1. Unit 3 Notes French Revolution

3. Major Themes of the French Revolution
Liberty Equality Fraternity

4. The Stars of the French Revolution
Just 18 years old when she became Queen. Her obsession with fashion would help put France even further into debt earning her the nickname, Madam Deficient.
King Louis XVI
He was tutored by French noblemen and studied religion, morality, and humanities.
At age 15 Louis married the 14 year-old Habsburg Archduchess Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette

5. Growing Discontent I. Growing Discontent with the French Monarchy.
A. The Three Estates:
The French population was made up of three estates based on economic status.
1st Estate: The Clergy
2nd Estate: The Nobility
3rd Estate: The Peasantry
2. The Third Estate was the poorest of the citizens.
3. The Third Estate made up 97% of the population.
4. The Three Estates made up the Estates-General a sort of advisory board for the King. The King had not called on the Estates-General since 1614.

6. B. Population Increases
Epidemic diseases, such as the Plague, are now rare and no longer control populations numbers.
Families were having more kids to help work their land or bring in more income.
Food Prices, especially bread were sky rocketing. (Upset Mothers; could not feed their children!)

7. C. The Financial Crises
Under King Louis XIV France’s Monarchy would continually spend more money than it brought in.
Louis XIV would earn the nickname The Sun King because he felt that just as the planets revolved around the Sun that all of France should revolve around him.
His self serving rule of over 72 years, the longest of any European monarch, would set the standard for absolutism.

8. 4. The Palace of Versailles was built under King Louis XIV’s reign
4. The Palace of Versailles was built under King Louis XIV’s reign. It was considered the finest in all of Europe.
King Louis XIV
Louis XIV, The Sun King, once boasted, “I am the State!”.

9. II. King Louis XVI The troubles continue
Louis XVI takes over the throne in 1774 as a teenager.
Louis sees an opportunity to hurt France’s arch enemy Britain and seek revenge for his grandfather’s defeats by helping fund the American Revolution.
Louis sends millions of dollars to the States completely bankrupting France.

10. B. The Citizens Respond
Years of financial mismanagement coupled with the growing poverty and food shortages had the people outraged.
May of 1789 King Louis XVI calls on a meeting of the Estates-General.
In June the 3rd Estate was locked out of the meeting and forced to meet in a tennis court where they would take the “Tennis Court” oath and form a National Assembly. This event is considered by some to be the beginning of the French Revolution.

11. 4. On July 14, 1789 the citizens of France stormed the Bastille Prison in a sign of rebellion killing the guards and stealing its supply of gunpowder.

12. Bastille once stood where that building is.

13. 5. The citizens soon stormed the Palace of Versailles and forced the King to sign The Declarations of the Rights of Man giving French citizens basic civil rights and freeing them from oppression. 6. They also forced the King and Queen to return to France and listen to their subjects.
Declarations of the Rights of Man
Fearsome Fish Ladies

14. III. Leadership
A. A lawyer, who was once a member of the 3rd Estate, would rise up to take the mantel of leadership for the revolution. His name; Maximilian Robespierre
He would put both King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette on trial for treason and have them execute for their crimes against France.
He would gain nearly dictatorial control of France during a period of time referred to as Reign of Terror. A time period in which he would have anyone suspected of being an enemy of the revolution executed.
Eventually when everyone behind the revolution began to fear that they too might be considered an enemy they rebelled against Robespierre and had him sent to the Guillotine.

15. Square where King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and Robespierre were all executed.

16. B. The Guillotine
1. Designed to bring equality to even death the guillotine was thought to be a more humane and equal means of execution.
2. Under Robespierre’s leadership as many 40,000 French citizens may have been sent to the Guillotine. He was not its final victim.

17. IV. The Results
In the midst of all the paranoia, war, chaos, and murder, the French Revolution would bring about much needed change to France.
Among the changes:
1. Bread to the Poor – Food prices are stabilized
2. Democracy to France – in the form of a Republic
3. A whole new order to society – Archaic class distinctions are outlawed.