French Revolution

Semester 2 – Day 124

Bellwork

• What determines social classes?

Background

• Many problems with the conditions of society• Society was based on inequality

Three Estates• First Estate: clergy (130,000 people; owned 10% of land• Second Estate: nobility (350,000 people; owned 25 to

30% of land); held leading positions in government, military, law courts, and higher church offices; exempt from tax

• Third Estate: commoners; divided by differences in occupation; peasants made up 75 to 80% of the population (owned 35 to 40% of land); bourgeoisie (middle class – 8% of the population); skilled craftspeople

Financial Crisis

• Collapse of government finances• Bad harvests• Slowdown in manufacturing• Had to call Estates-General to raise taxes

Estates-General to National Assembly• In the Estates-General each estate had one vote.• Third Estate wanted each deputy to have a vote• Third Estate becomes National Assembly and

wants a constitution– Tennis Court Oath: vow to make a constitution

• Storming of the Bastille (an armory and prison in Paris)

• Revolution breaks out

Destruction of the Old Regime

• National Assembly voted to abolish rights of landlords and the financial privileges of nobles and clergy

• Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen: basic liberties; reflected Enlightenment ideals; freedom and equal rights for all men

• Olympe de Gouges: Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen

King Concedes

• King did not accept the things the National Assembly did

• Parisian women marched on Versailles• Made king return to Paris and support

National Assembly

Church Reforms

• National Assembly seized church lands for money

• Church was secularized; officials were elected by the people and paid by the state

New Constitution and New Fears

• Constitution of 1791: set up limited monarchy; still a king, but Legislative Assembly would make the laws

• Many wanted more drastic change and opposed the new order. (radicals)

War with Austria

• Fear that revolution would spread to other countries

• Austria and Prussia threaten to use force to restore monarchy

• Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria

Rise of the Paris Commune

• A radical group in Paris• Angry about defeats in war and economic issues• Attack the royal palace and the Legislative

Assembly• Took king captive; forced Legislative Assembly

to suspend monarchy and call for a National Convention

• Members called sans-culottes

Assignment

• List the causes of the French Revolution

American Revolution/French Revolution

• Evaluate how the American Revolution differed from the French Revolution. – What was the long-term impact of each revolution

on political developments around the world?– Why was the French Revolution so much more

violent than the American Revolution?

• This is to be handed in as a one-page paper.

DBQ

• Read page 662• Answer the three questions in complete

sentences.