THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

BACKGROUND Absolute monarch (Louis XVI) Social Structure (Three Estates) –1 st Estate – Clergy –2 nd Estate – Nobility –3 rd Estate – Bourgeoisie (wage earners & peasants This was called the “Old Regime”

CAUSES Enlightenment ideals – personal freedoms, equality Financial crisis – national debt, food shortages Poor leadership – indecisive and unpopular king

KEY PEOPLE Louis XVI – King of France, a weak ruler with no understanding of the French people’s plight Marie Antoinette – wife of Louis XVI, who was blamed by the French people for most of their problems Maximilien Robespierre – leader of the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror Jean-Paul Marat – leader of the people (revolutionaries) who published a radical journal

THREE PHASES FIRST – destruction of the Old Regime –Meeting of Estates-General, formation of National Assembly and the Tennis Court Oath (June 17-20, 1789) –Declaration of the Rights of man and the Citizen (Aug 26, 1789) –Women’s march on Versailles (Oct 5, 1789) –Constitution of 1791 (establishing a constitutional monarchy SECOND – Radical phase (Reign of Terror) –Execution of the king (Jan 21, 1793) –Formation of the Committee of Public Safety (Robespierre takes over) (Spring of 1793) –Robespierre executed by National Convention (July 28, 1794)

Continued: THIRD – Directory (Aug 1795) –Five directors rule France under a new constitution –Dependence on military to maintain control –Widespread corruption among the Directors and their bureaucracy

RESULTS End of Absolutism Improved economic and legal systems in France Increased democratic ideals and the principles of the revolution Gave rise to the empire of Napoleon