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Political Revolutions
The French Revolution
Causes of the French Revolution
• “Never was any such event so inevitable yet so completely unforeseen.”
• Alexis de Tocqueville
Causes
• Social Tensions of the Ancien Regime (Old Order)• Conditions of French Society prior to 1789• Inequalities enshrined into law
• First Estate• Second Estate• Third Estate
Causes
• Economic Struggles• Rising prices throughout 18th century• Poor harvests in late 1780s
Causes
• The new political ideas of the Enlightenment
• Political powerlessness of the bourgeoisie
Causes
• Growth of a popular press• Marie Antoinette
• Weakness of the monarchy• Louis XV – “Après moi, le deluge.”• Louis XVI
Short-term Cause
• Virtual collapse of the government’s finances
• Calling of the Estates-general in 1789
First Stage
• Calling of Estates-general led to a series of problems and events that eventually spiraled out of control of the King• Rising expectations of various groups• Issue of voting procedures
• Third Estate to National Assembly (June 17th)
• Tennis Court Oath
First Stage
• Destruction of Royal Authority and Old Order• Parisian mob storms the Bastille (July 14,
1789)• Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
Citizen• Church land is seized
End of First Stage
• King flees in June of 1791 and is captured• European leaders fear direction of
revolution• War and invasion leads to radical stage
Second Stage
• Girondins v. Jacobins• Committee of Public Safety• Reign of Terror
• Guillotine and the execution of the King and his family
• Universal mobilization
Third Stage
• Radical nature of the second stage leads to a period of reaction
• Establishment of the Directory• Period of economic collapse, political
corruption and intrigue by Royalists• Ends with coup d'état by Napoleon