1. The French Revolution
The French Revolution posed a fundamental challenge to Europe’s existing political and social order.

2. Evidence Girondists (Jacobins) Louis XVI Mountain (Jacobins)
Paris Commune
The September Massacres
The Convention
sans-culottes
Reign of Terror
Committee of Public Safety
Lazare Carnot
levee en masse
Society of Revolutionary Republican Women
Jacques Danton
Maximilien Robespierre
“Republic of Virtue”
Law of 22 Prairial
Cult of the Supreme Being
Thermidorian Reaction
the “white terror”
Directory
Louis XVI
Marie Antoinette
Parlement of Paris
Estates General
First, Second, & Third Estates
Abbe Sieyes
Cahiers de Doleances
National Assembly
Tennis Court Oath
National Constituent Assembly
Fall of Bastille
The Great Fear
Declaration of the Rights of Man
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
emigrés
Edmund Burke
Declaration of Pillnitz
Legislative Assembly
Jacobin Club

3. Though the causes of the revolution were many, the main cause was the rising frustration of the bourgeoisie.
Noble Tax Privilege
By refusing to allow reform of the taxation system, the nobles set in motion the events that led to their loss of privilege.
Diversity in the nobility made it difficult for the nobility to put up a united front.
Old nobility vs. nobility of the robe
Some nobles had more liberal economic views
Lack of Royal Leadership
Louis XVI gave in to pressure from the nobles to restore noble power.
He gave the Third Estate double the number of representatives but did not change the system of voting in the Estates General.
He wavered back and forth between compromise and intransigence, right up to his attempted flight.
He was indecisive and incompetent, and some believed his wife was decadent, which alienated many from the regime.

4. Immediate Economic Crisis & Bad Harvest
American Revolution
The revolution in America hugely increased the financial difficulties of the king.
Many soldiers who had fought for American independence returned home imbued with new ideas about popular sovereignty.
Immediate Economic Crisis & Bad Harvest
The economic problems made the lives of the peasants and urban poor more insecure, which meant they were easily called to action and mob violence
Ideas of the Enlightenment
Particularly the ideas of John Locke and Rousseau, which were popularized by cheap, publications, created a demand fro responsive and reasonable government.

5. Frustrations of the Bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie were now wealthy but still excluded from political power except in individual roles.
They were also angry at the nobles because of their privileges, social pretensions, and disdain for the middle classes.
The bourgeoisie created wealth for France, and they demanded a constitutional government in which individual liberties and legal equality would be guaranteed and in which they could wield significant power.
The bourgeoisie had moved closer to the nobility in terms of values: both valued land ownership and the life of a gentlemen.
The bourgeoisie was not monolithic
some wealthy merchants and government officials were quite conservative
while others, particularly some lawyers, were liberal or even leaning toward radicalism.