The French Revolution

Estates

• What problems do you see with this social/economic structure?
• What are some (at least two) solutions to the problems you see?
• Knowing just this, predict what will happen next.

• Indecisive
• Influenced by wife
• Preferred personal interests over courts

The Estates General was a governing body in France. Years ago it was the first step towards a Constitutional Monarchy, but, it was effectively controlled by the absolute monarchist king. In 1789, King Louis XVI decided to call it together in order to save the failing French economy. Louis knew he could no longer save France on tax dollars of the third estate alone. His solution was to tax the other estates. However, in order to do this, he needed the support of the Estates General. In 1789, he called it to order for the first time since 1614.

Should the first & second estate be taxed? Why?

“The National Assembly, considering that it has been summoned to establish the constitution of the kingdom, to effect the regeneration of the public order, and to maintain the true principles of monarchy; that nothing can prevent it from continuing its deliberations in whatever place it may be forced to establish itself; and, finally, that wheresoever its members are assembled, there is the National Assembly; Decrees that all members of this Assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established and consolidated upon firm foundations; and that, the said oath taken, all members and each one of them individually shall ratify this steadfast resolution by signature.”

Sparked by rumors that the feudal aristocracy [the aristos] were sending hired brigands to attack peasants and pillage their land.

Reactions

• Radical
• Monarchy = :(
• Democracy = :)
• Violent, immediate change
• Minority
• Sat on the left side of the ahll
• Named after the Dominican Monks of France because they met in a convent dedicated to St. James
• Influenced by Rousseau

• Ex-radicals who feared violence
• Constitutional monarchy that would transition to a democracy = :)
• Named for the department north of Paris where many participants came from
• Pro-war with Prussia & Austria
• Sat on right side of hall

What faction would you be in?

• Legislative Assembly declared war on Francis II, the Habsburg monarch
• First Coalition: Prussia + Russia
• France lost
• Legislative Assembly suspended king from all his functions and called for the election of a new National Convention

The Second Revolution

• Were the accused really guilty?
• Is this what the 3rd Estate wanted when the revolution began?

• What caused the Reign of Terror?
• Was it good for the Revolution?
• Did the Reign of Terror have to happen?
• How could the Reign of Terror been avoided?
• What will happen next?

Wanted to protect their way of life...

• representative government = gain control

Hopes of freedom from...

• abolitionist movements
• royal attempts to limit abuse of slavery

Opportunity to...

• gain political enfranchisement
• reassert equal status with whites

• refused to extend French constitutional rights to colonies
• demanded that each colony draft their own constitution

Crash Course

September 21, 1792

The Republic of France

• new constitution
• universal male suffrage

September

Massacres

• Stormed Tuileries Palace
• Slaughtered 600 of the king's Swiss guards

demanded wider political participation & establishment of a radical government

The Commune

Sans-Culottes

• Didn't wear the fancy breaches of the aristocracy
• Wanted to fix supply of bread
• Fearful that Prussia would destroy Paris if the king was hurt

Course

Taboo Review

Defended inherited privileges of aristocracy

Reflections on the Revolution in France

Edmund Burke

Mary Wollstonecraft

rebuttal

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

• Constitution of 1791
• Jacobins
• Moderates
• Girondins
• Emigres
• Declaration of Pillnitz
• Sans-Culottes
• September Massacres
• The Commune
• Republic of France
• The Second Revolution
• Edmund Burke
• Mary Wollstonecraft

Declaration

of Pillnitz

Austria & Prussia wanted to restore the monarchy

Emigres

• Nobles and others who fled France
• Hoped to undo the Revolution
• Wanted to restore the Old Regime

Challenges to the Revolution

Constitution of 1791

• created a constitutional monarchy
• established the Legislative Assembly
• created laws
• approved/rejected declarations of war

National Assembly

Girondins

Moderates

• Constitutional monarchy / republic = :)
• Feared violence would leave too much damage
• Sat in the middle

Jacobins

Tennis Court Oath

• Guaranteed
• equality before the law
• representative government for a sovereign people
• individual freedoms
• Abolished
• serfdom
• exclusive hunting rights
• fees for justice
• tithes paid to the church

August 27, 1789

Estates General

• Ideas were rejected
• Declared an enemy of the Revolution and executed

How should we vote?

Declaration Of The Rights Of Women

Olympe De Gouges

Escape from Chaos?

Church Reform

June 1791

• The National Assembly
• took over Church lands
• made Church officials/priests state officials
• took $ to pay off nation's debt
• Effect
• Church lost economic & political independence
• Alarmed peasants

We have the baker, the baker's wife, & the baker's son. We shall have bread."

OR

• 1st
• What is the third estate? Everything!
• 2nd
• What has it been heretofore in the political order? Nothing?
• 3rd
• What does it demand? To become something therein!

Declaration of the Rights of Man & Citizen

While heading to the Austrian Netherlands, Louis XVI was apprehended and returned to Paris

The Big Move

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes

Liberty, Equality, & Fraternity

From Estates General to National Assembly

• Women's March on Versailles
• The Great Fear
• Storming of the Bastille
• National Assembly
• Tennis Court Oath
• Sieyes
• Estates General
• Bourgeoisie
• First Estate
• Second Estate
• Third Estate
• Marie Antoinette
• Louis XVI

Taboo Review

Storming of the Bastille

Sparked by a rumor that the king was planning a military coup against the National Assembly.

The Road to Revolution

The Great Fear

Women's March on Versailles

1st Estate

• Rich nobles
• 2% of population
• Owned 20% of land
• Viewed enlightenment ideas as radical notions that threatened their status and power

• Roman Catholic church & clergy
• Owned 10% of the land & provided education/relief services to the poor
• Viewed Enlightenment ideas as radical notions
• Contributed 2% of income to the government

2nd Estate

• 97% of population
• Made up of three groups
• Bourgeoisie
• Workers
• Peasants
• 50% of income went to clergy

3rd Estate

History Makers

Marie Antoinette

Population was divided into 3 estates

Reign of Terror

France was an absolute monarch with a weak monarch

Revolution in Saint-Domingue

• Need for tax reform
• 3rd Estate = 50% tax rate
• Government debt
• extravagant spending
• overambitious wars

Financial Difficulties

CloudBiography

Causes

France sent troops/supplies to aid the American revolutionaries

3 min

• Angered the white elite
• Governor refused to enact it
• Sparked violent revolt

• Introduction to revolutionary ideas
• take up arms against tyranny
• liberal freedoms for all men
• "No taxation without representation"
• Republic > Monarchy

National

Assembly

Reaction

• Jacobin
• Wanted to build a "republic of virtue"
• Leader of the Committee of Public Safety

• July 1790
• Free man of color
• Returned from Paris, raised an army, sent letters demanding political rights for all free citizens
• Defeated, tortured, & executed

• May 1791
• Granted political rights to free people of color born to two free parents who possessed sufficient property

The Enlightenment

National Assembly

• Liberal society = free commerce = flourish
• Challenged absolutism
• Appealed to bourgeoisie grievances

Vincent Oge

Most profitable Caribbean colonies

Robespierre

Causes

1685: Granted free people of color the same rights as whites

Saint-Domingue

Debrief...

1760s: Colonial administrators rescinded rights

Code Noir

Experiential

You have been accused of being an enemy of the Revolution...

Slaves & "Freed Coloreds"

• Assume the role of the character you were assigned
• Write a testimony claiming your innocence

European Population

• colonial officials
• plantation owners
• merchants
• poor immigrants

• 500,000
• Greatly outnumbered Europeans

The

French Revolution

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity?

Downfall

9 Thermidor

radicals & moderates in the Convention decided to stop the Committee of Public Safety

Guillotine

Sent Robespierre

Committee of Public Safety

• relaxed emergency economic controls
• used the Terror to wipe out critics

Thermidorian Reaction

Experiential

1786

Middle Class

His majesty has informed us that the famine and crop failure has continued. Due to this, each noble will be paid $300 and each peasant will earn $25 out of that $300.

Directory

1785

• led revolution
• reasserted power

• collapse of $ controls
• rise of inflation
• army suppression

This year there was very little rain. As a result, the crops grew very poorly. Due to this, each noble will be paid $200 and each peasant will earn $25 from that.

Working Poor

• new government
• used war as a tool
• nullified elections

1784

This year the crops did well, but not as well as the year before. Therefore, his majesty, King Louis XVI will pay each noble $300, but peasants will be paid only $50 from that $300.

1783

The year 1783 was a good harvest year. Due to this, his majesty King Louis XVI will pay each noble $300, and out of that, the nobility will pay each peasant $50 each. Take the amount you are paid, add it to your “Year End Total,” then place that new amount in the money you have for the year 1784

• Reign of Terror
• Robespierre
• Saint-Domingue
• Code Noir
• Vincent Oge
• Thermidorian Reaction
• Committee of Public Safety
• Directory

Taboo Review

12 min

2.1.4