What to know about the French Revolution… What were the Three Estates? How did each feel about the Enlightenment? Why did the Third Estate resent the other.

What to know about the French Revolution…

• What were the Three Estates? How did each feel about the Enlightenment?

• Why did the Third Estate resent the other two?• How did the Enlightenment inspire the Third Estate?• What was bad about the economy?• How did Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette make things

worse?• What was the National Assembly?• What was the Tennis Court Oath?• What was the storming of the Bastille?• What was the Great Fear?

The French Revolution

The Three Estates

First Estate

• Roman Catholic clergy

• Anti-Enlightenment

• Less than 1% of population

• Owned 10% of the land

Second Estate

• Rich nobles• High government

offices• Anti-Enlightenment• 2% of population• Owned 20% of the

land• Paid few taxes

Third Estate

• Bourgeoisie – wealthy middle class who paid high taxes; well-educated (bankers, merchants)

• Urban lower class – laborers who were often out of work

• Peasants – Paid high taxes• No power to influence government• Embraced the Enlightenment• Resented wealthy upper classes• 97% of population

Spread of Enlightenment

• Members of Third Estate inspired by American Revolution

• Influenced by Enlightenment ideals

Economic Trouble

• Taxes too much of a burden

• High cost of living• Bad weather had

caused crop failure• Price of bread doubled

in 1789• Government in debt• Borrowed money to

fight Britain

Weak Leadership

• Louis XVI indecisive, lack of interest in governing

• Wasteful spending

Marie Antoinette

• Queen • Unpopular because

she was Austrian• Interfered in gov’t

affairs• Spent money on

luxuries for herself• Known as “Madame

Deficit”

Meeting of Estates-General

• May 5, 1789 - Versailles

• Louis XVI calls meeting of representatives from all three estates to get approval for a new tax

• First meeting in 175 years

• Members of each estate meet and vote separately – one vote per estate

• First two estates usually outvote the Third

National Assembly

• Third Estate demands more power• Name themselves the National Assembly

and pass laws of reform• Locked out of meeting room• Break down door to indoor tennis court• Refuse to leave until a new constitution is

drawn – Tennis Court Oath• Joined by nobles and clergy who want

reform

Tennis Court Oath

Storming the Bastille

• July 14, 1789 – Mob storms the Bastille, a prison, overwhelming the guards

• Hacked the prison commander and guards to death

• Parade through streets with heads on pikes

• Becomes known as Bastille Day, the start of the revolution

The Great Fear

• Panic grows as rebellion spreads through France; peasants fear retribution by nobles

• Peasants destroy nobles’ homes

• Mob of women march on Versailles, killing guards

• King, family, and servants leave their palace

War

• Monarchs of Austria and Prussia urge France to restore monarch

• Legislative Assembly declares war• Prussian commander threatens to destroy Paris

if royal family is harmed• Royal guards killed, royal family taken prisoner• Paris troops sent to reinforce army• Nobles, priests and royalist sympathizers being

held prisoner are killed because of fear of counter-revolution

The National Convention

• Constitution of 1791 set aside

• King deposed• Assembly broken up; new

elections to be held• Abolished the monarchy

and declared France a republic

• Adult male citizens given right to vote and hold office

Jacobins

• Radical political organization

• Jean-Paul Marat– Edited newspaper– Called for the death of

royal supporters

• Georges Danton– Skillful orator– Supporter of the poor

Robespierre

• Robespierre, Jacobin leader, gains power

• Tries to establish “republic of virtue”– Eliminate anything

from France’s past– Changed calendar;

eliminated Sunday

Trial of Louis XVI

• National Convention puts Louis XVI on trial for treason - Sentenced to death

War (cont’d)

• French achieve victory against Prussia and Austria at Battle of Valmy

• Great Britain, Holland, Spain join against France

• Jacobins draft 300,000 French citizens

The Reign of Terror• Robespierre establishes

Committee of Public Safety to protect revolution from its enemies

• Troubled by fellow radicals who challenged his leadership

• 1794 – Danton and Marie Antoinette executed

• 40,000 executed; 85% from lower class

End of Terror

• July 1794 – Robespierre arrested

• Executed on July 28, 1794

• New plan of government • Two-house legislature• The Directory – executive

body of 5 men• Established sense of

order