•SHORT TERM causes -Events that happen to trigger an event
•LONG TERM causes-events that happen over a long period
of time
• America has just had a revolution
• This revolution got rid of the British King and Queen and caused America to become an independent country
TAX- peasants pay one coin, town workers one coin and everyone else
nothing!
EVENT: American Revolution
EVENT: Country running out of money!• King is running out of money. Wars and lavish spending has caused
this!
• The Bourgeoisie and nobles won’t give the king any more money
What do you think the king will do?
TAX- Peasants pay one coin, town workers pay one coin
EVENT: Enlightenment
New ideas that attack the church and the King (people with power)
The ideas include the fact that ordinary everyday people such as peasants should get a say in how the country is run
EVENT: Harvest Fails!
• Peasants-You don’t have enough money or food to feed you families
• Bourgeoisie and Town workers- you don’t want to pay more taxes as you only just have enough money to get by!
Should we behead them?
• Marie Antoinette -Queen of France-Lavish lifestyle.She spent lots of
money on clothes, make-up, shoes and gambling
People believe that she is having affairs
Bellwork
• Mob- a large crowd of rioting people
• Bastille- the royal fortress prison in Paris
• Constitution- the laws for the running of a country
• Feudal Documents- a lord’s papers showing who owes him what
Storming the Bastille
• July 14th 1789
• Angry mob takes the law into their own hands
• Rioted and attacked the royal fortress prison
• Bastille was seen as a symbol of the King and his government
Storming the Bastille con’t
• Mob killed the governor of the prison(Marquis de Launay)
• Soldiers around the prison didn’t stop the attack– IMPORTANT- shows that
King Louis XVI has also lost control of the army
Feudal documents destroyed
• Peasants were also losing patience
• Took part in widespread attacks on the chateaux and palaces of their lords
– “The whole country is in the greatest agitation. Many chateaux have been burned and others plundered. The lords hunted down like beasts. Their feudal documents burned. Their property destroyed. – Arthur Young
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
• August 4th 1789- National Assembly passes a law which abolished all feudal privileges and unjust taxation.– No more church tithes, no feudal dues, and no
private companies keeping of the taxation
– Between August 12-26th Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man
Con’t
• Nothing about women or slaves• Nothing about who was going to impose these
new laws• Sept. 1789 the assembly and King appointed
new middle class officials– Elected by the people, to take charge of local
government
• Intendants, replaced the former agents of the King
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
“ Men are born equal and remain free and equal in rights which are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression. Liberty is being able to do whatever does not harm others.
The law should express the will of the people. All citizens have a right to take part personally, or through their representatives, in the making of the law. Every citizen can talk, write, and publish freely, unless the liberty is abused in a way which breaks the law.”
The New Constitution
• Over the next two years, the members of the Three Estates –as the Assembly– worked together to hammer out a new constitution
Main Features• Assembly to be elected every two years– By men who paid a certain level of taxation
• King was to be called ‘King of French’ not ‘King of France’
• Kind could delay the passing of a law for 3 years• 83 new departments were created to be centers
for local governments• Judges, deputies, tax-collectors and priests were
elected by the people
New Constitution
• New taxation system– Based on income– A new currency the assignat
• Church lands were nationalized– Income from the sale would pay off government
debt
• Church tax (tithe) was abolished• Marriages were civil ceremonies in front of
state officials
New Constitution
• Divorce was introduced• Priests had to take an oath of loyalty to the
state– Some saw this as an attack of the power of
bishops and on the Pope
What sort of man was Louis XVI?
• Came to the throne in 1774• Absolute monarch• Believed his power had been
given to him by God• He was a “family man”• Dominated by his wife
Marie-Antoinette– She was subject to rumors
about expensive clothes and over spending
– Also about how she interfered with with Louis’s attempts to govern the country
How did Louis respond to the events of 1789-91?
• Louis did not know what he should do
• He was captured by a mob, but refused to use force on them
• Claimed to play the role of a ‘constitutional monarchy’
• Between 1789-91 signed decrees from the Assembly so they became law
• Singed an oath of loyalty when the constitution was proclaimed