French Revolution & Napoleon Ch. 11. The Three Estates First Estate The Church Second Estate Rich Nobles Third Estate- everyone else Bourgeoisie- merchants,

French Revolution & Napoleon

Ch. 11

The Three Estates

First Estate The Church

Second Estate Rich Nobles

Third Estate- “everyone else” Bourgeoisie- merchants, well-educated, paid high taxes Cooks, Servants- were paid low wages, frequently out of work Peasants- half of income went to nobles, tithes, & taxes

The Rulers Louis XVI

Liked to spend time hunting instead of governing

Marie Antoinette From Austria (France’s

enemy) Madame Deficit- spent

a lot of money on gowns, jewels, gifts, and loved gambling

The Revolution is coming!

People began to use the words like equality, liberty, democracy The success of the American

Revolution inspired them

Causes: heavy burden of taxes High cost of living Bad weather caused crop failures

Price of bread doubles

The Estates-General

Louis XVI tried to tax the

Second Estatecalled a meeting

of the representatives of the three estates

The Estates-General continued..

Under medieval law- each estate would meet in a separate room & vote

3rd. Estate always outvoted They establish the National Assembly

Proclaimed the end of absolute monarchy & the beginning of a representative govt.

Tennis Court Oath National Assembly was locked out of their meeting room one day Broke onto a

tennis court (hand-ball court)

Pledged to stay until a constitution was written

Storming of the Bastille

Louis XVI stationed an army in Paris

Rumors flew that the troops were going to massacre the citizens

July 14- a mob tried to get weapons/gunpowder from the Bastille (a Paris prison) Freed a few prisoners,

killed the guards Symbolic act of

revolution! July 14- French

equivalent to our July 4

The Revolution Brings Reform & Terror

The National Assembly reforms FranceAug. 1789- the

peasants took away all the power of the 1st & 2nd. Estates (& took over church lands)

A “sans-culotte”

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen Statement of revolutionary ideals

adopted by the National Assembly Men are born & remain free &

equal Preservation of the natural

rights of men- life, property, security, & resistance to oppression

Liberté, égalité, fraternité- became the slogan of the Revolution

(Liberty, Equality, Fraternity)

The Great Fear Rebellion spread Mobs broke into

noble‘s houses; burned their service papers & the houses

March on Versailles

Oct. 1789- Parisian women rioted over the high cost of bread Approx. 6,000 women (and some men joined) Took approx. 6 hours to walk from Paris to Versailles Marched on Versailles & forced Louis XVI and his family to go

to Paris-------------------------------------------------------------------------- During their stay in Paris, the King and his family tried to

escape (disguised as peasants), but they were caught & brought back to Paris

Legislative Assembly Created a limited constitutional monarchy-

stripped the king of his authority & L.A. had the power to create lawsDespite this new govt., old problems still

remained:

1. Food Shortages

2. Debt

Legislative Assembly Radicals (“the left”, “The Mountain”)

Opposed the king & monarchy

Moderates (“the middle”)- wanted some changesin govt, but not as much as the radicals

Conservatives (“the right”, “Girondins”) Wanted a limited monarchy & few changes in govt.

The Mountain & Girondins- Formed the Jacobin Club

The Death of the King

National Convention met

in Paris (Sept. 1792)-

abolished the monarchy & declared France a republic (all males had the right to vote)

Louis XVI put on trial for treason, found guilty, & beheaded by the guillotine (Jan. 21, 1793)

The Guillotine http://www.guillotine.dk/

Execution device Used to execute EVERYONE

in an equal manner (in a humane way) More people executed by the guillotine from the

3rd estate than the others (the same people the Revolution was supposedly carried out for)

The Reign of Terror July 1793-July 1794

Committee of Public Safetydecided who was an

enemy of the republicTried people in the

morning & executed them in the afternoon

Danton & Robespierre- leaders of the Committee

Reign of Terror continued… Most famous victim- Queen

Marie Antoinette 3,000 were executed in

Paris (40,000 overall) 85% were peasants/middle

class

*Members of the National Convention turned on Danton & later Robespierre (they were executed)-Robespierre’s execution officially ended the Reign of Terror

The Directory 1795- new plan

of govt. created Upper-middle

class with a two house legislature & an executive body of five men

Napoleon Bonaparte part of that executive body