The French Revolution. Prerevolutionary France History –110 years of war to expand French influence and territory –XIV lives extravagantly = DEBT –Builds.

The French Revolution

Prerevolutionary France• History

– 110 years of war to expand French influence and territory

– XIV lives extravagantly = DEBT

– Builds Palace of Versailles (Arts)

– Spanish Succession (Prevention of the union of French and Spanish throne)

– League of Augsburg

• Political – King/Queen had absolute

power

– Believed in Divine Right

– Nobles dependent upon King

• Lived in palace = didn’t oversee land at home

• Intendants (gov’t people) collected taxes, administered justice and reported directly to the king

Prerevolutionary France• Beliefs and Values

– 3rd Estate ?ed status quo

– Catholic Beliefs = Support Clergy

– Edict of Nantes (Religious Tolerance) cancelled

– Huguenot’s (French Protestants) fled

• Culture– Palace of Versailles =

small city

– Expensive clothing

– 500 cooks, waiters and servants

– Aided the Arts (Glorifying the King

Place of Versailles

Prerevolutionary France• Social

– Society divided into 3 estates

• First - Clergy – Nobles families = no

taxes

– Priests

• Second – 2% Nobility– Received gifts from

king

– Pd little taxes

• Third – 98% Peasants– Largest group

– Heavily taxed

• Economic– Financial crisis

• Due to wars and extravagant lifestyle of king

– High Taxes pd by peasants to pay for kings wants/debt

– Crops fail = prices soar

– Merchantilist used policies to control economy

• Prevents wealth from leaving

• Sell more than bought

King Louis XVI

• Who am I?– I was the king of

France

• When did I reign?– During the 1770s and

1780s

• Who was my Queen?– Marie Antoinette, from

Austria

Three estates • First Estate- Catholic Clergy owned 10% land

• Second Estate – Rich Nobles (2% population) owned 20% land

• Third Estate –Peasants (97% working class)

• 1st and 2nd Estates use the 3rd (1780s)– Doubling the nation’s debt, banks refuse to lend more money.

• 50% budget goes to interest payments• 25% goes for military expenses• 6% spent for Versailles life-style

– As a result, taxes are raised

Meeting of the Estates General

• King XVI calls for a meeting to solve financial crisis

• Haven’t met since 1614

• King calls for cahiers (List of grievances)

• Representatives from all three estates attend

• 3rd Estate dissatisfied create a National Assembly

Tennis Court Oath

• Third Estate refused to conduct business under rule by order– Wanted all three estates as a single representative body

• Adopt title of National Assembly and became the true representative body of France (Clergy joined on June 19th)

• Locked out, members of National Assembly move to Tennis Court on June 20th because of “repairs” being done in the hall– Purpose: write a new constitution for France (1789)– Result: constitutional monarchy accepted by king in 1791

– Lawmaking power in hands of Natl. Assembly– King still head of state with veto power– Tried to solve financial problems by taking land of Catholic Church and

nobles who fled France

Tennis Court Oath

Storming of the Bastille

• Built in the 1300s, imprisoned those ordered by the king

• Symbol of royal abuse of power• Rumor of attack on Paris by King’s army

– On July 14, 1789 mob seize weapons & march to the Bastille (Prison)

– Soldiers at Bastille fire on crowds (100 died)

• Symbol of the beginning of the revolution– Declarations of the Rights of Citizen and Man by August

• Stated that all male citizens were equal before the law

Conquerors of the Bastille

March on Versailles

• Great Fear – attacks by peasants – Destroying legal papers

• Financial crisis grows– More hunger and unemployment

• On Oct. 5th 7000 women march 12 miles to Versailles demanding bread– King promises bread and to go back to Paris with them

March on Versailles

Bringing about change• King signs Constitution of 1791 limiting the

monarchy – Falling currency values, rising prices, and food stortage

cause turmoil

– Émigrés – nobles who fled, wanted Old Regime

– Sans-culottes (working men and women) wanted change (gained support by the Jacobins)

• National Convention is elected 1792– Legislative Assembly – power to create laws, reject or

approve declarations of war• Divide into Radicals, moderates, amd conservatives

Radicals Gain Control

• Jacobins (radical political organization) take control

• King is tried, found guilty of treason and executed by guillotine (beheaded people)

• The Declaration of Pilnitz: France continues the Revolution to fight off Austria and Prussia

Rise of a Dictator

• Maximilien Robespierre calls for measures to save France from enemies (Build a republic of virtue)– Leader of the Committee for Public Safety

• Job was to protect the Revolution from its enemies

• Revolutionary courts set up to try citizens for treason including Marie Antoinette

• Reign of Terror – 2 yrs. 40,000+ executed– 85% of those that die are the middle or lower class– Ends with Robespierre’s execution

Napoleon Bonaparte

• Directory takes control for 5 years after Robespierre’s death

• Napoleon seizes control from Directory– Rules for 15 years as dictator and emperor

• Turns France into centrally controlled police state

• Maintained moderate reforms

• Abolished feudal privileges

• Secured advances of the middle class and peasants

• Abdicated in 1814