2. The French Revolution Begins
• The French Revolution began in 1789
– The French Revolution was more complex, violent,
and radical than the American Revolution
– The French Revolution tried to create a new
political order and a new social order
– It is considered a major turning point in European
political and social history
• Before the Revolution, French society was
drastically unequal; the population was
divided into three orders, called estates
3. Three Estates of France
• First Estate • Second Estate • Third Estate
• The first estate, the • The second estate, • The third estate, the
clergy, consisted of the nobility, common people,
rich and poor. inherited their titles was by far the largest
• There were very and got their wealth group in France.
• Everyone who was
wealthy abbots, from the land. not a member of the
members of the • Some members first or second estates
aristocracy who of the nobility was a member of the
lived in luxury off had little money, third. It included:
of wealthy church but had all the • Wealthy
lands. privileges of merchants,
• There were poor noble rank. whose wealth
parish priests, • However, most rivaled that of
who lived much enjoyed both the nobility
• Doctors and
like the peasants. privileges and lawyers
wealth. • Shopkeepers
• The urban poor
• The peasants
who worked the
land.
4. Three Estates
Three Estates
• The Second Estate held most of the leading positions in
government and were crucial to the French Revolution
• The peasants of the Third Estate were resentful about the
relics of feudalism, in which the obligations of serfdom
remained, like paying fees for using village facilities and
making forced contributions to the clergy
• An important part of the Third Estate was the bourgeoisie,
or the middle class; members of the middle class were
unhappy with the privileges held by nobles, especially since
some of the bourgeoisie were as wealthy or wealthier than
the nobles
– The bourgeoisie and the second estate nobles were drawn to
the ideas of the Enlightenment and were increasingly upset with
the monarchical system resting on privileges of an old and rigid
social order
5. Financial Crisis
• Social conditions formed a long-range background to
the French Revolution
• The French economy suffered a periodic crisis; bad
harvests in 1787 and 1788 and a slowdown in
manufacturing led to food shortages, rising prices for
food, and unemployment
• The number of poor people in France surged and
reached crisis proportions on the eve of the Revolution
• In spite of the problems among commoners, the
French government and its king and queen spent
enormous sums on wars and luxuries; the king and
queen were known for their extravagance
6. Louis XIV & Marie Antoinette
Louis XVI was an awkward, clumsy man who had
a good heart but was unable to relate to people
on a personal level. He often appeared unfeeling
and gruff. He was insecure and seems to have
disliked being King of France. When one of his
ministers resigned, he was heard to remark, "Why
can't I resign too?"
Marie Antoinette, in her early years as Queen, was
flighty and irresponsible. She was from Austria-
Hungry and the marriage was used as an alliance
between countries.
– She spent huge amounts on clothes, buying
a new dress nearly every other day.
– Being Austrian, she was terribly unpopular
in France and had few friends.
7. The Palace of Versailles
The King and Queen of
France lived in luxury
and splendor at the
magnificent Palace of
Versailles outside of
Paris.
8. Chapter 18: Section1 The French
Revolution Begins
BLUE: First Estate, GREEN: Second Estate, RED: Third Estate
Because of the unequal standards of living, taxes
and government representation
This happened.
9. Section 1: The Financial Crisis
The government of France, however, was
bankrupt and was facing a serious financial
crisis.
The crisis resulted from:
An inefficient and unfair tax
structure, which placed the
burden of taxation on those least
able to pay, the third estate
Outdated medieval bureaucratic
institutions
A drained treasury which was the
result of:
• Aiding the Americans during
Due to the excessive spending of the
the American Revolution French government, Louis XVI called a
• Long wars with England meeting. It was a meeting that would
• Overspending have representatives from all three
estates. It was called the Estates-General.
10. The Estates General
May 5, 1789
When the Estates General met, each estate solemnly marched into the hall at Versailles.
The third estate dressed all in black, the nobility dressed in all their finery, and the clergy
dressed in full regalia.
300 from 1st estate, 300 from 2nd estate and 600 from 3rd estate.
Problem: traditionally, each Estate had 1 vote; the Third Estate was almost always outvoted
by the other two estates; the Third Estate wanted 1 vote per person
The King turned this idea down; he wanted to maintain the current system
This angered the Third Estate, who acted quickly and formed the National Assembly
Lead to
The National Assembly
June 17, 1789
Made up of 3rd estate members, Drafted a Constitution. They were locked out of their
meeting place and moved their meeting to a tennis court
12. Mounier’s Suggestion, The Tennis
Court Oath
“Let us swear to God and our country that we will not disperse
until we have established a sound and just constitution, as
instructed by those who nominated us.”
-M. Mounier
The delegates agreed and all but one of the 578
delegates signed it.
– Their oath is known as the Tennis Court
Oath.
– It said: "The National Assembly,
considering that it has been summoned
to establish the constitution of the
kingdom... decrees that all members of
this assembly shall immediately take a
solemn oath not to separate... until the
constitution of the kingdom is
established on firm foundations..." June
20, 1789
The Third Estate wanted a
national constitution and
were willing to fight for it.
13. The Storming of the Bastille
• On July 14, 1789, the mob, joined by some of the King's soldiers, stormed the Bastille.
• The commander of the Bastille, de Launay, attempted to surrender, but the mob would
not accept it. He was killed as they poured through the gates. No guard was left alive.
• Later in the day the prisoners were released.
• There were only seven:
– Two were convicted forgers.
– One was a loose-living aristocrat put in prison by his own father.
• Nevertheless it was a great symbolic event, one which is still celebrated in France
every year.
14. The Great Fear
By the end of July and beginning of August
there were riots in the countryside.
Peasants burned their nobles' chateaux and
destroyed documents which contained their
feudal obligations. It was called "The Great
Fear."
The National Assembly responded to the
Great Fear. On the Night of August 4, 1789,
one by one members of the nobility and
clergy rose to give up:
– Feudal dues
– Serfdom
– The tithe
– Hunting and fishing rights
– Personal privileges.
In one night feudalism was destroyed in
France.
15. Declaration of the Rights of Man
The National Assembly adopted it on August 26,
1789
Inspired by the American Declaration of
Independence, the Declaration of the Rights of
Man and the Citizen affirmed the rights of man
to “liberty, property, security, and resistance to
oppression.”
The Declaration proclaimed freedom and equal
rights for all men, access to public office based
on talent, and an end to exemptions from
taxation; all citizens were to have the right to
take part in the making of laws and freedom of
press and speech were affirmed.
Women were not included in the Declaration.
"Men are born free and equal in their rights....These
rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to
oppression.
The fundamental source of all sovereignty resides in
the nation.
The law is the expression of the general will. All
The Declaration of the Rights citizens have the right to take part personally, or
through representatives, in the making of the law."
of Man and the Citizen
16. Conditions in Paris
• Conditions were poor in Paris for the common
people.
– The price of bread was high and supplies were
short due to harvest failures.
– Rumors spread that the King and Queen were
responsible for the shortages
• Then French troops marched to the capital.
– Rumors spread quickly among the already restless
mobs that the King was intending to use them
against the people.
– The dismissal of the Finance Minister Necker, who
was popular with the third estate, ignited the
spark.
17. Women’s March to Versailles
• On October 5, 1789, a
crowd of women,
demanding bread for
their families, marched
toward Versailles.
• When they arrived,
soaking wet from the
rain, they demanded to
see "the Baker," "the
Baker's wife," and "the
Baker's boy".
• The King met with some
of the women and Up to this point, the king had refused to accept
agreed to distribute all
the bread in Versailles to the decrees from the National Assembly on the
the crowd. abolition of feudalism and the Declaration of
Rights.
After the march of the women, the king was
forced to accept the new decrees.
18. Church Reforms
• The Catholic Church had always played a
prominent role in French political and social life.
• The National Assembly seized and sold many of
the lands of the Church.
• The Church was secularized and a new Civil
Constitution of the Clergy was put into effect
– Bishops and priests were to be elected by the people
and paid by the state
– This allowed the French government to control the
Church
19. A New Constitution
• The National Assembly completed a new
Constitution; the Constitution of 1791, which
set up a limited monarchy
– According to the Constitution , there would still be
a king, but a Legislative Assembly make the laws
– The Assembly was made up of 745 representatives
• Only men over 25 who paid specific amounts in taxes
could vote, setting up a system in which only the more
affluent members of society would be elected
20. Opposition to the New Order
• By 1791, the old order was destroyed.
• Many people, including the Catholic priests,
nobles, and lower classes hurt by the rise in
the cost of living, and radicals who wanted
more drastic solutions – opposed the new
order
• Louis XVI also made things difficult for the
new government; he attempted to flee in
1791
21. The King’s Return to Paris
Under pressure from the National Guard, the
King also agreed to return to Paris with his wife
and children. It was the last time the King saw
Versailles.
Although the King reluctantly accepted the new constitution, he
could not accept all the reforms (e.g., the Civil Constitution of the
Clergy) and decided to leave the country.
On June 20, 1791, the King and his family set out for the border in a
carriage.
The King was disguised as a steward and his son was wearing a dress.
At the border village of Varennes, he was recognized and eventually
apprehended and brought back to Paris.
22. War with Austria & Rise of the Paris Commune
• The rulers of Austria and Prussia feared the revolution would spread to
their countries and they threatened to use force to restore Louis XVI to the
throne.
• The Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria in 1792, but fared badly
in the initial fighting.
• Defeats in war and economic shortages led to new political
demonstrations, especially against the king.
• In August of 1792, radical political groups in Paris declared themselves a
commune and organized a mob attack on the royal palace and Legislative
Assembly
– They took the king captive and forced the Assembly to suspend the monarchy and call
for a National Convention, chosen on the basis of universal male suffrage, to decide the
nation’s future form of government
• The French Revolution entered a more radical and violent stage; power
passed from the Assembly to the Paris Commune
24. Move to Radicalism
Led by Georges Danton, the sans-culottes were beginning to
be politically active in their own right and sought revenge on
those who had helped the King. Thousands were massacred.
– They were called sans-culottes (literally, without trousers)
because the working men wore loose trousers instead of
the tight knee breeches of the nobility.
– Eventually sans culottes came to refer to any revolutionary
citizen.
Georges-Jacques Danton, A
leader of the Committee of Public
Safety and a revolutionary leader
and a powerful orator, rose in the
Assembly on September 2nd
1792 and boomed out these Another leader of the
memorable words in his deep people emerged, Jean-
bass voice: "When the tocsin Paul Marat, who
sounds, it will not be a signal of
alarm, but the signal to charge published a radical
against the enemies of our journal called Friend of
country. . . To defeat them, the People
gentlemen, we need boldness,
and again boldness, and always
boldness; and France will then be
saved."
25. Two Radical Groups
During the constitutional monarchy
there were two radical groups vying
for power, the Girondins and the
Mountain. Both members of the
Jacobins.
Although both groups were more
radical in their views than the
moderates who had designed the
constitutional monarchy, the
Girondins were somewhat less
radical.
In late 1791, the Girondins first
emerged as an important power in
France. The Mountains convinced
the National Convention to pass a
On January 21, 1793, the king was decree condemning the king to
beheaded using the guillotine, a death.
machine that killed quickly by cutting
off the head of its victims.
26. Crises & Response
• Disputes between the Mountains and Girondins were
only one problem in France
• Within Paris, the local government – the Commune –
favored radical change and put pressure on the
National Convention to adopt ever more radical
positions
• Foreign crises were also a problem; royalty throughout
Europe was outraged about the death of Louis XVI;
several countries took up arms against France
– To meet this challenge, the National Convention gave
broad powers to a special committee of 12 known as the
Committee of Public Safety; it was dominated by Georges
Danton and Maximilien Robespierre
27. Reign of Terror
Committee of Public National
Safety: 12 members Convention: Was
Was created and called by the
given many powers in Legislative
response to the Assembly because
looming threat of the Paris Commune
war against France.
(run by first by Danton then
by Maximilien Robespierre) "Terror is nothing other than
justice, prompt, severe,
inflexible" Robespierre
Rein of
Terror:40,000
people were killed.
16,000 on the
guillotine
28. The Reign of Terror
• After the death of Louis in 1793, the Reign of Terror
began.
– Marie Antoinette led a parade of prominent and not-so-
prominent citizens to their deaths.
– The guillotine, the new instrument of egalitarian justice,
was put to work.
• Public executions were considered educational.
Women were encouraged to sit and knit during trials
and executions.
• The Revolutionary Tribunal ordered the execution of
2,400 people in Paris by July 1794. Across France
40,000 people lost their lives.
29. Jean-Paul Marat
• When Jean-Paul Marat, a
Jacobin journalist who showed
little regard for the truth, was
arrested for attacking
Girondins, the people of Paris
turned even more toward the
Jacobins.
• The people loved Marat and he
seemed to love them too.
• When he was acquitted of the
charge, the crowds swarmed
around him, scooped him up on
their shoulders and carried him
to the Convention, cheering all
the way.
30. Republic of Virtue
• The Committee of Public Safety took radical steps to control
France and create a new order
– Robespierre believed in a Republic of Virtue, or a republic
composed of “good citizens.”
– By the spring of 1793, the Committee was sending
representatives as agents of the government throughout France
to implement laws of wartime emergency
– The Committee also established economic controls by limiting
prices on food, drink, fuel, and clothing
– The Committee also pursued a policy of dechristianization –
renaming streets with “saint” in the name, pillaging churches,
rededicating cathedrals to secular buildings, and creating a new
calendar based on the first day of the French Republic and
eliminating Sundays and church holidays
31. The Last Victim of the Reign of Terror
• Even the radical Jacobins, the supporters of
Robespierre, come to feel that the Terror must be
stopped.
– Danton rose in the Convention calling for an end to the
Terror. He was its next victim.
– When Robespierre called for a new purge in 1794, he
seemed to threaten the other members of the Committee of
Public Safety.
• The Jacobins had had enough.
– Cambon rose in the Convention and said “It is time to tell the
whole truth. One man alone is paralyzing the will of the
Convention. And that man is Robespierre.”
– Others quickly rallied to his support.
– Robespierre was arrested and sent to the guillotine the next
day, the last victim of the Reign of Terror.
32. The Directory
• People had grown tired of the instability and
bloodshed of the revolution and were ready for
something more moderate.
• By 1795, the republic was gone, and 5 men with
business interests had the executive power in France.
• Royalists: People in France that wanted to restore the
French monarch.
• This new government was called The Directory.
– It was far more conservative than the Jacobin republic
had been.
– It was also ineffectual.
– Ruled France, created by the Council of Elders and made
up of 5 people to act as the executive committee. (1795-
1799)
33. End of the Revolution
• The Directory was unsuccessful in its attempts at
governing France
– The four-year period of The Directory and Legislative
rule was a time of corruption throughout France
• Royalists who wanted the monarchy restored
plotted against the government
• In 1799, a coup d’etat (a sudden overthrow of
government) led by the successful and popular
general Napoleon Bonaparte toppled the
Directory, Napoleon seized power, ending the
Revolution
