The first part of a PowerPoint about the French Revolution. Designed for grade 9 history students.

1. THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION

2. SECTIONS ONE AND TWO

3. FRANCE – A GREAT POWER
 When the Sun King
Louis XIV died in
1715, France was
the richest, most
powerful nation in
Europe. It
remained so
throughout the
1700s.

4. FRANCE – A GREAT POWER
 The French army was the most powerful in
Europe, and its navy was rivalled only by
that of Britain. French philosophers led
the Enlightenment, and people across
Europe followed French fashions in
clothes, art, and even cooking.

5. FRANCE – A GREAT PROBLEM
 At the same time, France suffered from a
growing economic crisis, caused primarily
by France’s aristocracy.
 Attempts to solve the economic problems
of the country were hampered by the
traditional political and social system of
France, which historians call the Old
Regime.

6. FRANCE – A GREAT PROBLEM
The Old Regime
(l’Ancien Régime)

7. STRUCTURE OF THE OLD REGIME
 The king of France was an absolute
monarch.
 Society was organized in a rigid social
structure called the Old Regime.
 The people of France were divided by law
into three estates: clergy, nobility, and
commoners.

8. THE FIRST ESTATE: CLERGY
 The clergy administered the church, ran
schools, kept birth & death records, and
cared for the poor.
 To support these activities, the clergy
collected the tithe – a tax on income.
 The church owned vast amounts of land
and other property on which it paid no
taxes.

9. THE FIRST ESTATE: CLERGY
 The First Estate
included the
higher clergy,
who were nobles,
as well as the
parish priests.
Some of the
higher clergy
lived in luxury at
Versailles or in
Paris.
Cardinal Richelieu, Politician

10. THE FIRST ESTATE: CLERGY
 In contrast, parish
priests usually
lived a simple,
hard-working life.
 Many clergy
criticized social
injustices in France
and resented the
privileges enjoyed
by the higher
clergy. Abbé Sieyes, Revolutionary Leader

11. THE SECOND ESTATE: NOBLES
 The Second Estate, or nobility, made up
less than 2% of the French population.
 Many nobles enjoyed great wealth &
privileges. Only nobles could become
officers in the army or fill high offices of the
church.
 In addition, nobles were exempt from most
taxes.
 Most nobles spent their time living in luxury
in their own palaces/chateaux or at the
Palace of Versailles (the most luxurious of
them all).

12. FRENCH PALACES

14. THE THIRD ESTATE: COMMONERS
 The vast majority of French people were
commoners belonging to the Third Estate.
 The Third Estate included: the peasants, the
city workers and the bourgeoisie, or middle
class.
1st Estate 2nd Estate 3rd Estate
Higher Peasants
Clergy
Urban
Nobles
Workers
Lower
Clergy Bourgeosie

15. THIRD ESTATE: THE BOURGEOISIE
 The bourgeoisie was
small in numbers, but it
was the wealthiest, most
outspoken group within
the Third Estate.
 The bourgeoisie
included successful
merchants and
manufacturers, educated
lawyers and doctors, as
well as small
storekeepers and
artisans.

16. THIRD ESTATE: THE BOURGEOISIE
 They resented the privileges enjoyed by
nobles. Many criticized the Old Regime
because they believed in the Enlightenment
ideas of equality and social justice.
 The bourgeoisie called for extensive reform
of the tax system because the Third Estate
carried the burden of paying most of the
taxes.
John Locke,
An important
Enlightenment
Philosopher.

17. THIRD ESTATE:
PEASANTS & CITY WORKERS
 Peasants made up the largest
group within the Third Estate. In
general, French peasants were
better off than peasants in other
parts of Europe.

18. THIRD ESTATE: CITY WORKERS
 Another group within the Third Estate was
city workers (urban poor) – servants,
apprentices and day labourers. Like the
bourgeoisie and peasants, city workers
also resented the privileges enjoyed by the
First and Second Estates.

19. THE THREE ESTATES IN NUMBERS
There were 130,000 people in the First Estate.
There were 350,000 people in the Second Estate.
There were 27,250,000 people in the Third Estate.

20.  This cartoon illustrates
some of the burdens
of the Third Estate.
 The clergyman and
nobleman represent
the First and Second
Estates.
 They are riding on the
back of an aged
peasant, representing
the Third Estate.

21. SECTION THREE

22. THE GROWING CRISIS
 France was close to bankrupt because of
bad economic policies
 Famines and natural disasters led to
starvation for the peasants
 Families were falling apart because parents
were abandoning children they couldn’t feed
 Improvements in industry in Britain put
workers in France out of business

23. THE GROWING CRISIS
Voltaire,
 King Louis XVI Philosophe
seemed incapable
of dealing with
any of these
problems
 The philosophers’
ideas of change
were popular
amongst the 3rd
Estate and even
Rousseau,
some nobles Philosophe

24. THE GROWING CRISIS
 Involvement by soldiers in the American
Revolution spread ideas of change
 People pushed for a republican government
(no monarch) or a constitutional monarchy
Marquis de
Lafayette

25. THE GROWING CRISIS
 The most serious economic problem facing
the French government during the 1770s and
1780s was the huge debt it owed to bankers.
 The government had borrowed large
amounts of money to pay for the wars of
Louis XIV. Louis XV and Louis XVI
continued to borrow money to support the
court at Versailles and to fight wars to
maintain French power in Europe and over-
seas.

26. THE GROWING CRISIS
 French support of the
American Revolution
alone nearly doubled
the government’s debt.
Marquis de Lafayette and
George Washington

27. THE ESTATES-GENERAL
 Was a form of parliament that had to be
called by the king. Hadn’t met since
1614 (175 years)
 Had Three Estates: Clergy, Nobles,
Everyone Else.

28. THE ESTATES-GENERAL
 Each Estate would vote to determine its
own opinion and then have 1 vote in the
Estates General
 The first two Estates always voted
against the 3rd
1 + 1 > 1

29. MEETING OF THE ESTATES-GENERAL

30. THE ESTATES-GENERAL
 After Louis XVI called the Estates General in
1789, the 3rd Estate argued for change for 6
weeks, but was ignored
 The delegates of the 3rd Estate walked out
and started a new government called the
National Assembly (this new government
was formed in a Tennis Court).
 They promised not to disband until they had
written a constitution. (The Tennis Court
Oath).

31. THE TENNIS COURT OATH

32. THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
 Louis XVI was forced to give in. He ordered
the other two estates to join the Third Estate
in the National Assembly.
 Now members of all three estates were
forced to work together to reform France.
Significant differences prevented significant
progress.

33. THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE
 Meanwhile, bread and other food was scarce
all over Paris in the early summer of 1789.
Talk of revolution filled the air.
 The poor people of Paris did not want to wait
for the National Assembly to talk out a
solution.
 They chose action against the symbol of the
tyranny of the Absolute Monarchy in France
– the Bastille.

34. THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE
 July 14, 1789
marks the
date of the
storming of
the Bastille
and the
beginning of
the French
Revolution.

35. THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE
 The Bastille was a huge prison fortress in
Paris. Armed with axes, the crowd ran to the
prison cells and freed the astonished
inmates.
 Soldiers joined the attack, rather than
defending the Bastille
 The mob found only seven prisoners in the
entire fortress. New weapons were obtained
and the people created their own army,
called the National Guard.

36. THE GREAT FEAR
 July, 1789: in the countryside, the people
were also impatient.
 Fearful that the upper class were going to
squash the revolution, peasants started
attacking, looting, and burning chateaux.
 They destroyed all of the records of their
serfdom to try to guarantee their freedom.

37. THE GREAT FEAR

38. REFORMS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
 The events in Paris and the countryside
forced the National Assembly into action.
During a long session on the night of August
4, many delegates rose to make
impassioned speeches in support of reform.
 By the end of the evening, the Assembly had
abolished most feudal customs. It ended
serfdom and the tax exempt privileges of the
nobles.

39. THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS
OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN
 This Declaration was
passed on August 26,
1789.
 It gave basic rights
and freedoms to all of
the men (not women
yet)
 Rights such as liberty,
property, security, and
resistance to
oppression

40. THE MARCH ON VERSAILLES
 Neither the King nor the National Assembly had
been able to deal with the problems of poverty
and hunger.
 In October 1789, a Paris crowd led by thousands
of women marched in the rain to Versailles. The
women were angry about high food prices.

41. THE MARCH ON VERSAILLES
 They also suspected that the
king and the queen, Marie
Antoinette, were plotting
against the National Assembly.
 They stormed the palace,
trapping the royal family.
 They demanded that Louis
XVI and his family return with
them to Paris, where they
could be watched. To prevent Marie Antoinette 1755 – 1793
violence, the king agreed.

42. THE MARCH ON VERSAILLES
 The king rode on horseback, escorted by a
cheering crowd. He wore the tri-colore, the red,
white, and blue ribbon that the revolutionaries
had adopted as their symbol. By forcing the king
to wear the tri-colore, the people proved that
they were directing events in France.