THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

FOUR STAGES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION THE MODERATE STAGE (1789-1792) THE RADICAL STAGE (1792-1795) THE REACTIONARY STAGE (1795-1799) THE NAPOLEONIC STAGE (1799-1814)

Underlying Causes SOCIAL ?? POLITICAL ?? RELIGIOUS ?? INTELLECTUAL ?? TECNOLOGICAL ?? ECONOMIC ??

SOCIAL French Estate System

SOCIAL - First Estate Clergy  RCC leaders 130,000 total (0.5% of population) Own 10% of land No mandatory tax “Voluntary gift” Taxed residents on their land Collected TITHE

SOCIAL – Second Estate Nobility 400,000 total (1.5% of population) Own 25% of land Taxed VERY minimally Had “optional” taxes Had manorial rights Would tax residents on their land

SOCIAL – Third Estate EVERYONE ELSE 25 million total (97% of population) HEAVILY TAXED 3 Subgroups BOURGEOISIE Doctors, lawyers, etc. WORKERS Artisans, skilled laborers PEASANTS 21 million people

SOCIAL – Third Estate Problems in 3rd Estate Bourgeoisie want: Abolition to mercantilist restrictions Fairer distribution of taxes A GREATER VOICE IN GOVERNMENT Peasants want: Freedom from serfdom Freedom from HIGH TAXES Gabelle – salt tax Taille – land tax BOTH SEEK REVOLT

SOCIAL – Third Estate Abbe Sieyes – 1789: “Therefore, what is the Third Estate? Everything; but an everything shackled and oppressed. What would it be without the privileged order? Everything; but an everything free and flourishing.”

SOCIAL Unpopular Court Nobility Tension between bourgeoisie and nobility Resentment of noble privileges Nobles resistant to taxes Population increase - 20-26 million 18th century

POLITICAL Bourbon monarchs Louis XIV, XV, & XVI BIG SPENDERS Increasingly ineffective DEBT Rule by divine right Lettres de Cachet – individuals could be sentence without trial

POLITICAL Louis XVI (r. 1774-1791) Indecisive – vacillation Estates General dismissed for 175 years Nobles want to limit power Marie Antoinette – 1770 political marriage Young, frivolous

RELIGIOUS James Gillray (1793) “The Zenith of French Glory –The Pinnacle of Liberty, Religion, Justice, Loyalty, and all the bugbears of Unenlightened Minds , Farewell!”

INTELLECTUAL ENLIGHTENMENT Montesquieu Voltaire Rousseau Locke Diderot Printing Press

INTELLECTUAL NEW INFLUENTIAL IDEAS Liberty Individual human rights Freedom of speech, religion, press, etc. Equality Right to vote, run for office, participate in government EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY Only applied to MEN “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”

TECHNOLGICAL PRINTING PRESS GUILLOTINE Commoners – Hanged Aristocracy – beheaded “SYMBOL OF EQUALITY” Joseph Guillotin (1738-1814) Antoine Lewis (1723 – 1792) Used from 1791-1981

ECONOMIC Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) Wars of Louis XIV Versailles American Revolution UNLIMITED PERSONAL EXPENSES ALL = GREAT

ECONOMIC INEFFECTIVE TAX SYSTEM Dismissal of several finance ministers Problems with Parlement of Paris Continually refused to register new taxes $$$ of bread ↑ Caused by poor harvests, ↑ in populations, and harsh winters

ECONOMIC CAUSE Jacques Turgot (1727-1781) – controller general of finances – cut gov’t spending – 20 months after he was appointed 1774 he was dismissed Jacques Necker (1732-1804) – dismissed in 1781 and then recalled in 1788 July 1788 – Louis XVI - to win support for new taxes called into session the Estates General

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

The MODERATE Stage (Bourgeoisie)

ESTATES-GENERAL (1789) Called by Louis XVI to resolve the financial crisis Meets May 5, 1789 First Estates-General since 1614! (175 years) The three estates DO agree on some things Limiting royal absolutism Granting basic freedoms Voting system Each estate still only gets ONE VOTE

THE SECOND ESTATE = 1 Vote THE VOTE THE FIRST ESTATE = 1 Vote 300 reps THE SECOND ESTATE = 1 Vote 300 reps THE THIRD ESTATE = 1 Vote 648 reps

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY 3rd Estate declares itself the National Assembly (June 17, 1789) Invites both 1st and 2nd Estate to join Louis orders them to disband (June 27, 1789) **Seen as first great act of French Rev**

THE TENNIS COURT OATH June 20, 1789 Louis XVI locks the doors of the meeting room – Versailles National Assembly moves to an indoor tennis court Vows not to disband until a constitution is formed

LOUIS XVI June 27, 1789 - Ordered the National Assembly to Disband (STRONG) Response “..We are here by the will of the people, and that we will go only if we are driven out by bayonets” (WEAK) ordered the first two estates to join the National Assembly Moderate middle class and liberal nobility in control – transfer of power Louis – Swiss and German mercenaries stationed - Paris & Versailles

STORMING OF THE BASTILLE Rumor = King was planning a military coup against the National Assembly Bastille French Royal Prison – 7 prisoners Was a symbol of the abuse of power Stormed on July 14, 1789 People want … GUNPOWDER Is looted and destroyed by French people 18 died, 73 wounded, 7 guards killed July 14th = French independence day BOOM!

STORMING OF THE BASTILLE IMPACT City now has an armed force Marquis de Lafayette becomes the commander TRICOLOR FLAG EMERGES Power shifts from King  National Assembly More uprisings followed Many landowners killed and their property destroyed LEADS TO THE “GREAT FEAR” Faced with great pressure, nobles concede a plethora of privileges (no more feudal dues)

FLAG OF PARIS BOURBON FLAG LIBERTY EQUALITY FRATERNITY

THE GREAT FEAR Time period where rumors spread (summer of 1789) Rumors included: King mounting a counterattack Nobles attempting to put down revolution Peasants ruthlessly killed nobles and destroyed their estates They also burn any legal documents tying them to the land Queen was hording grain at Versailles

LIMITING THE MONARCHY National Assembly issues the Declaration of the Rights of Man (Aug. 27, 1789) Called for basic human rights in France “Liberty, security, and prosperity” Ended feudal rights of nobles over peasants = to American Declaration of Independence Was mass produced and spread throughout FRA and Europe One question remains: HOW MUCH POWER SHOULD THE KING HAVE?

DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN 1791 Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) Written in response to the Constitution of 1791 “Social contract between men and women” Rejected by the National Assembly

WOMEN’S MARCH ON VERSAILLES After the fall of the Bastille, many nobles fled Versailles and left the country Thus,  in demand for luxuries Women, who made these luxuries as a source of income, now see dwindling profits Toppled with  in price of wheat, many women and families began to go HUNGRY October 5, 1789  7,000 women storm Versailles (OCTOBER DAYS)

WOMEN’S MARCH ON VERSAILLES Stormed the palace looking for … MARIE ANTOINETTE “We are going to cut off her head, tear out her heart, fry her liver, and that won’t be the end of it” National Guard saves king, but he had to agree to go live in Paris (Tuileries Palace) Abolishes French nobility as legal order Sets out to create a constitutional monarchy KING now a ceremonial figurehead

THE CIVIL CONSTITUION OF THE CLERGY The National Assembly confiscated land from RCC WHY? TO FINANCE THE NEW GOV’T ABOLISHED THE TITHE The French government would now pay the salary of the clergy Bishops and priests elected by the people Oath of allegiance? FRANCE or THE RCC RCC branch of the STATE

THE KING’S FLIGHT Amidst great fear and diminishing power, Louis and family attempt to flee June 20, 1791 Louis is arrested in Varennes and sent back to Paris (was only miles from the border) King abandoning people - counterrevolutionary Some argue that the King’s flight = TREASON (JACOBINS)

PICTURE: Lynn Hunt

CONSTITUTION OF 1791 Completed September 3, 1791 Redefined French government Three branches National Assembly = Legislative Assembly Executive = King (only real power = VETO) Judicial ABOLISHED THE ESTATES SYSTEM Franchise = tax-paying males constitutional monarchy

ROAD TO WAR Leopold II and Frederick William II Austria, Prussia  fear republics Issue the Declaration of Pillnitz - August 1791 Brunswick Manifesto – July 1792 Intervene if French revolutionaries infringed on Louis XVI’s rights and did not restore him to power French revolutionaries take this as threat, and declare war on Austria (April 20, 1792) PROBLEM = CIVIL WAR /FOREIGN WAR

THE FIRST COALITION FRANCE AUSTRIA PRUSSIA BRITIAN SPAIN PIEDMONT DUKE OF BRUNSWICK - “if the royal family is harmed France will be leveled” FRANCE AUSTRIA PRUSSIA BRITIAN SPAIN PIEDMONT 1792-1797

SUCCESSES OF THE MODERATE STAGE Abolished special privileges Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen Reduce the power and influence of the Roman Catholic Church, KING Reformed local gov’t – 83 EQUAL districts Constitution of 1791

Picture – Lynn Hunt

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

The Radical Stage

SHIFT TOWARDS RADICALISM Why did the revolution become more radical after 1792? (MULTIPLE RESAONS) Threat from foreign nations to restore the monarchy Counterrevolutionaries Attempted escape of royal family Bad ECONOMY Rapid inflation High $$$ of bread more drastic measures need TO BE taken

The Causes of Instability in France 1792 - 1795 Attitudes & actions of monarchy & court Fear of Counter-Revolution Religious divisions The Causes of Instability in France 1792 - 1795 Political divisions Economic Crises War SLIDE CREATED BY SUE POJER

POLITICAL SPECTRUM The Plain (swing votes) 1790s: Montagnards (“The Mountain”) Girondists Monarchíen (Royalists) Jacobins SLIDE CREATED BY SUE POJER

THE JACOBINS Debating Society (Former Monastery) Robespierre, Danton, Marat (Jacobins) Instrumental in the creation of THE FIRST REPUBLIC RADCIAL – “In order for the revolution to live the King must die” – Robespierre

THE SAN-CULOTTES “without knee-breeches” Working class Shopkeepers, artisans, tradesman Symbolic of patriotism Idealism of the French Revolution

NATIONAL CONVENTION Sept. 1792 New elections, new constitution is formed, and RADICALS take charge Advocated for by sans- culottes Storm Tuileries Palace DEMAND UNIVERSAL MANHOOD SUFFRAGE

NATIONAL CONVENTION 1st action = abolish the King Sept. 22, 1792 Politically divided = Jacobins, Mountain Men Girondins, Royalists YEAR I – FRENCH REPUBLIC IS BORN Should the King die? VOTE – 387 to 334

CHILDREN OF MARIE ANTOINETTE Sophie – (1786-1787) Marie Therese (1778- 1851) Louis Joseph (1781-1789) Louis Charles (1785-1795) (LOUIS XVII) ***