The French Revolution

1. The French Revolution • Review • Louis XIV – The “Sun King” • The Enlightenment

2. How the French Government Worked • The Estates General • First Estate • Catholic Clergy • Accounted for 1% of population • Second Estate • Nobles • Accounted for 1% of population. • Third Estate (98% of population) • Bourgeoisie • Urban Workers (Sans-culottes) • Peasants

4. King Louis XVI (1774-1793) and Marie Antoinette

5. Problems faced by the royal family • King Louis XVI was good natured and generous but very indecisive • Marie Antoinette was 14 when she married Louis XVI • Charming & lighthearted, she was very unpopular because of her expensive tastes • Government was in debt, Louis had borrowed heavily to help finance the American colonists in their war against Britain • Nobles refused to pay taxes unless the king called a meeting of the Estates-General which had not met for 200 years

6. May 1st, 1789 • Louis XVI calls a meeting of the Estates General • Why? • Does it work?

7. The Third Estate demands a new voting system but the First and Second Estate won’t agree. One vote for each estate

8. Abby Sieyes, a leading clergyman, suggests that the Third Estate change its name to the National Assembly which will pass new laws and reforms in the name of the French people June 17, 1789

9. June 17th, 1789 • Third Estate changes name to National Assembly • Why? • What do they do? • King Louis XVI’s reaction?

10. Locked out of their meeting hall, they meet at an indoor tennis court and vow to give France a constitution The Tennis Court Oath June 20, 1789

11. Louis XVI makes peace with the Third Estate by yielding to their demands • He orders the other Estates to join the Third Estate in a National Assembly • Concerned that he can not trust his troops he called in his Swiss troops for support • Parisians riot over bread prices • Parisians grow alarmed over the presence of the Swiss troops thinking the troops are there to harm them • Parisians take matters into their own hands

12. July 14th, 1789 • BASTILLE DAY in France • “The Storming of the Bastille” • Why?

13. Parisians raided the Invalides (a military hospital) and obtained 30,000 muskets on the morning of July 14, 1789

15. The Bastille

16. Storming of the Bastille

18. Summer 1789 – Rumors of plots against peasants cause them to attack manor houses and destroy feudal records during the Great Fear

19. Heads on pikes during the Great Fear

20. Triumph of the Parisian Army and the People – guardsmen display the heads of troops who confronted the marchers

21. August 4th, 1789 • National Assembly adopts a new slogan. • “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”

22. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is adopted by the National Assembly Aug. 27, 1789

23. Parisian Women rioting over bread prices march to Versailles demanding the royal family move to Paris October 1789

24. The mob broke into the palace and ransacked the queen’s apartments

25. Arrival of the royal family in Paris

26. March 1791 • The New Constitution is finished. • The King reluctantly approved the Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

27. Sans-culottes dance around the liberty tree

28. June 1791 - The royal family attempts to flee to Austria

29. The return from Varennes (where they were captured) Louis’ reputation is irreparably damaged

30. National Assembly gives power to the Legislative Assembly - September 1791

31. 1791 - Legislative Assembly becomes divided. • Conservatives • Radicals • Moderates • 1792 War with Austria • Results of war?

32. Radical Revolution Begins(Defense of National Security) 1792 • April 20 – Declaration of War on Austria • July 25 – Brunswick Manifesto - Prussian commander threatens to destroy Paris if revolutionaries harm the royal family

33. King wears the revolutionary cap in an attempt to calm the Revolutionaries Radical mobs continue to threaten the royal family

34. Attack on the Tulileries PalaceAugust 10, 1792 King is arrested for encouraging foreign troops

35. Marie Antoinette protects her husband and children as Louis is being arrested Royal family is imprisoned, August 10, 1792

36. Legislative AssemblySeptember 21, 1792 • Set aside the Constitution of 1791 ending the limited Constitutional Monarchy • Declared the King deposed. • Elections are called for a National Convention to write a new constitution.

37. Meeting of the National Convention

38. August 1792 - Danton and Marat set the revolution on a violent path with the help of the Paris mob

39. Jacobin Club • The Jacobin club is a RADICAL political club • It’s members gave violent speeches • They demanded the King be removed and a republic set up.

40. Leader of the Paris Commune – devoted to the rights of the poor George Danton

41. Radical leader of the Jacobin Club Edited a radical newspaper His fiery editorials called for “five or six hundred heads to be cut off to rid France of the enemies of the revolution Jean Paul Marat

42. Louis is tried and found guilty of treason

43. The national razor

44. Execution of Louis XVIJanuary 21, 1793

45. 1793-1794 Robespierre’s Reign of Terror

46. Maximilien Robespierre The most powerful man on the Committee of Public Safety He was a merciless fanatic He was the Terror Get rid of all traces of France’s monarchy and nobility

47. Committee of Public SafetyFormed during the Summer of 1793 • Established by the Jacobins • Sought out enemies from within France • Decided who should be judged as an enemy of the Republic • Oversaw France’s defense • Well trained citizen army • All citizens were expected to help the war effort by serving in hospitals, collecting clothing, etc • Unified the nation

48. Marie Antoinette’s Trial

50. The Revolution devoursit’s own children • Fellow revolutionaries such as Danton who challenged Robespierre’s leadership were executed in 1794 • Their crime – being less radical then Robespierre