The French Revoution 1789
The French Revoution 1789
France before the revolution: TheThree Estates
Peasants
1st Estate
Louis XVI 2nd Estate
3rd Estate
Bourgeoisie
Workers
A. The First Estate: The Clergy
A tiny majority entitled to many privileges.
Less than 1% of population, owned 10% of the land.
Paid little or no tax.
Received a tithe from the third estate.
B. The Second Estate: The Nobility Born into money.
Attached to its privileges.
Opposed to changes in the system.
2% of the population, owned 20% of the land
Paid no taxes!
Received taxes (feudal dues) from the third estate.
C. The Third Estate: Everybody Else 97% of society Paid huge taxes but had few rights. Getting tired of injustices of the
old system. Included: ◦ Bourgeoisie- Middle Class, merchants
and artisans, leaders of the Rev., believed in enlightenment ideas.
◦ City workers-, low wages, often hungry. ◦ Peasants- 80% of population, poor,
mistreated, very high taxes.
Causes of the French Revolution
Ideas of liberty and equality from the American Revolution (note: Constitution was signed 2 yrs before in 1787)
Enlightenment ideas of John Locke
Unjust tax system.
Most of third Estate poor and hungry.
Majority were in the third estate.
Enlightenment thinking
Source D
The People should have power, 1775. ‘Man is born free. No man has any natural authority over others; force does not give anyone that right. The power to make laws belongs to the people and only to the
people.’ (a pamphlet, banned by the French
government in 1775, Jean Jacques Rousseau.)
King Louis XVI Queen Marie
Antoinette
A very beautiful
woman
She was unpopular
with the French
people
She was Austrian!
She referred to
her husband as
“The Poor Man”
•His grandfather Louis XIV was the ultimate “absolutist” king. •Very weak leader. •Became King at age of 15 (1774-1793) •Inherited debt from his father. •Gave money to help the Americans gain independence from Great Britain. •Would rather hunt or play with toys instead of rule the country.
The Estates General
France helped America in the American Rev.- cost a lot of money.
May 1789- Louis calls the Estates General to raise taxes. (An assembly of representatives from all three estates)
Each Estate got 1 vote- 1st and 2nd could always outvote the 3rd estate.
3rd Estate drew up a list of problems-the ‘cahiers’. NB. Unfair taxes.
Tennis Court Oath and National Assembly.
Delegates of the 3rd Estate kicked out of Estates General.
Broke into an indoor tennis court at Versailles.
Wanted a new constitution to give more power to the lower estate.
The king gave in and the National Assembly was formed.
Began to pass laws and reforms.
Tennis Court Oath
Assembly Reforms In France
Nobles join the NA out of fear, this gives it legitimacy
Declaration of the Rights of Man- “men are born and remain free and equal in rights.”
Modeled after Declaration of Independence Rights of free speech, religion and equal
justice “Rights of liberty, property, security and
resistance to oppression.” Did not apply to women The National Assembly took control of the
church. Now the church was run by the government
The assembly took church lands and sold them to pay off French debt
Declaration of the Rights of Man
National Assembly abolished privileges of clergy and nobles.
Also issued the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’
Main Points
Source B. THE DECLARATION OF THE
RIGHTS OF MAN (extract)
Men are born equal and remain free and equal in rights which are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression. Liberty is being able to do whatever does not harm others.
The law should express the will of
the people. All citizens have a right to take part personally, or through their
representatives, in the making of the law.
Sans Culottes-Storming the Bastille
Sans-culottes were the working people of Paris-suffering badly.
People wanted to gather weapons protect Paris and the National Assembly’ (formed National Guard)
July 14th, 1789 mob stormed the prison and weapons store (Bastille) and killed the kings guards.
Symbol of revolution. Bastille Day
The Great Fear
October 1789 A wave of senseless
panic Rumors start to fly
that the nobles are going to kill the peasants
Peasants became outlaws and attacked upper class citizens
Broke into houses and tore up legal papers and burned property
Women march on Versailles!
King Tries to Escape
Louis tried to escape to Austria-caught and returned to paris.
War with Austria & Prussia Early 1792 Foreign countries don’t
like revolution in France They think it may start
revolutions in their country.
Austrian army invade France and help save King Louis and family.
Capture and arrest
of Louis XVI, June
1791
‘Family of pigs brought back to Paris’
Death of the King
20,000 stormed the kings home, killed the Swiss guards and captured the king.
Louis XVI charged with “conspiring against the liberty of the nation.”
He was convicted and beheaded.
First time this has happened in Europe.
Source 2 – a description of the execution
by Bernard, a
supporter of Louis.
“Louis XVI lost his life on Monday at half past ten in the morning, and to the very last he maintained the greatest possible courage. He wished to speak to the people from the scaffold, but was seized by the executioners, who were following their orders,
and who pushed him straight under the fatal blade. He was able to speak only these words: ‘I forgive my enemies; I trust that my death will be for the happiness of my people, but I grieve for France and I fear that she may suffer the anger of the Lord.’ The King took of his coat himself at the foot of the scaffold, and when someone sought to help him he said cheerfully, ‘I do not need any help.’ He also refused help to climb onto the scaffold, and went up with a firm, brisk step.”
Mob and Gang Rule
Mob made of poor people
Leaders were Bourgeoisie
Jacobin-radical political club (gang)
Led by Maximillian Robespierre, Jean Paul Marat, Georges Danton
Reign of Terror
Maximilien Robespierre- gains control of power
He made laws that terrorised the French people.
Leader of Committee of Public Safety.
Became a Dictator Began killing people he
felt were against the republic.
Committee for Public Safety Robespierre decided who were
the enemies of the Republic
300,000 arrested.
16,000 – 50,000 executed.
People were tried in the morning and guillotined in the afternoon
Source 1: Decree by Convention, April
1793
on the Committee of Public Safety.
“The Committee shall talk in secret; it shall be
responsible for watching over the work of the
government…under the critical circumstances
it
is authorised to take measures to defend the
revolution against internal and external
enemies.”
Source 3: Extract from a law introduced by
the
Committee for Public Safety, 17th
September
1793, to deal with suspects brought to
tribunals.
“ Suspects shall be locked up…. The proof
necessary to convict enemies…can be any kind of
evidence….If proof already exists there need be
no further witnesses….The penalty for all
offences under the law of revolutionary tribunal is
death.”
Source 2: A painting of a
revolutionary tribunal.
CASE FILE: The Terror
Source 4: From theExecution Record, 1793.
A) - Jean-Baptiste Henry,
aged 18, journeyman tailor,
convicted of having sawn
down a tree of liberty,
executed 6th September,
1793.
B) – Marie Plaisant,
seamstress, convicted of
having exclaimed that she
was an aristocrat and that
she did not care a fig for
the nation, condemned to
death and executed the
same day.
C) - Henriette
Francoise Marboeuf,
aged 55, convicted
of having hoped for
the arrival of the
Austrians and
Prussians and of
keeping food for
them, condemned to
death and executed
the same day.
D) – Francois
Bertrand, aged
37, publican,
convicted of
having provided
the defenders
of the country
with sour wine,
condemned and
executed the
same day.
E) – Jean Julien,
wagoner having been
sentenced to twelve
years hard labour,
took it into his head
to cry ‘long live the
king’, brought back to
the Tribunal and
condemned to death.
End of the Reign of Terror
People get tired of Robespierre and his scare tactics
He, along with Marat are killed by the people.
Marat killed in his tub, Robespierre beheaded by the guillotine.
1795- New constitution gave power to the Directory and Legislature
Directory was a council of 5 men called directors
Ineffective so people look to army for leadership
They find Napoleon
Effects of the French Revolution
Both the King and Queen were beheaded
French monarchy no more
In addition to the Royal family, 17,000 people were executed with the guillotine.
Napoleon Bonaparte was elected leader, then appoints himself emperor of France.
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