Conditions in France - 1789

Series of events

• Bad harvest, less wheat produced • Bad weather – cold winter• Foreign wars – expensive• King’s luxury – expensive• Unfair taxation system• Lack of political representation

Public discussion

• Estates General had not met in 175 years• No public forum to discuss issues• Monarch has complete control • Monarch reluctant to change policies

People are hungry

• Peasants are starving• Bread price rose

steeply (wheat shortage)

• France could not afford to import wheat

• France is in debt – cannot pay all its bills

• Louis wants to tax the Nobles – they refuse He’s not hungry

Street protests

• “Bread” riots break out in Paris

• Louis calls a meeting of the Estates General

• All three estates prepare notebooks of complaints (cahiers in French)

Cahiers

People had many complaints• Taxes• Service to masters (the boss)• Press freedom• Regulations & restrictions• Lack of Estates General

meetings

“20 million must live on half the wealth of France while the clergy…devour the other half.”

May, 1789

• Estates General met – each estate got one vote

• Third estate wanted reforms

• Third estate wanted a vote based on overall number of delegates

• No agreement could be reached with the 1st and 2nd estates

National Assembly declared

• 3rd estate declared itself the National Assembly in June, 1789

• They were then locked out of the meeting room

• Moved to an indoor tennis court

Tennis Court Oath

• On the tennis court, the delegates swore to:

“Never to separate and to meet wherever circumstances might require until we have established a sound and just constitution.”

To the Bastille

• Storming the Bastille

A funnier version

BBC Horrible Histories•

Reading of The Rights of Man and of Citizen

Chronology – first phase

• Meeting of Estates General• Lock-out of 3rd Estate• Declaration of National Assembly• Tennis Court Oath• Storming of the Bastille• National Assembly issues a Declaration of Rights

of Man and of the Citizen• King approves the “rights” declaration

Chronology – foreign threats

• King and Marie-Antoinette attempt to flee Paris: they are captured and returned to Paris

• Threat of foreign invasion to protect royalty

• October, 1791 – National Assembly is elected

• High inflation – value of currency falls

• The sans-culottes (without breeches) radicalize the revolution

Chronology – push for a republic

• Sans-Culotte team with Jacobins (intellectuals and lawyers) seeking a republic

• National Assembly declares opposition to tyranny everywhere

• National Assembly declares war on Austria, Britain, Prussia and other states that oppose the revolution

Chronology – radical phase

• 1792 – king’s guards slaughtered by mob• 1793 - King is tried & beheaded (Jan)• France declared a republic• 1793 – Marie-Antoinette tried & beheaded

(Oct.)• The Committee for Public Safety is formed• Reign of Terror begins (25,000 beheaded)

The guillotine rules France

• “It (the reign of terror) is necessary to stifle the domestic and foreign enemies of the Republic or perish with them….the first maxim of our politics ought to be to lead the people by means of reason and the enemies of the people by terror….if the basis of popular government in time if peace if virtue, the basis of popular government in time of revolution is both virtue and terror.” – Maximilien Robespierre, 1794

History Channel documentary

• French Revolution - History Channel

Chronology – return to a single ruler

• 1794 – Revolution ends• 1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte becomes emperor• France has a new absolute ruler