French Revolution

1. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

2. Introduction
• Exploded in 1789.
• Began with Estates General in
1789 and ended with formation
of the French Consulate in 1799.
• Provided fundamental social
ideas such as Liberty, Equality
and Fraternity.

3. Society
Before French Revolution,
society is divided into three
estates:
• First Estate - Clergy
• Second Estate - Nobility
• Third Estate - Commoners
• King was considered part
of no estate.

4. Causes Of Outbreak:
Political
• Louis XV was the great-grandson of Louis XIV
and the third son of the Duke of Burgundy
(1682–1712)
• His wife Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, the eldest
daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy.
• He was born in the Palace of Versailles on 15
February 1710.
• His grandson Louis XVI succeeded him in
1774.
• Marie Antoinette, his wife who believed in the
Divine Right of Kingship theory influenced him

5. Economic
• France was financially unstable due to the
Seven Years War and American War of
Independence.
• The Royalty and Nobility lead a luxurious
lifestyle while the common people were
paying for the war.
• Finance ministers who suggested reduction
of royal expenditure were dismissed.
• Due to fiscal deficit, all three Estates were
forced to pay tax.

6. Social
• The condition was worsened due to
bad harvest.
• Hunger riots began.
• In 1777 there were 11 lakh
professional beggars.
• The Clergy and Nobility despite being
minorities were enjoying feudal rights.
• The rising middle class (bourgeoise)
and peasants formed the Third Estate.

7. Inspirations from
French
Philosophers
• Voltaire launched a crusade
against superstition and attacked
traditional beliefs.
• He wrote many essays, poems
and dramas creating awareness
among the masses.
• He advocated the supremacy of
reason.
• He stood for religious toleration

8. Inspirations from
French
Philosophers
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born in
Geneva in 1712, was one of the 18th
century's most important political
thinkers.
• Rousseau's theories of sovereignty and
law had a direct influence on French
revolutionaries such as Robespierre.
• They were blamed for some of the
worst excesses of the Terror in France.

9. Inspirations from
French
Philosophers
• Montesquieu wrote that the
main purpose of government is
to maintain law and order,
political liberty, and the property
of the individual.
• He opposed the absolute
monarchy of his home country
and favored the English system as
the best model of government.

10. American War of
Independence
• The Americans' victory over the British
inspired the French Revolution.
• The French people saw that a revolt
could be successful, even against a major
military power.
• America provide a model of
constitutionalism by which the French
established a constitutional government
in 1791.
• Lafayette who participated in the
American War, came back with ideas
which played a major role French
Revolution.

11. National
Assembly
• On 17 June, the Third
Estate began to call
themselves the National
Assembly.
• Their leader was Mirabeau.
• They created the influential
document The Declaration Of
Rights Of Man.
• It stated that all men had
equal rights under the law.

12. Tennis Court
Oath
• On 20 June 1789, 576 of the 577
members of the Third Estate took
an oath in a tennis court,
• It occurred after the King had
dismissed them from the meeting
of the Estates General.

13. Fall of Bastille
• Rumors of the King ordering Swiss
troops to move into their city proved
the people.
• On 14 July 1789 nearly 7000 men
and women stormed and destroyed
the prison Bastille and set the
prisoners free.
• This day is celebrated as National
Day of France.

14. March to
Versailles
• On 4 October 1789, a crowd of
women, marched towards
Versailles demanding bread .
• When they arrived wet due to
the rain, they demanded to see
the baker, his wife, and son.
• The King met with some of the
women and agreed to distribute
all the bread in Versailles to the
crowd.

15. Flight to Varennes
• The King and his family escaped from
Paris due to his unstable condition.
• He got disguised and went to
Varennes.
• But he was recognized and bought
back to Paris.
• Since then, he was treated as a
prisoner.

16. Girondins and
Jacobins
• Girondins:
~ Moderate liberals who
wanted the King as a limited
Monarch.
~Constitutional Monarchy
• Jacobins:
~The people who wanted a
republican country.

17. Constitution of
1791
• The French constitution was
created by the National Assembly
during the French Revolution.
• The legislature had 750
members, who owned a certain
amount of property.
• The common people rivaled the
constitution, as the Paris
Commune.
• The constitution lasted less than
a year.

18. Emigres and the
Revolutionary War
• Emigres, are the Frenchmen who
fled France during the French
Revolution of 1789.
• From their places of exile, many
Emigres plotted against the
Revolutionary government, seeking
foreign help to restore the old
regime.
• Marat was a journalist and politician
during the French Revolution.
• He was a vigorous defender and the
leader of the sans-culottes . (A group
of Jacobins)

19. Guillotine
• Is an apparatus designed for
efficiently carrying out executions by
beheading.
• It was last used in the 1970s.
• Angled blade was reportedly ordered
by King Louis XVI of France.
• The guillotine became known among
the revolutionaries as the 'National
Razor'.

20. Secular
Calendar
Months:
• Autumn:
• Vendémiaire (vintage), starting 22, 23, or 24
September
• Brumaire (mist), starting 22, 23, or 24 October
• Frimaire (frost), starting 21, 22, or 23 November
• Winter:
• Nivôse (snowy), starting 21, 22, or 23 December
• Pluviôse (rainy), starting 20, 21, or 22 January
• Ventôse (windy), starting 19, 20, or 21 February
• Spring:
• Germinal (germination), starting 20 or 21 March
• Floréal (flower), starting 20 or 21 April
• Prairial (meadow), starting 20 or 21 May
• Summer:
• Messidor (harvest), starting 19 or 20 June
• Thermidor (summer heat), starting 19 or 20 July
• Fructidor (fruit), starting 18 or 19 August

21. National Convention
and the Reign of Terror
June 1793-July 1794
• TERROR IS NOTHING MORE THAN
JUSTICE: PROMPT, SEVERE, INFLEXIBLE.
– Maximilien Robespierre
• After the death of King Louis 1793 the
Reign of Terror slowly began.
• The Revolutionary Tribunal ordered
the execution of 2,400 people in Paris
by July 1794.
• Across France 30,000 people lost their
lives.

22. Festival Of Reason
• Jacques Hébert founded the “worship of reason”
this rejected any form of deity.
• The official nationwide Fête de la Raison,
supervised by Hébert 10 November 1793) came
to epitomize the new republican way of religion.
• Churches across France were transformed into
modern Temples of Reason.
• The largest ceremony of all was at the cathedral
of Notre Dame in Paris.

23. National Convention
and the Reign of Terror
June 1793-July 1794
• TERROR IS NOTHING MORE THAN
JUSTICE: PROMPT, SEVERE, INFLEXIBLE.
– Maximilien Robespierre
• After the death of King Louis 1793 the
Reign of Terror slowly began.
• The Revolutionary Tribunal ordered
the execution of 2,400 people in Paris
by July 1794.
• Across France 30,000 people lost their
lives.

24. National Convention
and the Reign of Terror
June 1793-July 1794
• The people readily accepted the
coup d'état (French for "blow of
state“) of Napoleon Bonaparte in
1799.
• The rise of Napoleon marked the
end of the revolution.
• He was the first Consul, who later
crowned himself as the emperor
of France.

25. Impact of French
Revolution
• The French Revolution had a great and far-
reaching impact that probably transformed the
world more than any other revolution.
• The people of France rose up in defiance of
unequal and suppressive values that had existed
for centuries.
• The French Revolution spread the principles of
liberty and equality, which are held by many
nation individuals today.
• The power of nationalism was first experienced
during the French Revolution, and it is still
powerful in existing nations and emerging
nations today.

26. Thank You