French Revolution

Chapter 18

Division of French Society

• Ancient regime - older order of society

• Estates - social classes– 1 Clergy– 2 Nobility– 3 Rest of the population

1st Estate

• Own 10% of the land

• Collected tithes but paid no taxes

• Bishops and abbots were typically nobles

• Services:– Schools, hospitals, and orphanages

2nd Estate

• Government positions

• Feared loss status

3rd Estate

• Very diverse

• Bourgeoisie - middle class– Bankers, merchants, manufacturers, lawyers,

doctors, journalists, professors

• Most are peasants

• Only estate to pay taxes

Financial Troubles

• Deficit spending - spending more money than the government collects

• Debt - Louis XIV, American Revolution, Seven Years' War, Borrowed Money

Economic Reform

• Louis XV - increased debt• Louis XVI - weak and indecisive• Jacques Necker - financial expert and

advisor– Reduce gov't spending– Reform the govt– Abolish tariffs on internal spending– dismissed for proposing taxes on 1st and 2nd

estates

Estates-General

• the legislative body consisting of representatives of the three estates

• Cahiers - notebooks that listed grievances of the estates– e.g. fairer taxes, freedom of the press, regular

meetings

Estates-General Reform

• Voting: 1st and 2nd vs. 3rd• 3rd estate declares themselves to be the

National Assembly– Building is locked and guarded– Move to indoor tennis court

• Tennis Court Oath– "never to separate and to meet

whenever the circumstances might require until we have established a sound and just constitution."

Storm the Bastille

• Medieval prison

• Believed to have weapons

• Commander opened fire on the crowd, crowd broke through and killed commander and released prisoners

Moderate Phase of the French Revolution

• "Great Fear"– Peasants revolt for fear of military control

• Factions - dissenting groups of people

• Marquis de Lafayette - head of the middle-class National Guard

• Paris Commune is new city government

National Assembly

• Members give up manorial dues, hunting rights, and exemption from taxes

• Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen– Modeled after our Declaration of

Independence– Freedom of office, religion– Taxes based on pay

Women in France

• Olympe de Gouges - Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen

• Marie Antoinette - Austrian born queen, Joseph II is brother– Lived extravagantly

• Women to Versailles– 6K walk shouting "Bread"– Women stayed until king agreed to move back

to Paris

National Assembly

• Catholic Church under State Control

• Civil Constitution of the Clergy– Church officials are elected and salaried

Constitution of 1791

• Sets up a limited monarchy

• Legislative Assembly– Make laws, collect taxes, decide on

war/peace

• Voters: taxpaying, males 25+

• Provinces turned into 83 equal sized departments

Results of the Moderate Phase

• Louis and Marie Antoinette try to leave the country– Captured and taken back to Paris

• Border patrols increase in other countries to stop the "French plague"

• Émigrés - nobles, clergy, and other who had fled France and its revolutionary forces

Results of the Moderate Phase

• Declaration of Pilnitz - Frederick II and Joseph II threaten to take over France and restore the monarchy

• Sans-culottes - working-class men and women– Call for a Republic- elected, representative

government

• Jocobins - middle-class lawyers and intellectuals

• Leg. Assembly declares war on Prussia, Britain, and Austria

The French Revolution Radical Phase

• August 10, 1792 - Parisians storm palace and kill guards– Royal family escapes to the National

Assembly

• Assembly gets overrun– Radicals call for new legislature– National convention

• Suffrage - right to vote– All male citizens

National Convention

• Abolish monarchy

• Establish the French Republic

• Abolish titles of nobility

• Seized land

• Louis XVI is tried as a traitor and sentenced to death (Jan.)

• Oct: Marie Antoinette is executed

Danger and Terror

• At war with Britain, Netherlands, Austria, Spain, and Prussia

• Committee of Public Safety– Created to save the revolution– Created taxes

Maximilien Robespierre

• lawyer and politician that became the head of the Committee of Public Safety

• "the incorruptible"

• Promoted religious toleration

• Wanted to abolish slavery

Reign of Terror (Sept. 1793 - July 1794)

• Killed anyone against the revolution– 17K killed– 300K arrested– July 27, 1794 Robespierre arrested and

executed the next day

• Guillotine - machine for execution

3rd Stage of the Revolution

• Constitution of 1795 created– 5 man directory– 2 house legislature

• Elected by male property owners

Directory

• Ruled for 4 years

• Make peace with Spain and Prussia

• War continued with Great Britain and Austria

• 1797 - supporters of constitutional monarchy win the legislature

Revolutionary Change

• Financial chaos and low levels of food lead to Napoleon Bonaparte– A military hero who fought the Austrians

• "citizen" is only title

• Nationalism - a strong feeling of pride in and devotion to one's country

• Marseilles - port city where the French national anthem was born