The French Revolution

Detail From Triumph of Marat, Boilly, 1794 (Musee des Beaux-Arts)

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

The Three Estates Before the revolution the French

people were divided into three groups: – The first estate: Clergy– The second estate: Nobility– The third estate: the common people

(Merchants, urban workers, and peasants).

Legally the first two estates were the privileged class

The Three EstatesEstate Population Privileges Exemptions BurdensFirst •Circa 130,000

•High-ranking clergy

•Collected the tithe•Censorship of the press•Control of education•Kept records of births, deaths, marriages, etc.•Catholic faith held honored position of being the state religion (practiced by monarch and nobility)•Owned 20% of the land

•Paid no taxes•Subject to Church law rather than civil law

•Moral obligation (rather than legal obligation) to assist the poor and needy•Support the monarchy and Old Regime

Second

•Circa 110,000

•Nobles

•Collected taxes in the form of feudal dues•Monopolized military and state appointments•Owned 20% of the land

•Paid no taxes •Support the monarchy and Old Regime

Third •Circa 25,000,000

•Everyone else: artisans, bourgeoisie, city workers, merchants, peasants, etc., along with many parish priests

•None •None •Paid all taxes•Tithe (Church tax)•Octrot (tax on goods brought into cities)•Corvée (forced road work)•Capitation (poll tax)•Vingtiéme (income tax)•Gabelle (salt tax)•Taille (land tax)•Feudal dues for use of local manor’s winepress, oven, etc.

The Old Regime This cartoon from

the era of the French Revolution depicts the third estate as a person in chains, who supports the clergy and nobility on his back.

The Third Estate

The French Royalty

The royal family lived in luxury at the Palace of Versailles.

Louis XVI Queen Mary Antoinette

The Financial Crisis Reasons for Huge Debt :

– An inefficient and unfair tax structure, which placed the burden of taxation on those least able to pay, the third estate

– Aiding the Americans during the American Revolution– Long wars with England– Overspending

In this cartoon from the time, Louis is looking at the chests

and asks “Where is the tax money? The financial minister, Necker,

looks on and says “The money was there last time I looked.“ The nobles and clergy are sneaking out the door

carrying sacks of money, saying "We have it."

Calling the Estates General The King attempted to solve the financial crisis by

removing some of the nobles' tax exemptions. – However, the nobility saw themselves as special,

with better blood, and entitled to all of their class privileges.

– The Parlement, a judicial organization controlled by the nobility, invoked its powers to block the King's move.

He was forced reluctantly to call a meeting of the Estates General in 1788.

The Estates General had not met since 1614 Voting pattern in Estates General– Each estate had one vote– First and Second Estates could operate as a bloc to

stop the Third Estate from having its way– Third Estate demanded that each member has one

vote

The meeting of the Estates General May 5, 1789

Tennis Court Oath

Tennis Court Oath “Let us swear to

God and our country that we will not disperse until we have established a sound and just constitution, as instructed by those who nominated us.”

-M. Mounier

The Tennis Court Oath by Jacques Louis David

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

Declaration of the Rights of Man

"Men are born free and equal in their rights....These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.

The fundamental source of all sovereignty resides in the nation.

The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to take part personally, or through representatives, in the making of the law."

National Assembly (1789-1791) The National Assembly resolved the immediate financial crisis by:

– Seizing church lands – Putting the church under the control of the State with

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Clergymen were required to swear an oath to the new constitution

– Many refused to swear the oath and were placed under arrest.– The measure was very controversial to a nation of Catholics and drew

support away from the new government

Cartoon representation of the confiscation of church lands

Changes under the National Assembly

End of Feudalism

Abolition of special

privilegesConstitution of 1791

Declaration of the Rights

of Man

Equality before the

law (for men)

Many nobles left France and

became known as émigrés

Reforms in local

government

Taxes levied based on the ability to pay

The Constitution of 1791

Conditions in Paris Conditions were poor in Paris for the common people.

– The price of bread was high and supplies were short due to harvest failures.

– Rumors spread that the King and Queen were responsible for the shortages

Then French troops marched to the capital. – Rumors spread quickly among the already restless mobs that

the King was intending to use them against the people. – The dismissal of the Finance Minister Necker, who was popular

with the third estate, ignited the spark. 

In Search for the arms, the Mobs Stormed the Bastille Prison on July 14, 1789

People organized their own government which they called the Commune

It was a great symbolic event, one which is still celebrated in France every year

 

The Fall of the Bastille

Liberated prisoners parading later in the day

The Great Fear By the end of July there were riots in the countryside. Nobles were attacked Records of feudal dues and owed taxes were destroyed Many nobles fled the country – became known as

émigrés Louis XVI was forced to fly the new tricolor flag of

France

Peasants riot in the countryside French Tri Colour

The Night of August 4 The National Assembly responded to the Great Fear. On the Night of

August 4, 1789, one by one members of the nobility and clergy rose to give up:– Feudal dues– Serfdom– The tithe– Personal privileges.

In one night feudalism was destroyed in France. 

The National Assembly on the night of August 4, 1789

Medallion commemorating the Night of August 4, the end of feudalism in France

Women’s March to Versailles Parisian Commune feared that Louis XVI would have foreign troops

invade France to put down the rebellion– Louis XVI’s wife, Marie Antoinette, was the sister of the Austrian

emperor On October 4, 1789, a crowd of women, demanding bread for their

families, marched toward Versailles. Under pressure from the National Guard, the King also agreed to

return to Paris with his wife and children Royal family spent next few years in the Tuileries Palace in Paris as

virtual prisoners

Women’s March to Versailles King’s return to Paris

Legislative Assembly (1791-1792)• Royal family sought help from Austria– In June, 1791, they were caught trying to escape to

Austria• Nobles who fled the revolution lived abroad as émigrés– They hoped that, with foreign help, the Old Regime

could be restored in France• Church officials wanted Church lands, rights, and

privileges restored– Some devout Catholic peasants also supported the

Church• Political parties, representing different interests,

emerged– Girondists– Jacobins

Legislative Assembly (1791-1792

The San-Culottes At the beginning of the revolution, the

working men of Paris allowed the revolutionary Middle class to lead them.

But by 1790 the sans-culottes were beginning to be politically active in their own right. – They were called sans-culottes (literally,

without trousers) because the working men wore loose trousers instead of the tight knee breeches of the nobility.

– Eventually sans culottes came to refer to any revolutionary citizen.

The sans culottes The bourgeoisie

Mob placing the red cap of liberty on the King's head at the Tuileries

Convention (1792-95) After the Incident at the Tuileries palace, all the people above the

age of 21 got the right to vote irrespective of wealth The newly elected assembly called as Convention The Convention abolished the monarchy and Established the First

French Republic The National Convention decided to put Louis on trial for his crimes.

– Although his guilt was never an issue, there was a real debate in the Convention on whether the king should be killed.

– They voted for his execution. – Louis XVI and his wife were guillotined on January 21, 1793

• Faced opposition from abroad– Austria, England, Holland, Prussia, Sardinia, and Spain formed

a Coalition invading France• Convention drafted Frenchmen into the army to defeat the foreign

Coalition– These troops were led by General Carnot– The people supported military operations because they did not want

the country back under the Old Regime

The execution of Louis XVI

Georges-Jacques Danton:  "Boldness and again boldness, and always boldness"

Two Radical Groups During the constitutional monarchy there were two radical groups

vying for power, the Girondins and the Jacobins. Although both groups were more radical in their views than the

moderates who had designed the constitutional monarchy, the Girondins were somewhat less radical.

In late 1791, the Girondins first emerged as an important power in France.

United in their views– Declare war on Monarchy Set up of Other Countries– Spread the Ideas of French Revolution

When the constitutional monarchy fell and he King was put on trial for treason in December, the Girondins argued against his execution.

The Jacobins thought he needed to die to ensure the safety of the revolution.

When the Jacobins were successful the tide turned against the Girondins.

The Jacobins in the National Convention had 22 Girondin leaders arrested and executed. The Jacobins had won.

Reign of Terror:September 5, 1793-July 27, 1794

• Despite military successes, the Convention continued to face problems domestically

• Danton and his Jacobin political party came to dominate French politics

• Committee of Public Safety– Headed by Danton (and later Robespierre)– Those accused of treason were tried by the Committee’s

Revolutionary Tribunal– Approximately 15,000 people died on the guillotine

• Guillotine became known as the “National Razor”• Public executions were considered educational. Women were

encouraged to sit and knit during trials and executions• Members of the Girondist political party tried to end the Reign of

Terror initiated by the Jacobin political party– This opposition to the Committee of Public Safety caused many

Girondists to be tried and executed for treason

"Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible"

Maximilien Robespierre

The Last Victim of the Reign of Terror

Even the radical Jacobins, the supporters of Robespierre, come to feel that the Terror must be stopped. – Danton rose in the Convention calling for an end

to the Terror. He was its next victim. – When Robespierre called for a new purge in

1794, he seemed to threaten the other members of the Committee of Public Safety.

The Jacobins had had enough. – Cambon rose in the Convention and said “It is

time to tell the whole truth. One man alone is paralyzing the will of the Convention. And that man is Robespierre.”

– Others quickly rallied to his support. – Robespierre was arrested and sent to the

guillotine the next day, the last victim of the Reign of Terror. 

Government under the Directory

•5 directors appointed by the Legislature

Executive

•Lower house (500 members) proposed laws•Upper house (250 members) voted on these laws•2/3 of the Legislature would initially be filled by members of the Convention

Legislature

•Girondists (middle-class party) had defeated the Jacobins (working- and peasant-class party)•Girondists’ constitution stated that suffrage (the right to vote), as well as the right to hold office, were limited to property owners

Qualifications

Directory (1795-1799)The Directory suffered from corruption and poor administration.

The people of France grew poorer and more frustrated with their government.

Despite, or perhaps because of, these struggles, the French developed a strong feeling of nationalism – they were proud of their country and devoted to it.

National pride was fueled by military successes.

It would be a military leader – Napoleon Bonaparte, coming to power through a coup who would end the ten-year period (1789-1799) known as the French Revolution.

Napoleon Bonaparte The people readily

accepted the coup of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799.

Napoleon set out to conquer neighboring European Countries

Finally Defeated at Waterloo in 1815