The French Revolution

1. The French Revolution Honors Western Civilization Mrs. Civitella

3. ancien regime or old regime Since the Middle Ages, everyone in France belonged to one of three social classes called estates • The First Estate= clergy • The Second Estate= nobility • The Third Estate= bourgeoisie (middle class) and peasants The Third Estate made up 98% of the population

5. Pre-Revolution resentments • Members of the Third Estate resented the privileges that members of the First and Second Estate enjoyed • Neither the First nor Second Estate was required to pay taxes • The Second Estate served in high positions in the government, in the army, they were allowed to hunt and carry swords • Members of the Third Estate could never move into the Second Estate

6. The First Estate • Roman Catholic clergy • 1% of the population • Two groups: • Higher clergy- bishops, abbots, noblemen by birth • Controlled 5-10 % of the land • Revenues from the land • Tithe (10% tax on income) from each Church member to support schools, the poor and maintain Church property, also supported grand lifestyles • Lower clergy- parish priests from poor backgrounds who had been born into the Third Estate • Ran schools, cared for the poor • resented luxurious lifestyles of the higher clergy

7. The Second Estate • The nobility • Owned 25% of the land in France • Enjoyed many privileges and lived in grand style • Held high posts in government and the military • Some lived at Versailles • Some lived on grand estates and rented land to peasants to farm • Most income came from feudal dues that they collected from peasants

8. The Third Estate • Largest social group in France • bourgeoisie (middle class: doctors, lawyers, merchants, business managers) • lived in towns and cities, educated • had read Enlightenment works and believed in freedom and social justice • Artisans • Also lived in cities • Worked for low wages and in poor working conditions • Many lived in the slums of Paris • Peasants • Lived in rural areas • Owned 40% of the land in France but were very poor because of the payments that they had to make to other estates • Tithe to the clergy- 10% • feudal dues • Land tax to the King All members of the Third Estate had little to no political rights

9. Economic Troubles- Debt • War debt from: • the Seven Years War (French and Indian War) • American Revolution • France borrowed more and more money • Raised taxes • As war debt increased, the Second Estate did nothing to curb their spending and never paid taxes themselves

10. Poor Harvests • Economic decline in the 1770s • In the 1780s, bad harvests led to high food prices • People began rioting in cities demanding bread • Peasants in rural areas attacked manor houses

11. Louis XV • Ruled from 1715-1774 • Financial adviser Jacques Necker, urged the king to reduce spending, reform government and cut tariffs • Necker proposed taxing the First and Second Estates and was forced out of office by these estates • More and more unrest resulted in the First and Second Estates demanding that the king call the Estates General to try to have the legislature control the powers of the king (as had been done in England in the Glorious Revolution)

12. Louis XV and Jacques Necker

14. Louis XVI called the Estates General • First time in 175 years (not since 1614) • Louis had each estate prepare a list of grievances called cahiers • Many cahiers called for reforms on taxes, individual, and political freedoms • Because each estate had one vote, the First and Second Estate planned on dominating the Third Estate • Traditionally each estate met separately • The Third Estate delegates called for a joint meeting of the three estates with each delegate voting as an individual • The Third Estate was much larger and could have outvoted the First and Second Estates • Louis insisted that the estates meet separately

15. The Estates General Reconvenes • Convened in May of 1789 • Argued over voting for weeks • Third Estate eventually declared themselves independent and formed the National Assembly • Third Estate invited representatives from the other Estates to help them draft a constitution • The King had the meeting hall of the Third Estate locked • Third Estate took their meeting to a nearby tennis court • Some supporters from the other Estates met with them • Took an oath called the Tennis Court Oath • Louis unwillingly agreed to the oath • Mobilized troops around Paris • Rumors spread that Louis was planning on dissolving the National Assembly • disastrous harvests in 1788 made the situation worse

16. The Tennis Court Oath

18. The four phases of the French Revolution • National Assembly- 1789-1791- moderate phase which led to the creation of a constitutional monarchy • Radical Phase- 1792-1794- National Assembly- National Convention declares France to be a Republic, reign of terror • Directory- 1795-1799- Moderate Constitution, Five-man Directory as an executive • Age of Napoleon- 1799-1815- Consulate with Napoleon naming himself consul for life

20. Storming of the Bastille • July 14, 1789 • As rumors that the army was going to seize control of Paris, 800 Parisians assembled outside of the medieval prison demanding weapons and gunpowder • Commander of the Bastille opened fire on the protestors • The protestors killed the Commander and put his head on a pike as a symbol of their victory • Mob broke into the Bastille killed 6 and released prisoners but found no weapons • The storming of the Bastille became a symbol of the beginning of the French Revolution • Bastille Day, July 14th, is still celebrated in France

21. The Storming of the Bastille • A feudal prison going back to medieval days • Housed political prisoners • Dismantled the Bastille brick by brick as a symbol of the end of the old regime • Considered the beginning of the French Revolution • The fact that the National Assembly did not condemn the violence, set the precedence for continued violence in the name of revolution

23. The Great Fear • The Great Fear was a rural reaction to the turmoil going on in Paris • Stories of government attacks on towns and villages • Rumors of troops seizing peasant crops • Peasants responded by attacking the homes of nobles and stole grain supplies

24. Organizing in Paris • Marquis de Lafayette- “hero of two worlds” • Helped to convince France to help in the American Revolution, called the Franco-American Alliance of 1778 • Present at the British Surrender at Yorktown, VA in 1781 • Took the enlightenment ideas used in the American Revolution back to France • Organized the National Guard- a militia made up of members of the bourgeoisie to counter the French Army stationed around Paris • First to wear the tricolor- red, white, and blue

25. The National Assembly attempts reforms • Nobles within the National Assembly agreed to abolish feudalism in France • The date August 4, 1789 is celebrated as the day when feudalism was abolished • Eventually made into law, progressive minded nobles embraced the enlightenment idea that all men were equal before the law

26. Declaration of the Rights of Man • Modeled in part on the United States Declaration of Independence • Gave man natural rights to liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression • Abolished class rights and gave every French man the right to hold public office • Gave freedom of religion • Taxes to be levied according to pay • Created the slogan of the French Revolution: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”

29. Women March on Versailles • Even after the storming of the Bastille and the Declaration of Rights of Man, Louis XVI continued to live his lavish lifestyle at Versailles • October 5, 1789 thousands of women demanding “Bread!” marched to Versailles • The mob demanded that the King return to Paris • Much of their anger was directed at the extravagant spending of Marie Antoinette

30. March back to Paris • The Bread Women killed guards at Versailles and put their heads on pikes • They ravaged Marie Antoinette’s bed chamber • Then next day the king and queen were marched by a mob of 60,000 from Versailles back to Paris • The heads of the dead guards were painted in make up and marched in front of the royal carriage • In Paris, the royal family moved into the Toiletries palace and lived as prisoners for three years

31. Reorganizing the Church • The Assembly seized and sold land belonging to the Catholic Church • Put the Church under the control of the Assembly • 1790- the National Assembly issued the Civil Constitution of the Clergy • Ended papal authority in France • Priests and bishops were elected • They received salaries (instead of living off of the money collected from the Church) • Dissolved convents and monasteries in France

32. Reaction of the Church • The Pope condemned the Civil Constitution of the Clergy • Members of the clergy who rejected the reforms were punished • Many devout Catholics in the rural areas of France disagreed with these changes and it created a rift between many of them and the revolutionaries in Paris

33. The Constitution of 1791 • Set up a limited monarchy • Ensured equality under the law for all male citizens • All taxpaying male citizens could vote • Legislative assembly would: • Be elected • Make laws • Collect taxes • Make decisions regarding war and peace

34. Reforms of the National Assembly

35. Attempted escape On June 21, 1791, the royal family attempted to escape Paris for protection in Austria They were discovered in Varennes and returned to Paris Mobs of angry Parisians shouted insults at the royal family The failed escape route made Louis appear as a traitor and really sealed his fate in the Revolution

37. European reaction to the Revolution • Many Europeans saw the events of the French Revolution as hopefully that their governments could also be reformed based on Enlightenment ideas • Rulers feared the Revolution and set their armies on the French boarder to stop what they called the “French Plague” • Nobles who fled France (called emigres) told other European nobles of the horrors going on against nobles by the middle class and peasants

38. Declaration of Pilnitz • Issued in 1891, after the attempted escape of the French royal family • Issued by the King of Prussia and Emperor of Austria • Threatened to intervene against the revolutionaries on behalf of the Royal family • The French Revolutionaries began to prepare for war • The Declaration of the Pilnitz marks the change from the National Assembly to the Radical Phase

40. Move to a Republic • Working-class men and women, called sans-culottes began to demand a republic (government run by elected officials) instead of a monarch • Radical Jacobins supported the sans-culottes • Jacobins used pamphlets and pro-revolutionary newspapers to lobby for a republic • More moderate members of the Legislative Assembly wanted to remain a limited monarchy

41. The Legislative Assembly declares war • April 1792, the Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria, Prussia and other monarchies • The monarchies of Europe expected to easily defeat the French Legislative Assembly • The war would last from 1792-1815

42. Radical Days • As the French Revolutionary army began loosing battles to the Prussians, French civilians became more and more nervous • August 10, 1792, Parisians swarmed the Tuileries Palace and killed Louis XVI’s guards • Political prisioners were killed so that they couldn’t help the invading armies of European monarchs- this was called the “September massacres”

43. The French Republic • Radicals took control of the National Assembly • They wanted a Republic, not a limited monarchy • In September 1792, the assembly voted to abolish the monarchy and declare France a Republic • The Legislative Assembly was renamed the National Convention • Suffrage was extended to all male citizens (regardless of property ownership)

44. The French Republic • A new constitution was drafted • The Jacobins, radicals, seized control of the Convention • Louis XVI was put on trial as a traitor • Convicted and put to death in January, 1793 • Marie Antoinette was put to death in October, 1793

45. Committee of Public Safety • In 1793, France was at war with Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Prussia • The Convention was divided between Jacobins (radicals) and Girondins (moderates) • The Convention created the Committee of Public Safety- a 12 member committee which passed taxes to pay for the military • Decided who were traitors to the Revolution • French armies defeated

46. The Committee of Public Safety • French armies began to win in battle • They invaded Italy • European monarchs became more and more afraid that Revolution would spread to their country • Maximilien Robespierre believed that France could create a “Republic of Virtue” • mirtue- moral virtue • Robespierre: “Liberty cannot be secure unless criminals lose their heads”

47. The Reign of Terror • Lasted from July 1793- July 1794 • Nobles, clergy, 40,000 people died • middle-class citizens, moderates, • Peasants, sans-colottes • Some were killed based on false accusations • Some killed by the guillotin • July 27, 1784 Robespierre was arrested and executed

48. The Directory- 1795-1799 • Moderates created a new constitution • Constitution of 1795 set up a 5 man Directory as an executive • Bi-cameral legislature elected by male citizens with property • Settled peace with Prussia and Spain • Continued war with Austria and Great Britain • Emigres began returning to France • Still sympathetic to the king and Catholic Church • Election of 1797 showed support for those in favor of a constitutional monarchy

49. Life under the Directory • A new sense of French nationalism • Nationalism- strong feeling of pride in one’s country • State schools replaced religious schools • Slavery was abolished in the french colonies in the Caribbean • Created a secular (non-religious) calendar • Banned religious festivals

50. The Age of Napoleon Begins • Ruled in France from 1799-1815 • Born in Corsica- an island in the Mediterranean • Rose in rank within the army • In 1799 he overthrew the Directory • Set up the Consulate • A three man executive • Became the First Consul • By 1802, had himself named Consul for life • The French people supported his rise to power