The French Revolution

Causes• Bankruptcy – loaning money to the U.S., fighting

five wars in 100 years, and inability to tax the rich

• Inequality – the privileges of the nobility, the hard labour and poverty of the peasant class and the lack of representation in the Estates General

• Middle Class- felt the burden of the bankruptcy, they were educated and they were aware of the privileges of the Nobility

• Drought, famine and a weak king would tear France apart.

Louis XVI (16)

Tennis Court Oath

• First Act of Defiance• June 1789 the 3rd Estate

and members of the 1st Estate demand to be recognized as the new government of France (The National Assembly) and want a constitution.

• 3 days later Louis grants them their wish

Storming of the BastilleJuly 14th 1789

• First Violent act• The king had surrounded

Paris• Thousands stormed the

gates for gun powder and fire arms

• Cut the heads off the Governor and paraded the streets

• Sent the message to the rest of France that The Ancien Regieme had lost control

1789

• August 4th – Feudal obligations are abolished• August 26th – Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Protection from arbitrary arrest and guaranteed Rights and Freedoms

• October 5th – Bread riots. Peasants march on Versailles and bring the royal family back to Paris.

• Nobles begin to leave the country

1790

• French Church no longer had to obey the Pope• The first Constitution is established• They confiscated Church lands• Bishops and priests were no elected by the

people

Political Parties

• Feuillants – Royalists• Girondins – Middle believed in the revolution

but saw a place for the Monarchy• Jacobins – Radicals that called for the

complete overhaul of Society• Sans-culottes – working class of Paris (angry

mob

Revolutionary Wars

• By 1791 other countries were concerned of the revolution spreading

• 1792 The Austrians threatened France if anything happened to Louis XVI and his wife

• France declared war on Austria April 20th

• France was invaded by Austria, Britain, Holland, Spain, Sicily and Sardinia

• Levee en Mass – every French citizen was called to arms. Nationalistic army vs. Army of servitude

September Massacres

• Aug. 10th 1792 – Royal Family is taken into custody (they had tried to escape

• Sept. 2nd 1792 – the Jacobins encourage people to storm the Prisons and kill the Political prisoners (Royalists). 1200 killed in five days

• Jacobins declared a state of emergency because of the other countries invading = this will create a paranoid state. The enemies are amongst us

September Massacres

National Convention

• The Monarchy is officially abolished• Louis XVI will be placed on Trial• Robespierre and the Jacobins have taken over

and the Reign of terror will begin• Louis XVI is found guilty of treason and

executed January 21st 1793• June 2 ,1793 -29 Girondins deputies were

executed for treason. Robespierre was getting rid of his enemies

The Overhaul of France

• New Calendar – 10 day weeks /3 weeks per month

• Catholic Church was abolished (churches were stripped of their treasures

• Streets were renamed Thousands stormed the gates for gun powder and fire arms

The Great Terror

• Rural France was appalled by the radicals• Many were rounded up and killed. 40 000 in

total with 1376 in Paris alone• Robespierre created the Committee of public

Safety. They were to decide the fate of those seen as the enemies of the Revolution

• Spies were everywhere• Neighbours turned on Neighbours

End of the Terror

• Robespierre turned on Danton because Danton wanted to suspend the state of Emergency

• Executions and the Republic of Virtue get ramped up

• Robespierre claims he has a new list of traitors but the Convention turns on him and has him arrested and he is executed the next day

The Rise of Napoleon

• France would still undergo a period of instability• Every time a group didn’t get their way they

would riot or threaten to overthrow the existing government

• Napoleon would be the one to bring Stability to France in 1799. He would rule as a dictator and then an emperor (the people saw him as a hero and he brought France back to the brink of greatness.