1. The French Revolution

2. Vocabulary
Three estates – France’s 3 social classes: the clergy (1st), the nobility (2nd), and everyone else (3rd)
Bourgeoisie – the middle class and highest level of the 3rd estate
Estates-General – France’s legislative, law-making, body in which each estate had one vote
National Assembly – Revolutionary legislature formed when the 1st & 2nd estates locked the 3rd estate out of the Estates-General
Tennis Court Oath – Oath taken by the National Assembly to not leave until there was a new French Constitution

3. More Vocabulary
Bastille – Parisian prison that was destroyed July 14th 1789 as crowds searched for weapons and gunpowder to protect themselves from the French Army
Sans-culottes – working class revolutionaries who pushed for a republic and wanted to end the monarchy
Jacobins – middle class lawyers and intellectuals who were in favor of a republic
Émigré – clergy and nobles who fled France and revolutionaries with tales of mob violence that frightened many European monarchs

4. Last slide of Vocabulary
Suffrage – the right to vote
Robespierre – leader of the Committee of Public Safety, a Jacobin, he took control of the French Revolution and began the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror – September 1793 – July 1794 which tried about 300,000 individuals and executed 17,000 “enemies of the revolution”
Nationalism – feelings of pride and love for one’s country

5. King Louis XIV video

11. French Society: divided into three estates
First Estate: Second Estate:
Third Estate :

12. The First Estate: Clergy
First Estate: made up of the clergy, or religious leaders.
About 130,000 people
Didn’t have to pay the taille, which was France’s biggest tax
However, the clergy was radically divided
Higher clergy shared interest of the nobility and were very wealthy
Parish priests were usually poor and from the class of commoners

13. The Second Estate: Nobility
Second Estate: Nobility (owned about 25-30% of all the land in France)
About 350,000 people
Held many of the leading positions in the government, military, law courts and higher church offices
Also were exempt from many taxes, including the taille

14. Third Estate- Divided into three sub classes:
1. Merchants and artisans
Rich and well educated (liberal ideologies)
2.Working Class (cooks, servants, and others)
Poor wage earners
Price of bread was very important to them
3. Farmers (80% of people)
Heavily taxed, had to work for nobles/
clergy for free

15. France’s National Problems
Crop failures led to grain shortages
Large debt due to Wars (in the Americas)
Bankers refused to lend more money
3. Weak leader

16. King and Queen of France
Louis XVI-
Great Grandson of Louis XIV
Not very focused on his duties
Wanted to have fun (hunt, play with locks, etc)
Marie Antoinette-
Daughter of Austrian Maria Theresa
big spender

17. Louis is forced to call the Estates-General (May 1789)
meeting of all 3 estates
first time in 175 yrs.
Each estate gets 1 vote
(clergy had one, nobles had one)
3rd Estate was always
outvoted by the other two estates

18. Estates-General of May 1789
Estates-General called at request of 1st & 2nd Estates
Goal: To limit the powers of the monarchy
Similar to England’s Glorious Revolution
1st and 2nd Estate
feared losing money from Louis’ big spending…wanted to control him
3rd Estate
complained about unequal voting rights.
Estates-General refused to listen to them and the 3rd Estate was locked out.

19. Tennis Court Oath (June 1789)
Third Estate met separately
New name=National Assembly
Declared that the Assembly, not the king, were the voice of the people

20. Rumors start Tennis Court Oath (National Assembly is formed)
Rumor of King’s army coming to stop the NA meetings
People storm the Bastille to get ready (get gun powder)
King fears that the people are going revolt
More rumors of nobles hiring troops to kill peasants in countryside
Peasants react to the rumors by burning noble’s homes (The Great Fear-summer of 1789)

22. Louis was so disconnected from his people…
Louis was so disconnected from the people that he wrote in journal (on the day of the Storming of the Bastille) “Rein” or “nothing happened” referring to his afternoon hunt

23. Palace of Versailles (where King Louis is living)

24. The Great Fear (July 20th – August 5th 1789)

25. Declaration of the Rights of Man
Issued August 26, 1789
“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”
Women were not included
Right to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression
Sets up a Constitutional Monarchy

26. Slogan of Revolution
“Liberty, Equality,
and Fraternity
(brotherhood)”

27. Women’s Bread Riot, October 5th 1789
Price of bread (and other necessities) rise
Thousands of women took up arms and marched 12 miles to Versailles (King’s palace)
Killed two guards
Forced the king and his family to move to Paris

28. Louis tries to escape France (June 1791)
On his way to Austria
Stopped by townsmen and guards
Many argue that the King is not to be trusted

29. France’s Radical Groups:
Political Spectrum:
Right
Conservative, wants to go back to old times
Left
Liberal, wants extreme change
France’s Radical Groups:
Sans-culottes:
“those without knee breeches”
mobs wage earners of the cities
far left supporters
Émigrés:
nobles and clergy who fled France
Far right supporters

30. Europe turns against the Revolution
Austria (Marie’s Homeland) feared that the revolution against nobility would spread to other nations.
Austria declared war on France in 1792, later joined by Prussia, Holland, Spain, and England..
French Émigrés joined with the foreigners.
Austrian and Prussian forces near Paris and threatened to destroy Paris if the Royal family was harmed
Outraged Parisian mob kills the King’s Swiss guards and imprisons the royal family in a tower.

32. The Last Straw: the September Massacre (1792)
The Sans-culottes hear that they are losing power and kill over a 1,000 noble, clergy & other prisoners
Power is transferred to the Left Radicals called the Jacobins
No longer interested in allowing a Monarch to govern: now they want a new form of government

33. King No More The revolutionaries defeat the invading armies
The Jacobins establish a Republic.
Louis is beheaded by the Guillotine (Jan. 1793)

34. Guillotine
Decapitation was punishment for nobility=now equal

35. New Leader: Maximilien Robespierre
Revolution goes past politics
Slavery is outlawed
Death penalty is outlawed (predict: why is this ironic?)
Religious Freedom for Jews and Protestants
Playing cards—no jacks, queens and kings
Calendar was changed to 12 months 30 days each
10 day week, no Sundays
(religion seen as old fashion)
All churches were closed
Bread prices were controlled

36. Committee of Public Safety (July 1793 to July 1794)
Led by Robespierre
Ordered to root out traitors of the Revolution
No one was safe
Neighbor turned on neighbor

37. Reign of Terror Run by the Committee of Public Safety Killed:
Marie Antoinette
early leaders of the revolution
fellow Jacobins
Robespierre was killed (July 1794)
About 40,000 people had been killed, most=commoners

38. The Directory Five Moderates Next and final leaders of the revolution
Corrupt and relatively weak
Could not provide stability
Bread prices increase again
New movement to restore the Monarch
Not ideal, but compared to the Terror it was breath of fresh air to the weary French people

39. Napoleon Bonaparte
…ends the Revolution but that’s another story…