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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
G U I L L OT I N E S F O R E V E RYO N E .
T H E F I R S T R E P U B L I CI N W H I C H L O U I S X V I C O N T I N U E S TO
M A K E P O O R C H O I C E S .
LOUIS XVI VS. THE CONSTITUTION• Louis XVI refused to sign the Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizen
– He was an absolute monarch, and it would have limited his powers, and the powers of
the nobility and the Church
• Furious at the king, a group of heavily armed women march from Paris to
Versailles
– Insist that the royal family and National Assembly move to Paris– closer to the
Revolution
– Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette live under virtual house arrest
• The National Assembly drafts a proper Constitution, and forces Louis XVI to
sign it in 1791→ France is now a constitutional monarchy
AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA ATTACK
• While France was in disarray, other European states attempted to
take advantage
– Austria and Prussia, two large Germanic superpowers with strong
absolute monarchs, wanted to make sure that the French ideas about a
revolution didn’t spread
– The Austrian emperor was Marie Antoinette’s brother → wanted to
help his sister and brother-in-law reestablish absolute rule
• French soldiers lost many, many early battles → poor supplies,
not enough food, not enough training
– Looked like the Austrian-Prussian alliance might take Paris, leading to the
mass execution of royalist sympathizers in Paris
FLIGHT TO VARENNES
• In order to try and launch a counter-revolution, Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette and their family try to escape Paris
– Head towards the Austrian boarder, hoping to unite with some loyalist military officers
and support from Marie Antoinette’s brother
– Caught in Varennes, only a few miles from the border
• The king is arrested, and brought back to Paris → stripped of his title
– Charged with treason
• Any trust between the people and Louis XVI is broken
– Legislature declares a new Constitution → a true republic, with no king at all
R A D I C A L R E V O L U T I O NW H O N E E D S A K I N G A N Y WAY.
TRIAL AND EXECUTION
• Citoyen Louis Capet (Louis XVI) tried for treason in December
of 1792
• In the legislature, two major groups:
– Girondist → slightly more moderate → the king committed treason, but
should be exiled, not executed
– Jacobins → leader Maximilien Robespierre→ extremely radical group
→ the king committed treason, and the only punishment is death
• Louis XVI sentenced to death by ONE vote → publicly executed
by guillotine on January 23, 1793
CREATING A NEW WORLD• Robespierre and other Jacobin leaders form the Committee of Public
Safety
– Theoretically an emergency government due to the European wars, really a 12 man
dictatorship with Robespierre at the head
• Creating a “Republic ofVirtue”
– New emphasis on science and rationality → all churches and Church land seized by
the state, most priests and nuns required to leave their positions
– Creation of the metric system, a new calendar, new methods of timekeeping
– No more nobility → all French people to be addressed as “citizen” to eliminate class
differences
• Anyone who didn’t show enough support for the new French Republic was a
threat
THE REIGN OF TERROR• Massive numbers of people executed via guillotine on charges of treason between 1793-
1794
– At least 40,000 victims, most of whom were commoners
– Marie Antoinette executed for treason
• Environment of suspicion, rumor, and fear → people could be denounced by their
neighbors, have their names published in the newspaper, and be executed in a matter of
days
• By the summer of 1794, the war with Europe was going better, so some members of the
legislature called for the Committee of Public Safety to step down → they were executed
• Legislature turns on Robespierre, plans to arrest him and the Committee
– Robespierre and his allies attempt to kill themselves before their arrest, but fail → execution by
guillotine
• Death of Robespierre ends the Reign of Terror
T H E D I R E C T O R YI N E F F I C I E N T A N D B A D AT T H E I R J O B S , B U T AT L E A S T T H E Y A R E N ’ T G U I L L OT I N I N G E V E RYO N E .
TRYING TO REIGN IN THE CHAOS
• After 1794, France adopted ANOTHER constitution, this one with a 5-man
executive branch called The Directory
– Very inefficient, corrupt
• The Directory does nothing to manage the faltering economy
• Only the military is a bright spot for France →Austria and Prussia begin
retreating
• One military leader in particular is quite famous → General Napoleon
Bonaparte
– Returns to France from fighting in Egypt as a hero
– Decides to stage a coup d'état