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The French Revolution
• Review– Louis XIV – The
“Sun King”– The Enlightenment
• How the French Government Worked– The Estates General
• First Estate– Catholic Clergy– Accounted for 1% of population
• Second Estate– Nobles– Accounted for 1% of population.
• Third Estate (98% of population)– Bourgeoisie– Urban Workers (Sans-culottes)– Peasants
King Louis XVI (1774-1793) and Marie Antoinette
Problems faced by the royal family• King Louis XVI was good natured and generous
but very indecisive • Marie Antoinette was 14 when she married Louis
XVI– Charming & lighthearted, she was very unpopular
because of her expensive tastes• Government was in debt, Louis had borrowed
heavily to help finance the American colonists in their war against Britain
• Nobles refused to pay taxes unless the king called a meeting of the Estates-General which had not met for 200 years
• May 1st, 1789– Louis XVI calls a meeting of the Estates
General• Why?• Does it work?
The Third Estate demands a new voting system but the First and Second Estate won’t agree.
One vote for each estate
Abby Sieyes, a leading clergyman, suggests that the Third Estate change its name to the National
Assembly which will pass new laws and reforms in the name of the French people
June 17, 1789
• June 17th, 1789– Third Estate changes name to National
Assembly• Why?• What do they do?
– King Louis XVI’s reaction?
Locked out of their meeting hall, they meet at an indoor tennis court and vow to give France a constitution
The Tennis Court OathJune 20, 1789
• Louis XVI makes peace with the Third Estate by yielding to their demands
• He orders the other Estates to join the Third Estate in a National Assembly
• Concerned that he can not trust his troops he called in his Swiss troops for support
• Parisians riot over bread prices
• Parisians grow alarmed over the presence of the Swiss troops thinking the troops are there to harm them
• Parisians take matters into their own hands
• July 14th, 1789– BASTILLE DAY in France– “The Storming of the Bastille”
• Why?
Parisians raided the Invalides (a military hospital) and obtained 30,000 muskets on
the morning of July 14, 1789
The Bastille
Storming of the Bastille
Summer 1789 – Rumors of plots against peasants cause them to attack manor houses and destroy
feudal records during the Great Fear
Heads on pikes during the Great Fear
Triumph of the Parisian Army and the People – guardsmen display the heads of troops who
confronted the marchers
• August 4th, 1789– National Assembly
adopts a new slogan.• “Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity”
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is adopted by the National
AssemblyAug. 27, 1789
Parisian Women rioting over bread prices march to Versailles demanding the royal family move to Paris
October 1789
The mob broke into the palace and ransacked thequeen’s apartments
Arrival of the royal family in Paris
March 1791
• The New Constitution is finished.
• The King reluctantly approved the Constitutionand the Declaration ofthe Rights of Man.
Sans-culottes dance around the liberty tree
June 1791 - The royal family attempts to flee to Austria
The return from Varennes (where they were captured)
Louis’ reputation is irreparably damaged
National Assembly gives power to the Legislative Assembly - September 1791
• 1791 - Legislative Assembly becomes divided.– Conservatives
– Radicals
– Moderates
• 1792 War with Austria– Results of war?
Radical Revolution Begins(Defense of National Security)
1792• April 20 – Declaration of War on Austria
• July 25 – Brunswick Manifesto - Prussian commander threatens to destroy Paris if revolutionaries harm the royal family
King wears the revolutionarycap in an attempt to calm theRevolutionaries
Radical mobs continue tothreaten the royal family
Attack on the Tulileries PalaceAugust 10, 1792
King is arrested for encouraging foreign troops
Marie Antoinette protects her husband and children as Louis is being arrested
Royal family is imprisoned, August 10, 1792
Legislative Assembly September 21, 1792
• Set aside the Constitution of 1791 ending the limited Constitutional Monarchy
• Declared the King deposed.
• Elections are called for a National Convention to write a new constitution.
Meeting of the National Convention
August 1792 - Danton and Marat set the revolution on a violent path with the help
of the Paris mob
Jacobin Club
• The Jacobin club is a RADICAL political club
• It’s members gave violent speeches
• They demanded the King be removed and
a republic set up.
George Danton
• Leader of the Paris Commune – devoted to the rights of the poor
Jean Paul Marat
• Radical leader of the Jacobin Club
• Edited a radical newspaper
• His fiery editorials called for “five or six hundred heads to be cut off to rid France of the enemies of the revolution
Louis is tried and found guilty of treason
The national razor
Execution of Louis XVIJanuary 21, 1793
1793-1794
Robespierre’s Reign of Terror
Maximilien Robespierre
The most powerful manon the Committee of Public Safety
He was a merciless fanatic
He was the Terror
Get rid of all traces of France’s monarchy and nobility
Committee of Public SafetyFormed during the Summer of 1793 • Established by the Jacobins• Sought out enemies from within France
– Decided who should be judged as an enemy of the Republic
• Oversaw France’s defense – Well trained citizen army – All citizens were expected to help the war effort by
serving in hospitals, collecting clothing, etc– Unified the nation
Marie Antoinette’s Trial
The Revolution devoursit’s own children
• Fellow revolutionaries such as Danton who challenged Robespierre’s leadership were executed in 1794
• Their crime – being less radical then Robespierre
During the terror at least 3,000 people were executed in Paris.
Historians believe as many as 40,000 werekilled all together.
Robespierre is arrested
No one on the Committee is safe until Robespierre is removed from power
Robespierre lays on a table in the office of the Committee of Public Safety
Death of Robespierre – the Terror Ends
July 28, 1794
The Directory - 1795• Moderate leaders of the National
Convention drafted a new constitution• Power was placed firmly in the hands of
the upper bourgeoisie• It called for a two house legislature and an
executive body of five men known as directors
• They named Napoleon Bonaparte, a young general as commander of France’s army
November 9th, 1799 - Napoleon stages a coup d'état and the Directory comes to an end
