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The French Revolution !
French Revolution Terms to Know:
Section 1
1. Old Regime
2. Estate
3. Louis XVI
4. Marie Antoinette
5. Estates-General
6. National Assembly
7. Tennis Court Oath
8. Great Fear
Section 2
1. Legislative Assembly
2. Émigré
3. Sans-culotte
4. Jacobin
5. Guillotine
6. Maximillian Robespierre
7. Reign of Terror
Causes for the French Revolution
• Louis XV
fought many
wars, bringing
France to the
verge of
bankruptcy.
•Louis XVI
supported
the
colonists
during the
American
Revolution.
• The national debt amounted to almost 2
billion livres.
.
John II
Charles V
•Lack of
social
services
for war
veterans.
•An inefficient and
antiquated financial
system unable to
manage the national
debt.
• The court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette
at Versailles continued spending.
• High unemployment and high bread
prices.
•The Roman Catholic Church, the largest landowner in the country, levied a tax on crops.
•Widespread
famine and
malnutrition.
• Poor transportation infrastructure for bulk foods.
• No
internal
trade and
too many
customs
barriers
• Resentment of royal absolutism.
• Resentment by the ambitious
professional and mercantile classes
towards nobles.
• Resentment by peasants toward the
nobles.
• Resentment of
aristocratic
bishops by the
poorer rural
clergy.
• Continued hatred for Catholic control and influence
on institutions of all kinds, by the large Protestant
minorities.
•Aspirations for liberty and
republicanism.
• Anger toward
the King for
firing Jacques
Necker and
A.R.J. Turgot
who were
popularly seen as
representatives
of the people.
• The almost total failure of Louis XVI and
his advisors to deal effectively with any
of these problems.
Estates-General of 1789
• In February 1787,
his finance
minister, Loménie
de Brienne,
convened an
Assembly of
Notables.
• The Controller-
General of
Finances, Charles
Alexandre de
Calonne, asked the
Notables to
approve a new land
tax.
• For the first time
this would include
nobles and clergy.
• The assembly did not approve the tax.
• The assembly demanded that
Louis XVI call the Estates-
General.
• As part of the
preparations
books of
grievances were
drawn up across
France, listing
the complaints
of each of the
orders.
cahiers de doléances
• There was growing concern, however,
that the government would attempt to
gerrymander an assembly to its liking.
• To avoid this, the parlement of Paris proclaimed that
the Estates-General would have to meet according to
the forms observed at its last meeting.
• The 1614 Estates consisted of equal numbers of estates and each estate receiving one vote.
-First Estate (the clergy)
-Second Estate (the nobility)
-Third Estate (the remainder of the population)
•This
provoked
an
uproar.
• Necker argued that
the size of the
Third Estate should
be doubled, but the
question of voting
by headcount was
left for the meeting
of the Estates
themselves.
• Estates-General convened in Versailles on 5 May 1789.
• The Third Estate now demanded that credentialing itself should take place as a group.
• The 1st and
2nd Estates
continued to
support
voting by
order.
National Assembly (1789)
• On 10 June 1789 Abbé Sieyès moved that the Third Estate, proceed with verification of its own powers
• The other two estates were invited to take part.
•The process was completed on June 17th.
• Then declared themselves the National Assembly
• An assembly not of the Estates but of "the People."
• In an attempt to keep
control of the
process and prevent
the Assembly from
convening, Louis
XVI ordered the
closure of the Salle
des États where the
Assembly met.
• He made an
excuse that the
carpenters
needed to
prepare the
hall for a royal
speech in two
days.
• Weather did not allow an outdoor meeting, so the
Assembly moved their deliberations to a nearby
indoor tennis court
• Here they proceeded to swear the Tennis Court
Oath (20 June 1789)
• They agreed not to separate until they had given
France a constitution.
• By 27 June the royal party had overtly given in,
although the military began to arrive in large
numbers around Paris and Versailles.
• Messages of support for the Assembly poured in
from Paris and other French cities.
• On 9 July the Assembly was renamed National
Constituent Assembly.
National Constituent Assembly
(1789–1791)
• By this time,
Necker had earned
the enmity of many
members of the
French court for
his support and
guidance to the
Third Estate.
• On 11 July, after
Necker suggested
that the royal
family live
according to a
budget the King
fired him, and
completely
reconstructed the
finance ministry
• Many Parisians presumed Louis's actions to be the
start of a royal coup by the conservatives and
began open rebellion when they heard the news
the next day.
• They were also afraid that arriving soldiers - mostly
foreigners under French service rather than native
French troops - had been summoned to shut down
the National Constituent Assembly.
• The Assembly, meeting at Versailles, went into
nonstop session to prevent eviction from their
meeting place once again.
• Paris was soon consumed with riots,
chaos, and widespread looting.
• The mobs soon had the support of the
French Guard, including arms and trained
soldiers.
• The royal leadership essentially
abandoned the city.
• On 14 July, the insurgents set their eyes on the large weapons and ammunition cache inside the Bastille fortress, which also served as a symbol of tyranny by the monarchy.
18th Century French Dagger Pistol
18th century French Sword
French
Infantry
Soldiers
Sword
18th Century Sword Belt
French Muskets
• After several hours of combat, the prison fell that afternoon.
• Despite ordering a cease fire, which prevented a mutual massacre, Governor Marquis Bernard de Launay was beaten, stabbed and decapitated
• His head was placed on a pike and paraded about the city.
• Returning to the Hôtel de Ville (city hall), the mob
accused the prévôt des marchands (mayor) Jacques
de Flesselles of treachery; his assassination took
place en route to an trial at the Palais Royal.
Working toward a Constitution
• On 4 August 1789 the National Constituent Assembly
abolished feudalism, in what is known as the August
Decrees.
• This swept
away both the
seigniorial
rights of the
Second Estate
and the tithes
gathered by
the First
Estate.
• In the course of a few hours, nobles, clergy, towns,
provinces, companies, and cities lost their special
privileges.
• Looking to the Declaration of Independence of the United States for a model, on 26 August 1789, the Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
• The National Constituent Assembly functioned not
only as a legislature, but also as a body to draft a
new constitution.
Women's March on Versailles
• The women first marched to the Hôtel de Ville, demanding that city officials address their concerns.
• The women were responding to the harsh economic situations they faced, especially bread shortages.
• They demanded an end to Royalist efforts to block
the National Assembly, and for the King and his
administration to move to Paris as a sign of good
faith in addressing the widespread poverty.
• Getting unsatisfactory responses from city officials, as many as 7,000 women joined the march to Versailles, bringing with them pieces of cannon and a variety of smaller weapons.
• Twenty thousand
National
Guardsmen under
the command of La
Fayette responded
to keep order, and
members of the
mob stormed the
palace, killing two
guards.
• La Fayette
ultimately
convinced the
king to accede
to the demand
of the crowd
that the
monarchy
relocate to
Paris.
• On 6 October 1789, the King and the
royal family moved from Versailles to
Paris under the protection of the National
Guards, thus legitimizing the National
Assembly.
Royal flight to Varennes
• Louis XVI, opposed to the course of the Revolution
cast his lot with General Bouillé, who condemned
both the emigration and the assembly, and promised
him refuge and support in his camp at Montmédy.
• On the night of 20 June 1791 the
royal family fled the Tuileries
wearing the clothes of servants,
while their servants dressed as
nobles.
• However, the next day the King was recognized and
arrested at Varennes late on 21 June.
• He and his family were paraded back to Paris under
guard, still dressed as servants.
• When they
reached Paris, the
crowd remained
silent.
• The Assembly
provisionally
suspended the
King.
• He and Queen
Marie Antoinette
remained held
under guard.[
Completing the Constitution
• the Assembly still favored a constitutional
monarchy, which left Louis XVI as little more
than a figurehead.
• He had to swear an oath
to the constitution, and a
decree declared that
retracting the oath,
heading an army for the
purpose of making war
upon the nation, or
permitting anyone to do so
in his name would amount
to de facto abdication.
• Jacques Pierre
Brissot drafted
a petition,
insisting that in
the eyes of the
nation Louis
XVI was
deposed since
his flight.
• An immense crowd gathered in the
Champ de Mars to sign the petition.
• The Assembly called for the municipal authorities to
"preserve public order".
• The National Guard under La Fayette's command
confronted the crowd.
• The soldiers first
responded to a
barrage of stones by
firing in the air; but
the crowd did not
back down, and La
Fayette ordered his
men to fire into the
crowd, thus killing
as many as 50
people.
• In the wake of this massacre the authorities
closed many of the patriotic clubs.
• Declaration of Pillnitz
- Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II
- Frederick William II of Prussia
- King's brother Charles-Philippe
• Demanded Louis XVI total liberty and the dissolution of the Assembly, and promised an invasion of France on his behalf if they refused its conditions.
• The Assembly gathered the various constitutional laws they had passed into a single constitution
• submitted it to the recently restored Louis XVI, who accepted it
• The Assembly set the end of its term for 29 September 1791.
Legislative Assembly (1791–1792)
War (1792–1797)
• The politics of the period inevitably drove France towards war with Austria and its allies.
• The King expected war would increase his personal popularity; he also foresaw an opportunity to exploit any defeat: either result would make him stronger.
• The Austrian emperor
Leopold II, brother of
Marie Antoinette, may
have wished to avoid
war, but he died on 1
March 1792.
• France declared war on
Austria (20 April 1792)
and Prussia joined on
the Austrian side a few
weeks later.
• The invading Prussian army faced little resistance
until checked at the Battle of Valmy (20 September
1792), and forced to withdraw.
• France stood in turmoil and the monarchy had
effectively become a thing of the past.
Constitutional Crisis
• On the night of 10 August 1792, insurgents,
supported by a new revolutionary Paris Commune,
assailed the Tuileries.
• The King and queen
ended up prisoners
and a rump session
of the Legislative
Assembly
suspended the
monarchy: little
more than a third of
the deputies were
present, almost all
of them Jacobins.
• What remained of a national government depended on the
support of the insurrectionary Commune.
• The Commune sent gangs into the prisons to try arbitrarily
and butcher 1400 victims, and addressed a circular letter to
the other cities of France inviting them to follow this
example.
• The Assembly could offer only feeble
resistance.
• The Convention was charged with writing a
new constitution
• They became the new de facto government of
France.
• The next day it
abolished the
monarchy and
declared a republic.
• This date was later
retroactively adopted
as the beginning of
Year One of the
French Republican
Calendar.
Reign of Terror
• The Committee of
Public Safety came
under the control
of Maximilien
Robespierre, a
lawyer, and the
Jacobins unleashed
the Reign of Terror
(1793-1794).
• According to
archival records,
at least 16,594
people died
under the
guillotine or
otherwise after
accusations of
counter-
revolutionary
activities.
• As many as 40,000 accused prisoners may have been summarily executed without trial or died awaiting trial.
• The slightest hint of counter-revolutionary thoughts or activities could place one under suspicion.
