French Revolution Introduction

• Which of the following statements do you most agree with:

a) People should never take part in a political revolution.

b) People should take part in a political revolution only if their families are in danger.

c) People should take part in a political revolution only if their basic human rights are not met.

d) People should take part in a political revolution whenever they disagree with their government.

Revolution Activity

• List five situations in which you think it would be okay for people to overthrow their Country’s government.

• Students must draw a political cartoon or write and act out a skit demonstrating a revolutionary situation.

The French Revolution

French Revolution: Causes

• WHAT IS A REVOLUTION? -when people rebel against the government

-They try to change things, and try to get into power themselves.

-In the French Revolution, the common people of France rebelled against the absolute king and the way the rich and socially-important minority exploited and mistreated them.

-They tried to change the whole social order that made the minority mistreat them.

WHAT CAUSED THE FRENCH REVOLUTION?

• In France, there was a very strict social order that determined your place in

society, what you could do for a living, and where you could live. It was called

the Ancien Régime or Old Order.

• The Old Order divided society into three groups or Estates.

French Society Divided

• In 1789 Frances population was divided into three social classes, or estates.

The Clergy

The First Estate• The clergy- represented less than 1% of the people of

France • owned or controlled one-fifth of the land • Taxes collected amounted to more then 150 million livre

per year. The converstion factor is one livre to $4.50 current American dollars.

• controlled all schools in France• held an absolute right of censorship of all printed material.

The church's records of births, burials, and marriages were the most esteemed official documents in the nation, the highest authority when inheritance and titles of nobility had to be validated.

Nobility

The Second Estate

• Nobility –

• held top jobs in government, the army, the courts

• owned land, had difficulty maintaining their status because of rising prices

• Feared losing their traditional privileges, especially their freedom from paying taxes

The Third Estate• 95% of the people, more then 24 million people • Bourgeoisie- or middle class, included bankers,

merchants, and manufactures, lawyers, doctors, etc

• Rural peasants- poorest= urban workers, many unemployed- were the backbone of the country- paid the largest share of the taxes

• Both groups resented the privileges enjoyed by their social “betters”

• peasants and the urban workers=were very poor. • They had little to eat, and the peasants were not

even allowed to hunt for food• they lived on land owned by noblemen, and it was

seen as their right alone to hunt and fish. • Many times they had to get the permission of their

landlord to get married, or the landlord chose whom they should marry.

• They could not leave the land they lived and worked on without permission from their landlord.

• feudal system, which had existed from the Middle Ages.

Activity 1

The three men in the picture stand for the three Estates of the

Old Order. 1.Who is the man in

chains?2.Who are the men on

his back?3.Does it look as if it is

easy for him to carry them on his back?

4.Does it look as if the two men are sorry

for him?

French Revolution

Events leading up to the Revolution • When the king wanted money, he just

increased the taxes of the Third Estate.

• According to the Old Order, the first two Estates did not have to pay taxes. In the 1780s the king had serious financial troubles, and wanted to solve this by taxing the higher Estates who were resisting this.

• Estates General= representatives from all the Estates could vote and decide onraising taxes

• only meet on the order of the king• For 175 years no king had done this• did not want to give the people any say in the

governance of the country• Louis XVI wanted to tax the higher Estates, they

forced him to call a meeting of the Estates General. • When the met the different Estates argued on how

the voting process would work• The bourgeoisie representing wanted the same rights

as the Second Estate. They realized that the Second Estate would never give them this and they broke away to form their own group.

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY • The new group was called

the National Assembly.• Their goal was to draw up a

constitution for France in which the Third Estate could also have voting rights.

• The Second Estate saw this as an attempt to do away with the Old Order, and forced the king to crush the National Assembly.

• The king promised to do so.

• The National Assembly met in an indoor tennis court in Versailles.

• They swore to not break up the meeting until they had drawn up a constitutionfor France.

• This oath is known as the “Tennis Court Oath.”

Storming of the Bastile

• When the National Assembly was formed the peasants hoped that it would change the Old Order.

• When the king threatened to crush the Assembly

• They decided to take matters into their own hands.

• On 14 July 1789 hundreds of urban workers from Paris stormed the Bastille.

• They thought the fortress was full of weapons and they wanted to arm themselves.

• The fortress was a symbol of the Old Order, and when the masses captured it, it signified the end of the Old Order

• French Revolution was a fight for freedom from oppression and for equality of all people in France.

• The motto= “Liberty [Freedom], Equality and Fraternity”

• The events of the Revolution occurred over 10 years and can be divided into 3 stages.

French Revolution

The First Moderate Stage (1789-1791) • moderate phase, when the changes achieved

were not that big and with not much violence being inflicted.

• started when the urban masses stormed the Bastille

• peasants in the countryside joined in the revolution.

• They burning the manor houses of their landlords and destroying the feudal registers, proof on paper of the feudal relationship between the peasants and their landlords.