The French Revolution of 1789

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The French Revolution of 1789
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Origins

• Absolutism
• The Enlightenment philosophes
• -Montesquieu
• -Voltaire
• -Rousseau
• Deism and Anti-Catholicism

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Underlying Causes of the Revolution (1789)

• The French monarchy in debt
• Bad harvests and starvation
• Enlightenment philosophies
• and increasing literacy
• Nobles resent political weakness (Divine Right,
  absolute monarchy)
• Commoners resent feudal privileges

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The Estates-General Meets (May, 1789)

• First Estate (Clergy of 130,000, 10 landholding)
• Second Estate (Nobles number
• about 350,000, 30 of the land)
• Sword and robe nobility
• First two estates have tax exemptions and
  privileges (taille)
• Third Estate (Bourgeoisie, artisans, peasants,
  commoners)

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Estates-General Provisions and Internal Conflicts

• Third estate representation is doubled
• Voting by head or order?
• Third estate wants vote by head, First estate by
  order
• Cahiers De Doleances (Abbe
• Sieyes) and peasant grievances
• Third estate moves to create
• national assembly, draw up constitution (Tennis
  Court Oath, June 20)

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The Kings Response and the Start of the
Revolution

• Louis XVI prepares to use force against the Third
  Estate
• Storming of the Bastille (July 14)
• Violence in the countryside (The Great Fear)

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The National Assembly (1789-1791)

• The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen
  (August 1789)
• Feudalism abolished (August 1789)
• Department structure created
• King resists, March of Women on Versailles
  (October, 1789)
• The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790)
• Limited Monarchy, voting and office holding based
  on wealth (active and passive citizens)
• Denial of womens equality and participation

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Events of 1791-1792

• The Kings flight to Austria and capture at
  Varennes (June 1791)
• French declaration of war on Austria (April 1792)
• Austrian invasion of France, the search for
  internal enemies, and radicalization of Paris
• King and Assembly arrested by
• Sans-Culottes (August 1792)
• September Massacres

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The National Convention and Radical Revolution
(1792-1794)

• Unicameral National Convention elected, monarchy
  abolished (September 1792)
• Rousseau inspired republic (the General Will)
• Robbespierre, the Committee of Public Safety, and
  the Reign of Terror
• Purge of the Girondins and the
• Hebertist factions
• Suppression of Federalism

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Jacobin Rule

• Louis XVI (January 1793) and Marie Antoinette
  (October 1793) guillotined
• Sans-culottes and the Paris Commune
• French Republic officially created
• (September 1792)
• Levee en masse
• Revolutionary Calendar and festivals
• De-Christianization
• Maximum laws and press censorship
• State sponsored education
• Universal manhood suffrage (national elections)

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The Thermidorian Reaction (1794-1799)

• Robespierre guillotined, Jacobins overthrown
• The Directory and the Constitution
• of the Year III (moderate revolutionaries)
• Churches reappear, price controls end, propertied
  assembly elected
• Left and right uprisings against the government
  require reliance upon the Army (Napoleon
  Bonaparte)