The French Revolution1787 - 1799

• New ideas about society and government

• The social contract

• Religious Freedom

• All questioned the authority and legitimacy of the Monarchy

The Enlightenment

Voltaire

Rousseau

• France supported the colonists against Great Britain

• Revolutionary ideals • If the US break away

from the strongest empire so could the National Assembly

The American Revolution

Marquis de Lafayette

• Absolute monarchs didn’t share power with a counsel or parliament

• “Divine Right of Kings”

Absolutism

King James I of England

• Reduced the power of the nobility

• Fought four wars

• Greatly increased France’s national debt

Louis XIV

• Louis XV

• War fought in Europe, India, North America French Indian War

• Increases French national debt

The Seven Years’ War (French Indian War)

Louis XV

Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette

• Louis - Weak Leader

• Marie – Seen as uncaring (Madam Deficit)

• Excusive Spending

• First Estate: clergy

• Second Estate: nobility

• Third Estate: the rest of society

• Bourgeoisie Merchants Middle Class

The Three Estates

Cartoon depicting the three Estates

• Taxation

• Crop failures

• Strict class system

Problems of the Third Estate

• Neckler supports property tax on the Church and Nobility.

• Calling of the Estates General Meeting

Financial Crisis

Finance Minister Jacques Necker supporter of the third estate

• One vote per estate

• Clergy and nobility usually joined together to outvote the Third Estate

• Met in Versailles in May 1789

• After 6 weeks3rd Estate Locked out

The Estates General

A meeting of the Estates General

• Louis XVI ordered the Third Estate locked out of the National Assembly’s meeting hall

• The Tennis Court OathVow to form a Constitution

Artist Jacques Louis David’s depiction of the Tennis Court Oath

Tennis Court Oath

• The Third Estate took action and established its own government

• On June 17, 1789, the National Assembly was formed

3rd Estate Forms a New Government:

The National Assembly

• Adopted by National Assembly on August 27th

• Enlightenment ideals

• Outlined basic freedoms held by all

• Asserted the sovereignty of the people

• “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

• 1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

• 2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

• 3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation.

•Firing of Financial Minister Louis Necker•July 14th: a mob storms and takes the Bastille. •Gun powder and symbol of oppression

Storming of the Bastille

• Lower classes still unsatisfied

• Thousands of starving women and peasants march on Versailles

• Louis forced to return to Paris

The March of Women

• Émigrés

• Louis XVI and his family attempted to flee France

• They were arrested at Varennes

Flight of the King

The capture of Louis XVI at Varennes

New Constitution

• Constitutional monarchy

• New Legislative Assembly

• Sans-culottes

Painting depicting the 1791 constitution

War With Austria

• France declares war

• War of the First Coalition

• Levee en masse

Painting of the Battle of Valmy, 1792

• Paris mob stormed Tuileries

• Louis and family seek aid of Legislative Assembly

• Arrested and deposed

The Radicals Take Over

Paris crowds storm the Tuileries

• First met on September 21, 1792

• Revolutionary Calendar

• Monarchy abolished; France officially becomes a republic

The National Convention

A Jacobin club

Jean-Paul Marat

Georges Danton

Leaders in the National Convention

The Guillotine• Dr. Joseph Guillotine

• Intended as a more humane method of execution

• Thousands guillotined during the French Revolution

• On January 17, 1793, Louis XVI was convicted of treason

• He went to the guillotine four days later on January 21, 1793

Execution of the King

• Created to cease an internal rebellion in 1793

• Given dictatorial power

• Ruled France for nearly a year

The Committee of Public Safety Controlled by

Robespierre

A citizen petitions the Committee of Public Safety

• July 1793–July 1794

• Executions

The Reign of Terror

The execution of Marie Antoinette

• Robespierre overthrown on 9 Thermidor

• Committee of Public Safety dismantled

• Jacobin clubs disbanded• New constitution

adopted in August 1795• Executive branch

known as the Directory

The Thermidorean Reaction

9 Thermidor meeting of the National Convention

• Lawyer originally supported 3rd Estate

• Leader of the Committee on Public Safety

• Most controversial figure of the French Revolution

• Leader of Reign of Terror

Robespierre

• National Assembly confiscates and sells off church lands

• Clergy must take oath of loyalty• Abolish Catholicism. • 10 day calendar to remove

Sunday• Street Names removed• New Religion (Enlightenment

Ideals) Goddess of Reason and the Supreme Being

De Christianization

Cartoon depicting the confiscation of Church lands

Festival of the Supreme Being

• Notice Robespierre on top next to tree.

• People loose Confidence in Robespierre

• The beginning of the end or Robespierre

End of Rein of TerrorWith Execution of Robespierre

• Robespierre, Speech to the National Convention (1794) was to name more names to be executed. He waited until the next day to do so.

• The next day he was arrested. Robespierre tried to shoot himself but did not die was then beheaded

• Promoted middle class interests

• Financial crisis

• Food shortages

• Riots in Paris

• Rise of Napoleon

The Directory

Cartoon depicting the

errors and bad judgment of

the Directory

• Popularity rises after victories over the Austrians

• Conflict with Britain

• 1799 Coup d’etat Military take over)

• The Consulate

Napoleon Bonaparte

1804: Napoleon crowns himself emperor

Napoleon Becomes Emperor

Legacies of the French Revolution

• End of absolutism

• Power of nobles ended

• Peasants became landowners

• Nationalism

• Enlightenment ideals