Ruled France from 1643 to 1715. Longest monarch
  in European History.
• Absolute monarch.
• As a child, he lived through the Fronde
  (1648-1653).

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Louis XIV

• Louis and his regents were called in front of the
  supreme court and explain their actions.
• After the Fronde was crushed, Louis vowed to
  never forget the attempts to limit the power of
  the monarchy.

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French Revolution (Continued)After his
appearance in front of the supreme court, Louis
moved his palace to Versailles.
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French Revolution (Continued)

• At Versailles, Louis tended to the duties of
  being king. There were many royal apartments,
  halls, and dining and meeting rooms. Palace
  grounds contained acres of formal gardens.
• He held elaborate events that stressed the pomp
  and circumstance of a royal court.
• The population of Versailles was about 10,000
  nobles and other support people.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• He appointed advisors from the middle-class.
  Although he relied on a bureaucracy, he was the
  absolute authority in the country.
• Louis continued to strengthen the power of the
  monarchy and the state.
• Letat, cest moi! I am the state.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• The French Society was divided into three estates
  or classes
• First Estate
• Second Estate
• Third Estate

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French Revolution (Continued)

• First Estate
• Made of the clergy. Approximately 1 of the
  population.
• This estate controlled about 5 to 10 of the
  land.
• This estate was also divided into the upper and
  lower clergy.
• Members of the church were required to pay a
  tithe of 10 to the church.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• Second Estate
• Made up of the nobility. Approximately 2 of the
  population.
• The Second Estate owned approximately 25 of the
  land.
• Many in the nobility held high posts in the
  government and lived at Versailles.
• Much of the income of this estate came from the
  feudal dues collected from the peasants that
  lived on their lands.

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• Third Estate
• Made up the largest social group in France.
  Peasants, artisans, and members of the
  bourgeoisie, or middle class made up this estate.
• Many of this estate lived in cities and towns and
  were educated and financial well off. They had
  read the authors of the Age of Reason and
  believed in social justice and freedom.
• The peasants made up the largest subgroup of the
  Third Estate. They owned 40 of the land but
  were very poor.

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• In 1774, Louis XVI ascended to the throne. He
  was 19 years old.
• Louis found that the mounting debt was causing a
  severe strain on his ability to govern.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• Louis wife was Marie Antoinette.
• She was disliked by the French because she was
  Austrian.

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• Facing a rising debt, Louis XVI called for a
  meeting of the Estates General on May 1, 1789.
  This was the first time it had been called to
  meet since 1614.
• Louis had hoped that the Estate General would
  agree to his plan to tax the First and Second
  Estates.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• Each of the estates were represent. Each estate
  had one vote.
• The Third Estate hoped that the other two would
  vote to agree to the kings plan for taxation.
• The First and Second Estates used the assembly to
  protect their lifestyle, weaken the power of the
  king and gain control of the government.

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• The Third Estate rejected this attempt. They
  believed that they represented the nation, not
  the clergy or the nobility.
• The Third Estate demanded that each
  representative have a vote.
• The Third Estate had more representatives in the
  Estate General and had the support of many of the
  clergy and nobles who favored reforms. This mass
  meeting would give them a majority.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• Louis XVI insisted that the estates meet
  separately.
• The Third Estate refused the kings request and
  were locked out of the Estates General.
• The representatives of the Third Estate, many of
  whom were members of the bourgeoisie, gathered a
  a nearby tennis court and declared themselves the
  National Assembly.

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• On June 20, 1789, the members of the National
  Assembly took the Tennis Court Oath.
• Members promised not to disband until they had
  written a constitution for France.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• Louis XVI recognized the dangers of letting the
  National Assembly writing a constitution by
  themselves.
• He ordered the other two estates to join the
  National Assembly and called for troops to
  protect areas in Paris.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• The debate in the National Assembly focused on
  the injustice of the French social system and
  government.
• The Third Estate called for complete social
  equality. Liberty! Equality! Fraternity! became
  the battle cry of the Third Estate.
• This debate spread throughout the city of Paris.
  People debated on the street corners and in the
  cafes. Members of the Third Estate also attacked
  members that did not support their cause.
• The king fanned this anxiety by gathering more
  troops to protect Versailles. Rumors spread
  throughout Paris that he planned to disband the
  National Assembly.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• On July 14, 1789, the citizens of Paris attacked
  the Bastille.
• The Bastille was an old palace that was being
  used as a prison.
• The Bastille also contained a supply of weapons
  that were needed by the citizens.
• After taking the Bastille, a revolutionary
  government was formed in the city.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• The storming of the Bastille released a wave of
  violence throughout France called the Great
  Fear.
• There were rumors that members of the nobility
  had hired robbers to kill peasants and seize
  property.
• The peasants drove the nobles from their
  property, broke into manors, destroyed feudal
  records, and robbed granaries. This was the
  first wave of the French Revolution.

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• The unrest and violence sweeping the country
  caused the National Assembly to act.
• On August 4 1789, a vote was taken where all
  privileges of the nobility ended. Nobles were no
  longer exempt from taxes and all male citizens
  were given the right to hold government, army,
  and/or church offices.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• On August 27, 1789, with the old order abolished,
  the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of
  the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This
  document was modeled after the US Constitution.
• It included many of the ideas of Locke,
  Montesquieu, and Rosseau.
• It guaranteed freedom of speech, press, religion,
  and protected against arbitrary arrest. The
  document did not, however address the rights of
  women but it made divorce and inheritance of
  property easier.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• Louis refused to accept the new reforms and the
  Declaration of Rights.
• The people feared that he would take action
  against the National Assembly.
• On October 5, 1789, the women of Paris, angered
  over the price of bread marched on Versailles.
  They were also demanding that Louis and his
  family move from Versailles to Paris to show his
  support for the National Assembly.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• One of the problems that faced the National
  Assembly was money.
• In 1790, a liberal bishop named Maurice de
  Tallyrand urged the National Assembly to
  confiscate church lands and sell them off.
• They also passed the Civil Constitution of the
  Clergy. This made all religious leaders
  government employees and weakened the power of
  the Catholic Church in France.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• In 1791, the French people were presented with a
  new constitution. It kept the monarchy but
  limited the power.
• It set up a unicameral legislature and declared
  equal rights for all. The exception was
  suffrage. This was limited to males that paid a
  minimum tax.
• To the moderates in the government, the
  constitution had achieved its goals. It had
  limited the power of the monarchy, and limited
  the power of the nobles and the church.
• For some the constitution had gone too far and
  for others, not far enough.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• As French society became more divided, the
  country entered one of the most violent and
  unruly periods in its history.
• The upper class feared that they would be a
  breakdown of law and order.
• In June of 1791, Louis VXI and his family try to
  escape to Austria, where Marie Antoinettes
  brother was emperor.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• The king and his family were stopped outside of
  Paris at a road stop in Varennes. They were
  returned to Paris.
• News of the Revolution in France had spread by
  word of the French emigres, or nobles that had
  fled the country. They convinced the rules of
  other countries that the revolution could spread
  to their countries unless they returned Louis to
  the throne.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• French revolutionary leaders feared that Austria
  would attack to restore Louis to the throne.
• On April 20, 1792, France declared war on
  Austria.
• Austria was joined by other monarchies in Europe.
  Most notably Prussia and Sardinia.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• In August, 1792, Paris mobs attacked the kings
  palace and killed many of the kings supporters.
• The king and his family fled to the Legislative
  Assembly. They voted to put him in prison.
• In September, the mobs attacked nobles and
  priests charged with political crimes. The
  September Massacres.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• Radicals in the National Assembly called for a
  new constitution. They were backed by the mobs
  in Paris.
• They also extended the right to vote to all
  males.
• On September 2, 1792, the Legislative Assembly
  abolished the monarchy and on September 3, they
  declared France a republic.

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• In November of 1792, a box containing Louis
  secret letters to European monarchs.
• The radicals in the government used these to
  charge the king with treason.
• In December, Louis was charged with having
  conspired against the liberty of the nation.

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• On January 1793, Louis XVI was executed by the
  guillotine.
• On October 16, 1793, his wife met the same fate.

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• The heroes of the Republic called the
  sans-cullettes demanded respect from the upper
  class. They abolished titles and referred to
  everyone as citizen.
• Radicals had taken control in the National
  Assembly. Jacobins - Under the leadership of
  Maximillian Robespierre, Georges-Jacques Danton,
  and Jean-Paul Marat.
• The moderates in the Assembly were referred to as
  Girondists felt the revolution had gone to far
  and wanted to protect the wealthy middle class
  from attacks from radicals.

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• Death of Marat. A Jacobin supporter of the
  revolution killed by Charlotte Corday.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• Reign of Terror led by Robespierre lasted from
  September 1793 to July 1794.
• Led by the Jacobins, thousands of citizens died
  on the guillotine and scaffolds.
• In the spring of 1794, Danton believed that the
  Reign of Terror had accomplished what it had
  intended. Robespierre became more fanatical and
  had Dantons followers executed.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• For 100 days, Robespierre had carried out a
  policy of suppression.
• Finally, in July 1794, members of the National
  Assembly had Robespierre arrested and he was sent
  to the guillotine.
• The Reign of Terror was over.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• After Robespierres death, the Jacobins lost
  power in the government. Fashions changed as
  people began to rebel against the strict policies
  of during the Reign of Terror.
• The National Convention began to tend to the
  reforms needed in France. They codified the
  French laws, provided for public education, and
  abolished slavery in the French colonies.
• By the middle of 1794, many of the people favored
  a return to the monarchy.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• In 1795, the National Convention rewrote the
  constitution. It ended universal suffrage. Only
  citizens that owned land could vote.
• The new constitution brought power to the middle
  class.
• Under the new constitution, there was an
  executive council made up of 5 men called
  directors. This council was known as the
  Directory.

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French Revolution (Continued)

• The Directory ruled a two house legislature.
• Once in power, it faced many opponents.
  Royalists, revolutionaries, and others constantly
  stirred up opposition in France.
• As a result, the Directory used the army to put
  down uprising from 1795-1799.
• The Directory was weak, corrupt, and selfish.
  The 5 members constantly quarreled among
  themselves.
• As the Directory quarreled, the people suffered.
• The directory was as hated as the Old Regime and
  paved the way for

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French Revolution (Continued)

• Napoleon Bonaparte