The French Revolution

What were the causes of the French Revolution?

You are a hardworking peasant, barely surviving.

Buying food costs HALF of your income while 10% goes to the church and the rest to taxes.

You are taxed the most out of any group yet you have no voice in your government.

HOW WOULD YOU FEEL?

IMAGINE

1. The Old Regime1

FIRST ESTATE (1%) SECOND ESTATE (>2%)

THIRD ESTATE (97-98%)

The CLERGY

Enjoyed enormous wealth and privilege

Owned about 10 percent of land, collected tithes, and paid no taxes

Provided some social services

The NOBILITY

Owned land but had little money income

Hated absolutism

Feared losing traditional privilege, especially exemption from taxes

The BOURGEOISIE (middle class) and PEASANTS

Peasants were 90 percent of French population

Resented privilege of first and second estates

Burdened by taxes

2. DISCONTENT-Many earned miserable wages and faced hunger and even starvation

Bourgeoisie wanted more representation!

FAIR?

Philosophers like Locke, Rousseau and Voltaire critiqued divine right and government oppression.◦ Locke even encouraged

revolution! ◦ Inspired by these

philosophers and the American revolution

Enlightenment inspires democratic thinking and urges reform of Absolutism

Enlightenment Ideas lead to Revolution

Economic woes added to the social unrest and heightened tension (5 reasons for this financial crisis)

For years, the French government had engaged in deficit spending that is, a government’s spending more money than it takes in.

1. Louis XIV had left France deeply in debt. Recent wars, a general rise in costs in the 1700s,

2. The lavish court at Versailles was incredibly costly. 3. To bridge the gap between income and expenses, the government

borrowed more and more money.4. Bad harvests in the late 1780s sent food prices soaring and

brought hunger to poorer peasants and city dwellers.5. Failure to Reform- Louis 16th chose a smart financial advisor who

advised taxing the nobles and clergy, but he refused to listen and instead fired him.

SOLVE THIS PROBLEM? TAX THE RICH!

3. Economic Trouble

The Reaction Phase [1795-1799]

The Directory Napoleon

The Radical (Reign of Terror) Phase [1792-1794]National Convention Monarchy Abolished Committee on Public

SafetyRobespierre and

Jacobins

Liberal Phase [1789-1791]National Assembly Tennis Court Oath Storming of the

BastilleDeclaration of the

Rights of Man

The Revolution Begins- A Timeline

Wealthy and powerful insisted the King call the Estates general (had not been called in 175 years!)

The Estates General included representatives from each of the 3 estates◦ PROBLEM: These three estates voted as a

whole group, each group received ONE vote. Third Estate was constantly outvoted

◦ So how should we vote?

4. Louis XVI summons the Estates General

Third estate instead forms the National Assembly, disbanding the Estates general and asking members of the other estates to join.

Frustrated by the deadlock in voting, and finding themselves locked out of the meeting area, members of the third estate moved their meeting to the nearby indoor tennis courts

Tennis Court oath: members of the 3rd estate, now the National Assembly, vowed not to stop meeting until they had drawn up a constitution for France.

5. Tennis Court Oath

On July 14, 1789, more than 800 Parisians gathered outside the Bastille, a medieval fortress used as a prison. They demanded weapons believed to be stored there.

The commander of the Bastille opened fire on the crowd, and a battle ensued, in which many people were killed.

7. The storming of the Bastille quickly became a symbol of the French Revolution, a blow to tyranny. Today, the French still celebrate July 14 as Bastille Day.

6. Storming of the Bastille

Veteran armies have never performed greater feats of valor than this leaderless multitude of persons belonging to every class. Workmen of all trades, who mostly ill equipped and unused to arms, boldly affronted the fire from

the ramparts and seemed to mock the thunderbolts the enemy hurled at them…The fury of the crowd continued to increase and their blind wrath did not spare the Marquis de Launay…his head stuck on the point of a pike.

An Account of the Storming

Documents 1-8

So what were the Causes?