1. UNDERSTANDING HISTORICAL
CONTEXT
A Tale of Two Cities

2. WHAT IS HISTORICAL CONTEXT?
• The circumstances in which a story takes
place or was written
• For Tale of Two Cities…
 Story takes place during the
French Revolution
 Story was published in England
after the fall of France’s Second
Republic
http://dickens.stanford.edu/tale/historical_context.html

3. “THE BEST OF TIMES”- THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
• Also known as Age of Reason
• Movement in the arts, sciences,
and politics
Thinkers
Voltaire
Roussea
u Locke

4. “THE WORST OF TIMES”
• Bread Famine
• Malnutrition
• Tooth Decay
• Taxation
• Oppression
Image Credit: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7743702v/

5. PRE-REVOLUTION GOVERNMENT
Monarchy
The Estates
General
1. Clergy 2. Nobility 3. Commoners

6. Tennis
Court Oaths
Storming of
the Bastille
The Rights
of Man
March on
Versailles
September
Massacres
Republic
Proclaimed
Death of
Louis XVI
Reign of
Terror
Paris
Commune
Directory
Napoleon

7. TENNIS COURT OATH
• The meeting of the Third
Estate on a tennis court
• They break away from
the Estates General
• They form “The National
Assembly”
• Their goal was to draft a
new French Constitution
Image Credit: Eleni Kioussis http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/587409/Tennis-Court-
Oath

8. STORMING OF THE BASTILLE
• Housed Political Prisoners
• Attempt for
Revolutionaries to acquire
gun powder
• The following webpage
includes more information
and quizzes to test your
knowledge:
http://bastille-day.com/ Image Credit: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7743702v/

9. DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN
• “The representatives of the French people,
organized as a National Assembly, believing
that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the
rights of man are the sole cause of public
calamities and of the corruption of
governments, have determined to set forth in a
solemn declaration the natural, unalienable,
and sacred rights of man”
The full text can be found here: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp

10. MARCH ON VERSAILLES
• Women storm the palace
• Protest of high bread
prices and bread
shortages
• Bring the monarchy to
Paris
Image Credit: Clip Art, Word for Mac 2010

11. THE SEPTEMBER MASSACRES
• A series ok killings from September 2 to
September 6, 1792
• The first MASS KILLING of the revolution
• Also known as The First Terror
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/535103/September-Massacres

12. REPUBLIC PROCLAIMED
• The First French Republic was
proclaimed on September 22,
1792
• Follows the themes of Liberty,
Equality, and Brotherhood
• Established by the National
Convention
…
• The revolution is far from over
Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalfrance/1524
08174/

13. DEATH OF LOUIS XVI
Image Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Execution_of_Louis_XVI.jpg

14. REIGN OF TERROR
Robespier re
• Many Mass Killings-
GUILLOTINE
• Rejection of Catholicism
• Notre Dame becomes
The Temple of Reason
• Chaos and Fear
Image Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Execution_of_Louis_XVI.jpg

15. ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE ORDER
• Robespierre’s rule was
even more oppressive
than the King’s
• Attempted to Reconcile
with a Directory of 5
members
• Ultimately results in
Napoleon’s Rule
Image Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gros_-_First_Consul_Bonaparte_(Detail).png

16. Develops Adds Similar to the
Understanding Significance to American
of the Text Events in Plot Revolution
AND I CARE BECAUSE…?
Establishes Ideas that can
Principles we Gives Insight be Useful in the
Live by Today into the Past Future