THE FRENCH REVOLUTION1 7 8 9 -1 7 9 9

ABHISHEK SINGH IX - B

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CAUSESABHISHEK

• Social Cause One of the main factors that led to the French Revolution was the unbalanced

social structure of society during the Old Regime.

• Economic Cause It was the main reason of the depletion of the treasury of the king.

• Political Cause• King was a person of Mediocre Intelligence.

• Immediate Cause Formation of the Estate General.

• Intellectual Cause Influence from the writers.

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The Social cause• In France, people were divided into three estates– First Estate

• High-ranking members of the Church• Privileged class

– Second Estate

• Nobility• Privileged class

– Third Estate

• Everyone else – from peasants in the countryside to wealthy bourgeoisie merchants in the cities• Unprivileged class

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Economic Cause In 1774, Louis XVI of the Bourbon family of kings ascended the throne

of France. He was 20 years old and married to the Austrian princess Marie Antoinette. Upon his accession the new king found an empty treasury. Long years of war had drained the financial resources of France.

Added to this was the cost of maintaining an extravagant court at the immense palace of Versailles.

Under Louis XVI, France helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their independence from the common enemy, Britain. The war added more than a billion livres to a debt that had already risen to more than 2 billion livres.

Lenders who gave the state credit, now began to charge 10 per cent interest on loans. So the French government was obliged to spend an increasing percentage of its budget on interest payments alone. To meet its regular expenses, such as the cost of maintaining an army, the court, running government offices or universities, the state was forced to increase taxes. Yet even this measure would not have sufficed.

The Church too extracted its share of taxes called tithes from the peasants, and finally, all members of the third estate had to pay taxes to the state. These included a direct tax, called taille, and a number of indirect taxes which were levied on articles of everyday consumption like salt or tobacco. The burden of financing activities of the state through taxes was borne by the third estate alone ,which angered the common People

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France Is Bankrupt The king (Louis XVI) lavished money on himself and residences like Versailles Queen Marie Antoinette was seen as a wasteful spender Government found its funds depleted As a result of wars

including the funding of the

government spending more money than it takes in from tax revenues Privileged classes would not submit

to being taxed

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Political Cause• Louis XVI, the king of France, was a person of mediocre

intelligence. He ruled with the help of his empty headed wife ‘Marie Antoinnette’, who appointed a number of her friends and relatives at high posts and kept some of them at pension. These people neither did any work nor they contribute to the National treasury. Instead they took salary from the Royal treasury.

• Louis XVI wanted to increase his territory. And to do so, he had to be engaged in wars which meant that he needed a large army for that purpose. Appointing so many soldiers, required money to pay salaries to them. It depleted the Royal treasury.

As a result, the king was forced to raise the taxes with the consent of the three estates . As the common people had to pay taxes, they became agitated against their monarch – Louis XVI.

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Immediate Cause• Compelled by Financial bankruptcy, the

French Emperor Louis XVI called a meeting of Estate General in 1789. It generated much heat as the members of the 3rd Estate were determined to put forth their demand. However, the first two Estates i.e. ‘the Clergy’ and ‘ The Nobility’ refused to have a joint meeting with the Third Estate. The members of the Third Estate walked of the Assembly.

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Intellectual Cause• The Middle class favoured a society based on freedom and equal

laws and opportunities for all• Jean Jacques Rousseau , in his ‘Two Treatises’ of Government, Locke

sought to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch. Rousseau carried the idea forward, proposing a form of government based on a social contract between people and their representatives.

• Montesquieu in ‘The Spirit of the Laws’, Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. This model of government was put into force in the USA, after the thirteen colonies declared their independence from Britain. The American constitution and its guarantee of individual rights was an important example for political thinkers in France.

• The ideas of these philosophers were discussed intensively in salons and coffee-houses and spread among people through books and newspapers. These were frequently read aloud in groups for the benefit of those who could not read and write. The news that Louis XVI planned to impose further taxes to be able to meet the expenses of the state generated anger and protest against the system of privileges.

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Formation of National Assembly◊ Representative

government did not mean democracy or “mob rule”

◊ Estates-General became the National Assembly in June of 1789 with the power to frame a constitution

◊ Tennis Court Oath was formed due to the disagreement of the 3’rd Estate and the Monarch.

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National Assembly (1789-1791)

Louis XVI did not actually want a written constitution

When news of his plan to use military force against the National Assembly reached Paris on July 14, 1789, people stormed the Bastille

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BEGINNING OF REVOLUTION

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The Revolution started with the Estate-General convention in Versailles on

May 5, 1789. While the three Estates were supposed to discuss and vote

on taxes, they ended up debating about their own structure, the Third

Estate demanding double representation. The Third Estate eventually

separated itself from the First and Second Estates, forming the National

Assembly. The King Louis XVI disagreed and shut down the Salle des

États where the Assembly met. The Assembly moved to the Salle du Jeu

de Paume were they proceeded to swear the Tennis Court Oath (June 20,

1789), under which they agreed not to separate until they had given

France a constitution. The King pretended to accept the situation, but in

the same time brought 20,000 soldiers to Paris. The people in paris

started being very agitated, worried by the price of commodities and the

political situation. The King fired all of his ministers, in particular Necker

who was his financial advisor (and a strong supporter of the National

Assembly). That is what led the people to start

protesting in the streets. When they realized how many soldiers

the King had brought, they got in a Frenzy of fear,

they took up weapons and started fires in the city, the anger

in the streets reached its maximum,

and on July 14, the people

stormed the Bastille.

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Storming the Bastille

Events of the night of July 13, 1789

Reasons for the attack on the Bastille the next morning

The stubbornness of the governor of the fortress

Celebrations on the night of July 14th

Sparks tremendous popular revolution all over France

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France becomes a Constitutional Monarchy

Faced with the power of his revolting subjects, Louis XVI finally accorded recognition to the National Assembly and accepted the principle that his powers would from now on be checked by a constitution. On the night of 4 August 1789, the Assembly passed a decree abolishing the feudal system of obligations and taxes. Members of the clergy too were forced to give up their privileges. Tithes were abolished and lands owned by the Church were confiscated. As a result, the government acquired assets worth at least 2 billion livres.

The National Assembly completed the draft of the constitution in 1791. Its main object was to limit the powers of the monarch. These powers instead of being concentrated in the hands of one person, were now separated and assigned to different institutions – the legislature, executive and judiciary. This made France a constitutional monarchy.

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Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens

Freedom of

religion

Freedom of

speech

Freedom of the press

Guaranteed

property rights

“Liberty, equality, fraternity

!”

Right of the

people to create laws

Right to a fair trial

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Declaration of the Rights of Woman

Journalist Olympe de

Gouges argued in her Declaration of the Rights of Woman that women are

equal citizens and should

benefit from governmental reforms just as men did.

Madame Jeanne

Roland also served as a

leader in the women’s

rights movement,

and was able to heavily

influence her husband (a government

official).

Women did gain some rights during the French Revolution, but these were designed for purposes other than liberating women. • Women could inherit

property, but only because doing so weakened feudalism and reduced wealth among the upper classes.

• Divorce became easier, but only to weaken the Church’s control over marriage.

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THE JACOBINS

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Formation of the Jacobin’s Club• The revolutionary wars brought losses and economic difficulties to the

people. While the men were away fighting at the front, women were left to cope with the tasks of earning a living and looking after their families. Large sections of the population were convinced that the revolution had to be carried further, as the Constitution of 1791 gave political rights only to the richer sections of society. Political clubs became an important rallying point for people who wished to discuss government policies and plan their own forms of action. The Jacobin Club was the most famous political club of the French Revolution. So called from the Dominican convent where they originally met in the Rue St. Jacques (Latin: Jacobus), Paris. It originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles as a group of Breton deputies to the Estates General of 1789

• After The Estates-General of 1789 was convened at Versailles, the club was first composed exclusively of deputies from Brittany, but they were soon joined by other deputies from regions throughout France. Among its early members were the dominating Mirabeau, Parisian deputy Abbé Sieyès, Dauphiné deputy Antoine Barnave, Jérôme Pétion, the Abbé Grégoire, Charles Lameth, Alexandre Lameth, Robespierre, the duc d'Aiguillon, and La Revellière-Lépeaux. It also counted Indian ruler Tipu Sultan among its ranks. At this time its meetings occurred in secret and few traces remain of what took place at them, or where they were convened.

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Maximillian Robespierre Maximilien Robespierre (Maximilien François

Marie Isidore de Robespierre) was born on May 6th, 1758, in Arras where his father was based as an advocate. Robespierre and his three younger siblings were brought up by diverse relatives after their father dramatically lost his way in life after the death of his wife in childbirth in 1767. Robespierre was educated for a short time at a College in Arras and then in Paris initially at the very prestigious College of Louis-le-Grand and later at the College of Law.   Robespierre qualified as an advocate in 1781 and sought to establish a legal practice at his home town of Arras. He became known both as a successful advocate and as a participant in local literary and philosophic circles.

Leader of the Jacobin’s Club

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TERROR REIGN

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Louis XVI was beheaded on 21’st January 1793 in Paris at the Place de la Concorde along with his wife Marie Antoinette. This was the beginning of the Jacobins.

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The Reign of Terror cont.Execution of 40,000

“Enemies of the Nation”

Stress on radical definition of equality

Wanted a legal maximum on personal wealth

Wanted a regulation of commercial profits

End of Robespierre’s dictatorship on July 28, 1794

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A conspiracy overthrew Robespierre.On July 27, 1794, he was barred from speaking in public and was placed Under arrest.

An uprising by his supporters was thwarted, and on July 28 Robespierredied on the guillotine withhis other supporters. Eighty more followers of Robespierre were executed the next day.

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NAPOLEAN BONAPARTE

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The Directory (1794-1799)

Napoleon’s Rise to Power

Establishment of the Bank of France

Reconciliation with the Catholic Church

--Concordat of 1801

Heavy Censorship

Napoleon’s “Art of War”

Role Of the Napoleon Bonaparte

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Napoleon was martyred in the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Death of Napoleon Bonaparte

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Acknowledgement

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THANK YOU!

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