the french revolution · wars of the french revolution y 1793, france had declared war on…...

The French Revolution

Chapter 19

• First Estate - Clergy

• Second Estate - Nobility

• Third Estate - Everyone else

- Traditionally the

peasantry, but by now had

come to include merchants

and other professionals

- 97% of population

Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate and the Second Estate on its back.

TAX EXEMPT

3%

Old/Ancien Regime

Problems before the Revolution

BANKRUPTCY!!

• Economic problems dating from Louis XIV were exacerbated by the Seven Years War and support of American Revolution

• By 1788, debt payments plus interest were about 56% of the national budget.

• Nobility/Clergy paid no taxes

50%

6%

25%

19%

Debt

Versailles

Military

Public Works

Budget Crisis


THE KING VS. THE PEOPLE

• The king was very out of touch with the common people.

• The peasants bore the burden of taxation for the French nation and many were suffering greatly.


• Parlements – French royal courts dominated by hereditary nobility

– Made it difficult to tax the wealthy

– Were abolished by Louis XV and reinstated by Louis XVI

– Enjoyed positive public opinion because they opposed the monarchy

Assembly of Notables

• In 1787, Louis called an “Assembly of Notables,” hoping to get representatives from the nobility and the Church to agree to be taxed.

The Estates General

• This body was the legislature of France.

• It was intended to be a lawmaking body to aid the king.

• It had not met since 1614, due to the monarchy’s increasing political control over the nobility.

Breakdown of Estates General

• The Estates-General had representatives from the First, Second, and Third Estates

• Each estate got one vote. Thus, the Third Estate always lost.

Voting Crisis

• Estates General called by Louis XVI in 1789 to propose solutions for the financial problems

• Disagreements over how the voting should go down

Traditionally, Each estate cast one vote as a group.

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ClergyThe

NobilityEveryone Else

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AGREEMENT = VICTORY

What is the Third Estate?

Everything. What has it been until now in the political order?

Nothing. What does it ask to become?

Something.

Abbé Sieyes

Reform Proposals#1: “Doubling” the Third

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Reform Proposals#2: Vote By Head

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In a single assembly, individual nobles and priests could vote with the Third Estate delegates.

Indecision“Doubling” the Third

Vote by Head

National Assembly

• JUNE 17, 1789: The Third Estate votes itself as the the National Assembly.

The National Assembly

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Join us!


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Tennis Court Oath

•The National Assembly was locked out of their meeting room•They found an indoor tennis court in Versailles and met there•Pledged not to adjourn until they had adopted a constitution for France.

National Assembly

• Goal of the National Assembly was to create a Constitutional Monarchy modeled after the British form of government

• (Which they do, in 1790, and adopt the new tri-color flag)

National Assembly

• King Louis XVI – capitulates and orders the First and Second Estates to meet with the General Assembly

• The National Assembly renames itself the National Constituent Assembly and is composed of members of all three estates who shared goals of administrative, constitutional, and economic reform of the country

Storming of the Bastille

• July 14, 1789:

- The Bastille is stormed by the Parisians--1st

popular action in the revolution.

- Similar revolts occurred in many other cities throughout France

The Great Fear

• From July 14 – August 3rd: The Great Fear

- Peasants took out their anger on the nobility, burning towns and houses, slaughtering cattle, etc.

Decrees of August 4th

Abolished the “feudal system”• feudal dues• nobles’ hunting rights• tax exemptions

The Women’s March on Versailles

Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen

• New constitution drafted on August 27, 1789• Very similar to the Declaration of Independence in proclaiming liberty, freedom, and natural rights• Two most powerful ideas were civic equality and popular sovereignty• Women not included

The Representatives of the French people, organized in National Assembly, considering that ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public miseries and the corruption of governments, have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man...

INFLUENCERSof the

Declaration

Jean Jacques Rousseau

US Declaration of Independence

The British System of Gov.

Focus Question

What were the ideological shifts seen throughout the Revolution?

The Political Reconstruction of France

• Constitution of 1791 - Legislative Assembly becomes main lawmaking body of France; monarch has limited powers (CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY)

• Only active citizens – those paying annual taxes – could vote

The Political Reconstruction of France

• Provinces and parlements replaced by departments – equally sized administrative units

The Economic Reconstruction of France

• Land belonging to the Roman Catholic Church is confiscated and sold creating:

– Further inflation

– Religious schism

– Civil war

• The assignats – government bonds from the sale of church property – used as currency, but used so often their value went down, raising inflation

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

• Transformed the Roman Catholic Church into a secular branch of the state – bishops and priests were to be elected by the people and paid by the state

• Soured relations between the church and the state


• Also forces priests to swear an oath of allegiance to the STATE

• Only 54% did –“Swearing Priests”

• The others were called Refractory Priests. Some faced violence and persecution, others were just banned from preaching in public


• Pope Pius VI condemns both the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

• Catholic Church became seen as an enemy of the revolution

• Some see this as a mistake on the part of the revolutionaries

Counterrevolutionary Activity

• Émigrés – aristocrats who left France for bordering countries

• King Louis XVI attempts to flee France, but is caught

• Declaration of Pillnitz – Emperor Leopold II of Austria and King Frederick William II of Prussiaannounce that if another European power joins them they will intervene in France to protect the monarchy

King & Queen try to flee

King Executed

• DECEMBER 1792:

- Trial of “Citizen Capet”

• JANUARY 21, 1793:

- The king was guillotined.

- Austria and Prussia

invade France

• By FEBRUARY, 1793, France was at war with every European nation.

Wars of the French Revolution

By 1793, France had declared war on…

• Great Britain

• Austria (HRE) & Prussia

• Russia

• Spain

• Italian state

• The Netherlands

And they would be for many years to come…

Reign of Terror

• 1793-1794

• There was a fear that the achievements of the revolution were in trouble

• Real and imagined enemies of revolution were arrested and executed (peasants, nobles, clergy, business people, and ex-revolutionary leaders)

“Sans Culottes”

• “Men without fancy pants”

• Working men of Paris, wanted a political voice

• Influential and supportive during Reign of Terror

Reign of Terror

• Governing Bodies

National ConventionCommittee on Public Safety

Reign of Terror

• The Committee on Public Safety – carried out the duties of the executive branch in dictatorial fashion

• The Levee en masse – Military conscription

- Males 18-25, drafted about 1.5 million soldiers

Reign of Terror

• Main leaders/Figures

Robespierre Carnot

Maximilien de Robespierre

• Dominant figure of the National Assembly

• Had support of sans-culottes

• Called for an assault on all enemies of the Revolution

De-Christianization

• New calendar adopted, streets renamed

• Churches destroyed

• Some clergy executed

Festival of the Supreme Being (June 1794) –Robespierre’s civic religion

Revolutionary Tribunals

• Executions

– Marie Antoinette and royal family

– Girondist politicians

– Peasants opposed to the Revolution

– Members of sans-culottes

• Executions carried out by guillotine, shooting, and drowning

Marie Antoinette

The End of the Terror

• Robespierre turns on leaders both from the political left and right

• Law of 22 Prairial – tribunal could convict suspects without evidence against them

• Fearing he was turning into a dictator, Robespierre and 80 of his supporters are executed

Cartoon – Robespierre executing the executioner

The Thermidorian Reaction

• Influence of wealthy middle-class and professional people replaces sans-culottes

• Committee of Public Safety diminished

The Thermidorian Reaction

• Law of 22 Prairial repealed

• Many Jacobin leaders executed

• Traditional roles of men and women in addition to the church reestablished

Constitution of Year III

• Rejected both constitutional monarchy and democracy

• Established two houses of the legislature and an executive branch

• Political system based on rank and birth replaced by system of civic equality and social status

The Directory

• 1795 – 1799

• Dominated by upper middle class (bourgeoisie)

• Directory weak due to

– Suppression of sans-culottes

– The Two-Thirds law – favored people already in office

– Catholic royalist revival

– Wars

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