The French Revolution was sparked by Enlightenment ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. The poor economic conditions and unfair system that privileged the nobility led the people to storm the Bastille prison and spark the revolution. However, divisions grew between moderate and radical factions. As the revolution progressed, it grew increasingly violent as the monarchy was overthrown and King Louis XVI was executed. Maximilien Robespierre then instituted the Reign of Terror to consolidate radical power.

1. The French Revolution
Liberty Equality
Fraternity
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2. Key Concept:
 How did the Enlightenment evolve and affect society and
government?
◦ The scientific revolution shattered long-held views about
the universe.
 This encouraged Enlightenment thinkers to question
society and government:
◦ Locke (contract between government and governed)
◦ Montesquieu (checks and balances)
◦ Rousseau (individual freedom and civilization corrupts)
◦ Voltaire (freedom of thought and expression)
◦ Their beliefs in the natural rights of man inspired the
American and French Revolutions.
◦ These ideas were RADICAL!
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3. Key Concept…
Scientific New New
revolution thinking thinking
encouraged leads to
revolutions
in America
and France
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4. Ingredients for Revolution
 1688: Glorious/Bloodless Revolution in England removes
James II
◦ William and Mary take over
 No more Catholic kings or queens
 No more absolute monarchy
◦ Parliament
◦ Bill of Rights
 Enlightenment ideas
 American Revolution (1776) and Constitution (1789)
 The Estates in France
◦ 1st Estate = clergy = wealthy/no taxes = privileged
◦ 2nd Estate = nobles = wealthy/few taxes = privileged
◦ 3rd Estate = everybody else
 Bourgeoisie/middle class = some wealth = high taxes
= some rights
◦ Bankers
◦ Merchants
◦ Professionals
◦ Business owners
 Farmers and peasants
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5. Ingredients for Revolution…
 Monarchy: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
◦ Put country in debt
 Supporting American Revolution
 Personal luxuries
◦ Louis XVI
 Weak leader
◦ Couldn’t control country’s spending
◦ Couldn’t control wife’s spending
 Needed more money = taxes on the 2nd Estate
◦ 1789: 2nd Estate forces Louis to call a meeting of
Estates-General
 First such meeting in 175 years
 First two estates could out vote the 3rd
Estate, even though the 3rd Estate had
more people.
◦ Louis sides with 1st and 2nd Estates
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6. The Fuse Is Lit!
◦ Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes gets 3rd Estate to declare themselves
the National Assembly and become government of France
 National Assembly locked out of their meeting room by king
 Tennis Court Oath: National Assembly breaks down door to
tennis court and vows to stay until a constitution is created
◦ Some nobles and clergy join
 Painting of the National
Assembly in the tennis
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court at Versailles

7. The Revolution Goes Off!
 Rumors
◦ King to use military against National Assembly
◦ King to send troops to Paris to massacre French citizens
 Citizens arm themselves with whatever they can
 July 14, 1789: The Bastille prison is stormed by a mob
looking for weapons
◦ Release prisoners
◦ Take some guards hostage and killed others
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8. The Great Fear Spreads
 Rumor
◦ Nobles hiring outlaws to attack peasants
 Citizens break into houses of nobles
◦ Destroy legal papers (can’t owe
king or lord what can’t be
proved)
◦ Kill nobles
◦ Burn houses
 A chateau burns as peasants
riot in the countryside
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9. The Great Fear Spreads…
 October 1789: Women riot at
Versailles over cost of bread
◦ Demands:
 National Assembly provide bread
 King and queen return to Paris
 August 1789: Great Fear spreads to
clergy and nobles, more of whom now
(out of fear) support National
Assembly
◦ National Assembly ends Estate
system
◦ Commoners/peasants now equal to
clergy and nobles
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10. Statement of Revolutionary Ideals
 August 1789: National Assembly adopts Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen
◦ Influenced by Enlightenment & U.S. Declaration of
Independence
 “Men are born and remain
free and equal in rights.”
◦ Rights included
 Liberty
 Property
 Security
 Resistance to oppression
 Equal justice
 Freedom of speech
 Freedom of religion
 Revolutionary leaders adopt
“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”  Illustration of Declaration
as motto (fraternity = brotherhood) of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen
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11. State-Controlled Church
National Assembly goes
after Catholic Church
◦ Takes lands
 Sale of church lands
helps pay off French debt
◦ Declares clergy will be
elected and paid as state
officials
◦ French peasants (mostly
Catholics) take offense
 Creates division in  Cartoon: “The Zenith of French Glory;
revolution The Pinnacle of Liberty.” A French
revolutionary watches a beheading
while resting his foot on the head of a
hanging clergyman.
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12. Royals Arrested
 June 1791: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette try to
sneak out of country
◦ Arrested near Austrian border
◦ Attempted escape made revolutionaries even angrier
at royalty
 Arrest of Louis
XVI and his
Family,
Varennes,
1791
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13. Divisions Develop
 1791: National Assembly creates a new constitution
◦ Creates a limited constitutional monarchy
 Strips king of most authority
 Creates a Legislative Assembly
 King Louis XVI agrees (no choice!)
 Old problems still exist
◦ Food shortages
◦ Government debt
◦ Poverty
 Factions split revolutionaries
◦ Radicals/Left: get rid of king,
redo government
◦ Moderates/Center: wanted some
changes in government
◦ Conservatives/Right: wanted to keep
a limited monarchy with few changes in government
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14. Divisions Develop…
 Émigrés (the rich who fled France during the
revolution) took actions to try to undo the
revolution to get back their land
 Sans-culottes (the lower-class in Paris) wanted
even more radical change
◦ They had no power in the assembly (but that didn’t
stop them!)
 Movie poster for A Tale of Two Cities, based on  Two illustrations of sans-culottes
the novel by Charles Dickens about the French
Revolution and an émigré 14

15. War and Execution
 Austria and Prussia fear revolution will spread.
◦ They pressure France to restore monarchy.
◦ 1792: France responds by declaring war.
 Prussian commander warns that he will destroy
Paris if royal family is harmed.
 August 10, 1792: Parisians furious at threat.
◦ They storm the Tuileries (place where the royals were
under arrest).
 Mobs massacre royal guard, takes royal family
prisoners
 Storming of the Tuileries
Palace, Paris
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16. War and Execution…
 Rumor: King’s supporters in Paris prisons are
going to break out and retake Paris
◦ Mobs raid prisons, and murder over 1,000 nobles
 = September Massacres
 Radicals force
◦ Legislative Assembly to set aside the 1791 Constitution
◦ Creation of a new government, National Convention
 New government
◦ Abolishes monarchy
◦ Declares France a
republic
◦ Adult males given
right to vote
 Illustration by Armand Fouquier
of the September Massacres
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17. War and Execution…
 National Convention, led by radical Jacobians put
Louis XVI on trial and sentence him to death
◦ January 21, 1793: Louis beheaded by guillotine.
 War with Prussia continues.
◦ Prussia and Austria are joined by
 England
 Holland
 Spain
◦ National Convention
takes extreme step of
ordering a draft of men
and women
 Illustration of the
execution of Louis
XVI
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18. Reign of Terror
 Many groups in France fighting for power
◦ Peasants loyal to Catholic Church and/or king
◦ Clergy resisting government control
◦ Rival leaders in different regions of France
 1793: Maximilien Robespierre gains power
◦ Vowed to build a “republic of virtue” by erasing
France’s past.
 Changed calendar
◦ Eliminated Sundays
 Closed churches
 Reign of Terror = Robespierre = leader of
Committee of Public Safety and virtual dictator
◦ Goal = protect revolution from its enemies
 Bogus arrests, trials
 Lots of torture and death
◦ Many “enemies of the revolution” = personal
enemies of Robespierre because of their
challenges to his power
◦ Apprx. 40,000 killed  Top: Robespierre
 Bottom: Poster for
◦ 85% = peasants or middle class, those movie version of the
who were supposed to benefit from the Scarlet Pimpernel, a
revolution story of intrigues and
love during the Reign of
Terror 18

19. End of Terror
 1794: Fearing for own safety, members of
National Convention turn on Robespierre
◦ Demand his arrest and execution
 Reign of Terror ends on July 28, 1794
with Robespierre’s execution
◦ Public opinion shifts
 Tired of terror
 Tired of inflation for necessities
◦ 1795: National Convention creates third
government since 1789
 Gives more power to upper middle class
 Creates two-house legislature (like U.S.
Congress)
 Created Directory = five men acting as
executive body (like U.S. president)
 Directorygives command of France’s armies
to Napoleon Bonaparte
 Top: Illustration of the execution of Robespierre
 Bottom: Painting of Napoleon Bonaparte
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20. Review
 Ideas are powerful!
◦ The scientific revolution shattered long-held views
about the universe.
 Enlightenment questioned society and government:
◦ Locke (contract between government and governed)
◦ Montesquieu (checks and balances)
◦ Rousseau (individual freedom and civilization corrupts)
◦ Voltaire (freedom of thought and expression)
◦ Their radical beliefs in the natural rights of man
inspired the American and French Revolutions.
Scientific New thinking New thinking leads to revolutions
revolution encouraged in America and France
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