The French Revolution

• Absolute monarchs

(Kings) who didn’t share

power with a counsel or

parliament

• Obtained power through

the idea of “Divine Right

of Kings”

Absolutism

King James I of England

The Seigneurial System

• In the 1700’s France had a

Feudal method of land

ownership and

organization

• Peasant labor

Receiving a seigneurial grant

• Ruled from 1643–1715

• Reduced the power of

the nobility

• Fought four wars

• Greatly increased

France’s national debt

Louis XIV

• Louis XV

• War fought in Europe, India, North America

• France ends up losing some of its colonial possessions

• Increases French national debt

The Seven Years’ War

Louis XV French and

English

troops fight

at the battle

of Fort St.

Philip on

the island

of Minorca

• First Estate: clergy

• Second Estate:

nobility

• Third Estate: the

rest of society

• The Estates General

– a very weak

congress

The Three Estates

Cartoon depicting the three Estates

• Taxation

• Crop failures

The Third Estate

• New ideas about

society and

government

• The social

contract – gov’t

protected people

and people

allowed gov’t to

exist

The Enlightenment

John LockeJean-Jacques Rousseau

• France supported the

colonists against Great

Britain

• Revolutionary ideals

brought to France.

The American Revolution

Marquis de Lafayette

• France helping America

worsened their debt

• Jacques Necker – Called

for a tax on property. All

three estates would have

to pay

• 1st and 2nd refused

• Calling of the Estates

General to require

property tax

Financial Crisis

Finance Minister Jacques Necker

• Met in Versailles

in May 1789

• One vote per

estate

• 1st and 2nd or

Clergy and

nobility joined

together to

outvote the Third

Estate

• Voting

controversy

The Estates General

A meeting of the Estates General

• The Third Estate

fed up and

established

National

Assembly on June

17, 1789.

• State they were

the true

representation of

France and the

real governing

body.

The National Assembly

Finish rest tomorrow

• Louis XVI ordered the National

Assembly be locked out of meeting

hall

Artist Jacques Louis David’s depiction

of the Tennis Court Oath

Confrontation With the King

Responded by meeting at a

nearby tennis court.

Wouldn’t leave until France

had new constitution

Louis eventually backed

down.

• Rumors began to spread

that Louis was building up

an army to put down the

revolution.

• July 14th: a mob storms and

takes the Bastille

• Guards refused to fight back

and Bastille is overrun and

destroyed.

Storming of the Bastille

• Rebellion

spreads

throughout

the

countryside.

• National

Assembly

made all men

free in an

effort to

restore order

The Great Fear

• Adopted by National Assembly on August 27th

1789

• Enlightenment ideals

• Outlined basic freedoms

held by all

• Asserted the sovereignty of

the people

• “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”

The Declaration of the Rights

of Man and Citizen

• Peasants still unsatisfied

• In October with food supplies

running low a group of women

and peasants marched to

Versailles

The March of Women

• By the time they

reached Versailles it

had turned into an

angry mob

• Attached the Palace

and forced Louis

back to Paris where

he was held prisoner

• Financial crisis

• National

Assembly

confiscates and

sells off church

lands

• Church also

secularized,

reorganized

• Clergy oath of

loyalty

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

Cartoon depicting the confiscation of Church lands

• Émigrés

• Louis XVI and his

family attempted to

flee France

• They were arrested

at Varennes

Flight of the King

The capture of Louis XVI at Varennes

• Declaration of

Pillnitz

• Possible foreign

intervention

Reaction from Other Countries

Illustration

depicting

Prussian King

Frederick

William III,

Austrian

Emperor

Leopold II, and

the Comte

d’Artois, Louis

XVI’s brother

New Constitution

• Constitutional

monarchy

• New Legislative

Assembly

• Sans-culottes

Painting depicting the 1791 constitution

War With Austria• In retaliation to

Declaration of Pillnitz

National Assembly

declared war on

Austria

Painting of the Battle of Valmy, 1792

• Austria is joined by England, Spain and Holland

to crush French Revolution.

• France institutes a Draft “Levee en Masse” of all

men 18-25

• Paris mob stormed

Tuileries

• Radical group

takes control of

government in

1792.

• Attack royal

family and take

Louis hostage

The Radicals Take Over

Paris crowds storm the Tuileries

• Louis and family seek aid of

Legislative Assembly

• Arrested and deposed

• New government

• First met on

September 21,

1792

• Abolish Monarchy;

France officially

becomes a republic

• Factions: Jacobins

vs. Girondins

The National Convention

A Jacobin club

Jean-Paul Marat

Georges Danton

Leaders in the

National Convention

• Lawyer

• Leader of the Jacobin

• Leader of Committee of

Public Safety

• Most controversial figure of

the French Revolution

Robespierre

The Guillotine

• Dr. Joseph Guillotin

• Intended as a more

humane method of

execution

• Thousands guillotined

during the French

Revolution

• On January 17,

1793, Louis XVI

was convicted of

treason

• He went to the

guillotine four

days later on

January 21, 1793

Execution of the King

• Created to cease an

internal rebellion in

1793

• Given broad powers

• Eventually ruled

France like a dictator

for nearly a year

The Committee of Public

Safety

A citizen petitions the Committee of Public

Safety

• July 1793–July 1794

• Killed nearly 40,000

French people who

Robespierre had labeled

“enemies”

• Murdered anyone; clergy,

nobles, even Maria

Antoinette the wife of

Louis XVI

The Reign of Terror

The execution of Marie Antoinette

Robspierre was eventually

arrested in 1794 and sent to the

guillotine himself.

And that is the French

Revolution

Now lets talk about the Reign of

Terror

• Robespierre overthrown on 9 Thermidor

• Committee of Public Safety dismantled

• Jacobin clubs disbanded

• New constitution adopted in August 1795

• Executive branch known as the Directory

The Thermidorean Reaction

9 Thermidor meeting of the National Convention

• Promoted middle class

interests

• Financial crisis

• Food shortages

• Riots in Paris

• Rise of Napoleon

The Directory

Cartoon

depicting the

errors and bad

judgment of

the Directory

• Popularity rises after

victories over the Austrians

• Conflict with Britain

• 1799 Coup d’etat

• The Consulate

Napoleon Bonaparte

1804: Napoleon crowns

himself emperor

Napoleon Becomes Emperor

Legacies of the

French Revolution• End of absolutism

• Power of nobles ended

• Peasants became landowners

• Nationalism

• Enlightenment ideals