The French Revolution

The French Revolution

AP European History

Impact of the American Revolution

• British greatest colonial power by 1763

• Declaration affirmed Enlightenment ideals

• French supported American patriots

• American ideals influenced French

• More rebellion than a revolution

Social Orders of the Old Regime

• First Estate – The Clergy • Second Estate – The

Nobility• Third Estate – Everyone

Else• Conflict not entirely b/c

of class tensions – rising aristocratic and noble elite were frustrated with absolute monarchy

• Social orders and Old Regime no longer relevant

Other Problems Facing the French Monarchy

• Bad harvests in 1787, 1788 = famine

• Ideas of the philosophes

• Financial crisis – costly wars & royal extravagance

• Convening of the Estates-General, 1788

Quick Write

• What were the long-range and immediate causes of the French Revolution?

From Estates-General to a National Assembly

• Immediate financial crisis gathering of Estates General

• Most men elected to E-G liberal, legally minded, urban

• Cahiers de doleances

• Parlement of Paris ruled 1 estate = 1 vote

• June 17th, 1789 – Third Estate voted themselves the “National Assembly”

• June 20th, 1789 – Tennis Court Oath

• King did not acknowledge validity of NA, but made other reforms

MCQ Drill

1. The controversy over voting by order rather than voting by head in the Estates-General led eventually toa) A motion by the Nobles of the Robe to

adjournb) A move by “lovers of liberty” to stop all

votingc) The expulsion of the Third Estated) The withdrawal of the Third Estate to form a

National Assemblye) Direct intervention by Louis XVI

Angry Peasants!

• Hunger + anger + rumors = angry peasant mob!

• July 14th, 1789 – Storming of the Bastille

• King losing royal authority

• Summer 1789 – Great Fear

Read About It

• Read The Fall of the Bastille on p. 583 in your textbook and answer the question and the end of the reading.

Destruction of the Old Regime

• Great Fear galvanized Nat’l Assembly into pushing reforms

• Aug. 27th, 1789 – Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

• Olympe de Gouges – What about women?

• Jean-Paul Marat & The Friend of the People

• Oct. 5th, 1789 – Women’s March on Versailles

• July, 1790 – Civil Constitution of the Clergy

• Constitution of 1791 Constitutional Monarchy

• June 1791 – Flight of the Monarchy

• Aug. 1791 – Declaration of Pillnitz

• Oct. 1791 – National Assembly now Legislative Assembly

• Resistance and radicalization Jacobin club

• April 1792 – War against the First Coalition

Read and Discuss

• Read Opposing Viewpoints: The Natural Rights of the French People: Two Views and discuss the questions at the end of the reading with your group members.

The Radical Revolution

• Rise of the sans-culottes

• Aug. 1792 – Attack on Tuileries Palace

• Sept. 1792 – September Massacres

• Sept. 1792 – New National Convention– Maximillien

Robespierre– Georges Danton

• Jan. 21st, 1793 – Louis XVI executed

• June 1793 – Expulsion of the Girondins

• July 1793 – Committee of Public Safety

• Aug. 23, 1793-1794 – Levee en Masse

• 1793-1794 – Reign of Terror

• De-Christianization & the old calendar

• July 1794 – Execution of Robespierre

MCQ Drill

1. Historians have noted that the French Revolutionary Armya) Helped create the modern concept of

nationalismb) Initiated the modern system of officer training

and rankingc) Perfected the techniques and ethics of total ward) Began the radical practice of showing no mercy

to prisonerse) Was used only to defend France when it was

attacked

MCQ Drill

1. In its attempt to “preserve” the revolution from its internal enemies, the Committee of Public Safetya) Singled out the nobility for total annihilationb) Brutally crushed cities that rebelled against

the governmentc) Used the guillotine only on members of the

lower classd) Considered restoring the Bourbons to powere) Relied on the moral persuasion of the clergy

Foreign Reaction to the French Revolution

• Edmund Burke – Reflection on the Revolution in France

• Mary Wollstonecraft – A Vindication of the Rights of Man/Woman

Thermidorian Reaction

• Reaction against extremity & fanaticism of Terror

• Churches reopened, religious toleration

• Laissez-faire economics adopted • New constitution of 1795• Cultural & material reaction

The Directory

• Executive authority of 5 men

• Challenges from Parisians & extremists

• Directly dependent on military for survival

• 1799 - Coup d’etat led by Napoleon

Draw It

• Create a mind map with your group mates that attempts to answer the following question:

• What were the main events of the French Revolution between 1789 and 1799? What role did each of the following play in the French Revolution: lawyers, peasants, women, the clergy, the Jacobins, the sans-culottes, the French Revolutionary army, and the Committee of Public Safety?