The Cattywampus Review of the French

Revolution

Made for the people who didn’t study By the people who didn’t study

(AKA: Jess & Chels)

From 1789 to 1794

So you waited until the last minute to study…

again. Even after you promised yourself that you would study after bombing the last AP Euro test.

But as a warning this is only a Cattywampus review which is defined as: In disarray or disorder; askew. So unless you have been paying attention in class things may not make sense and you might be even more lost than you were before

Disclaimer

4. The American Revolution debt, which was

being paid off by the peasants who already couldn’t afford anything (see 5)

5. There was also a famine going on at this time, which caused bread prices to become ridiculously high, meaning the peasants couldn’t eat

Causes of the French Revolution

1. There was an increase in the population before

the revolution, as well as France being in ruin from the war with the English

2. In 1774, Louis XVI was crowned King of France, but Louis was not a great king, and really wasn’t able to make decisions by himself

3. Enlightened Ideals (Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Voltaire were all French)

Causes of the French Revolution

Now that we have some general causes here’s what you

should know:

In France at this time the legislative assembly was made of three other estates which them formed what they called the Estates General.

1. First Estate – The Aristocrats & Nobility (about 2% of the population of France)

2. Second Estate – The Clergy (about 1% of the population)3. Third Estate – The Peasants (about 97% of the population)

Estates

So in 1789, the nobles tell Louis XVI that

things in France aren’t going so well and he should really try to fix them by calling the Estates General. Because Louis is so easily influenced by other people, he goes for it.

So after 175 years, the Estates General are called and the Representatives try to figure out a way to fix the mess that France is at the moment (debt & revolting Paris)

Estates General - 1789

That’s where we meet this guy as a representative for

the 3rd Estate:

Maximilien Robespierre Remember when you caught a really

weak Pokémon and kinda forgot about ituntil all of a sudden it came out of

nowhere and allowed you to beat the Gym Leader?

Yeah. That’s this guy. Don’t forget him.He’s important.

Estates General

So the upper two Estates are getting really sick and

tired of hearing people like Robespierre try and get equal rights for peasants, so they decide one day to just lock them out of the Estates meeting and decide on what they want without them because they can.

Only two of the three Estates need to agree on something before it can be passed, but the King can veto whatever he wants because, face it, he’s the king.

Estates General

This leads us to June of 1789, and the Tennis

Court Oath.

After discovering that they’d been kicked out they meet at a handball court in Versailles and decide that they want a new French Constitution, to form a new assembly (The National Assembly) and say that the majority should decide what the people want, not the upper classes

Tennis Court Oath – June 1789

This is when the peasants realize that they

don’t need a king or nobility to rule them because they can rule themselves and become masters of their own destiny.

Tennis Court Oath

While everything else has been happening,

the population of Paris has been revolting over the bread prices

Now in the beginning of June the king sends around 30,000 soldiers to try and stop the revolts

In retaliation of this the people form The National Guard to try and fight the soldiers being brought in

Storming of the Bastille – July 14th

1789

Jacque Necker was the new financial

minister that was appointed by Louis XVI. But he was for trying to lower taxes on the peasants so he was booted.

This upset the majority, and caused them to storm the Bastille, which was a prison where the king threw prisoners in for any number of reasons. The people viewed this as a symbol of the King’s oppression and therefore stormed it and took it over

Storming of the Bastille

CONSIDERED THE STARTING

DATE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

JULY 14TH 1789

The newly formed National Assembly created this

document which abolished the privileges of the nobility and removed the idea of social classes.

This is a fundamental document of the French Revolution, defining the individual and collective rights of all the estates as universal. Influenced by the doctrine of "natural right", the rights of man are held to be universal: valid at all times and in every place, pertaining to human nature itself.

The Declaration of Man and Citizen -

1789

Jean-Paul Marat is another important guy in

the French Revolution

He was a writer who was couldn’t write under Louis XVI’s censorship

and ended up with a hatred of loyalists. He also had a skin condition

which is important when his death comes around.

“L’ami du peuple”

So Marat in his newspaper calls people to revolt

again before the King can prepare his army to try and stop the Revolution

The Women (who were basically fish mongers), marched to Versailles and demanded food for their families

By the end of the day around 60,000 people where there and they had put guards heads on pikes to wave at Marie-Antoinette and her kids

Women’s March on Versailles – October 5th

1789

The symbol of France is Marianne, who is

suppose to be one of the fish mongers who marched on Versailles.

Interesting Fact

Fed up with France being ruled by an absolute

monarch the National Assembly decides to try being a Constitutional Monarchy instead

They force Louis XVI and his family to stay at Versailles and they limit his power

France as a Constitutional Monarchy

In 1791, the Austrian armies are closing in on

France, so the monarchs try to escape.

They get about 62 miles away from the Austrian border before they are found and dragged back to Paris where they are kept prisoners in the Tuileries

Marat calls the King and the Queen traitors and calls for their death and a creation of a Republic

The Escape of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI

THE BEGINNING DATE FOR THE

REIGN OF TERROR

August 10th 1792

Now in France with the end of the Monarchy back in August

we have three major political parties:

1. The Girondins – What we would call the more moderate Republicans. They still wanted France to be a Republic just minus all the death

2. The Jacobins – The Radical Republicans and the party of Robespierre (who had started to control the Revolution)

3. The Sans-Culottes – This was everybody else who wasn’t part of the other two parties and controlled Paris

The Girondins, Jacobins & the Sans-

Culottes

Remember how the Austrians and the French were at

war, and therefore a lot of the population was away fighting leaving Paris empty?

Well the Sans-Culottes had a whole bunch of prisoners locked away, and fearing that the Austrians would arrive and free them all they killed around 1,600 people

When the rest of Europe saw this they were shocked at how bloody the Revolution was and hoped it would not spread to their own country

The Massacre by the Sans-Culottes - 1792

To both appease the population and save the

Revolution, Robespierre decided that the King need to be tried for treason

But the Girondins wanted the Convention to forgive the King and spare his life, but the Jacobins refused

On January 21st 1793, Louis XVI was guillotined

The Execution of Louis XVI – January

21st 1793

Paris was the main center for much of the

violence but the rest of the country was starting to be freaked out by how many people were dying in this Revolution

So the counter revolutions started where they wanted a Republic, but just less death

Marat now began to publish names of the counter revolutionaries and called for deaths as well

Counter Revolutions

Charlotte Corday was a counter

revolutionary who believed that if she killed Marat that the publishing of names of people who were “against” the revolution would stop as well

Instead after she killed him, he became a martyr of the Revolution and the executions continued on

The Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat – July

1793

This picture isto try and makeMarat look like

Jesus and show how his death only made him

a martyr

On October 16th 1793 the Queen of France was

executed on the grounds of treason by Robespierre

The Execution of Marie-Antoinette

The fear of the Austrian, English and Prussian

armies was causing unrest in France, so Robespierre installed Marshall Law in France

Now any words spoken against the revolution were considered a crime and punished by being guillotined

This is when the Revolution beings to devour itself

The Intuition of Marshall Law in France - 1793

The Convention was now the governing body of the

French Revolution, but Robespierre wanted to form something that would allow him more control over the Revolution

The Committee of Public Safety 1. Had only 12 members on it2. Increased the Terror 3. Suppressed the ideas that had started the Revolution

such as the Declaration of Rights and Man

The Committee of Public Safety

Starts on April 5th 1794 when Robespierre

decides that since Danton (his partner in crime) is seemingly to want the violence to end has him guillotined

This leaves only Robespierre in charge now and plunges France into a period know as The Grand Terror

The Grand Terror - 1794

Robespierre had complete control over France

as well as the Revolution

So he creates what he calls the Republic of Virtue, which means:

1. That every citizen must somehow help the construction of France

2. But the idea of Terror still stays, because this will cause more people to work for France

The Republic of Virtue

Just in one month around 1,000 people were killed just in Paris

during this time

Anybody who spoke out against the Republic of Virtue or didn’t help in social or military efforts for France was considered a traitor and killed

Robespierre calls a himself the “Supreme Being” and beings to think of himself as God ruling over France

This worries the Committee of Public Safety and the Convention (National Assembly) , who are too afraid to stop him

The Grand Terror – June & July 1794

On July 27th, Robespierre tells the Convention that

he has a list of names of people who are traitors and will name them tomorrow before they are guillotined

Fearing for their lives they find Robespierre and arrest him and judge him as a traitor himself

But he tries and fails in killing himself, so they rush the trial along so he can be guillotined

The Death of Robespierre – July 27th

1794

His death marks the end of the Grand Terror as

well as the end of the French Revolution itself

The Death of Robespierre

The French Revolution ended the European feudal

system and forever changed Civilization in Western Europe

It put an end to the oldest monarchy in Europe

For the first time in history the masses realized that they could rule themselves instead of having a King

It started other Revolutions (Russia, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)

Conclusion