1. The French Revolution
Part 1

2. Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI
The French Monarchy:
Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI

3. Social Structure Commoners 3rd Estate Clergy (0.5%) Nobility (1.5%)
Aristocracy
2nd Estate
Clergy
1st Estate
Clergy (0.5%)
Nobility (1.5%)
Everyone Else (98%)
Louis XIV insisted that the ancient distinction of the three orders be conserved in its entirety.

4. Living Conditions of France 1780s
France is poor, bankrupt from American Revolution
Monarchy spend a lot of $$$$
Peasants pay taxes. Nobility and Clergy are exempt.
Famine: food shortage + rising taxes = Bread Riots

5. Convocation of Estate General
Last time it was called into session was 1614!
May 1789
First meeting after 175 years
Meeting of 3 social classes
Discuss what to do about fiscal crisis.
King locks 3RD Estate out of meeting next day.
They meet in the tennis courts.
Tennis Court Oath, creates the National Assembly (Parliament-like system) and begins writing Constitution (June 20, 1789).

6. “The Tennis Court Oath” by Jacques Louis David
June 20, 1789
King realized 3rd estate is not backing down
Allows meeting to continue
King’s financial advisor sides with 3rd estate
King fires him.

7. “The Third Estate Awakens”
The commoners finally presented their credentials not as delegates of the Third Estate, but as “representatives of the nation.”
They proclaimed themselves the “National Assembly” of France.

8. Bastille 3rd Estate needed to arm themselves against King and Army
Attack Bastille which held French arms
Bastille Prison represented Absolutism and abuse of Monarch power
Mayor is beheaded
National assembly accepts violence.
French Revolution Begins July 14, 1789

10. Storming the Bastille, July 14, 1789
The Tricolor (1789)
Blue = Liberty
White = Equality
Red = Brotherhood.

11. Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizens
Aug. 1789
Demands ideas set by the Enlightenment
Life, Liberty, security, equality, resistance to oppression, freedom of speech & press, no group exempt from taxation
Leaves out women and slaves
No mention of Monarch

12. Women’s March on Versailles
Oct Rumors of Queen hoarding grain
Demand King and Queen sign Declaration of Rights and move back to Paris.
King hesitates, women storm the palace
Behead guards, heads on sticks.
Capture King and Queen force them back to Paris leading with the heads of guards on a stick.

13. Louis XVI “Accepts” the Constitution & the National Assembly 1791
Counterinsurgencies occur throughout France
Nobles begin to Emigrate
June 1791 King and Queen try to sneak out of Paris into Austria. With the help of Marie Antoinette’s lover. Buhaaahaa.
Were disguised as servants
Recognized, arrested and taken back to Paris as captives
King on house arrest at Tuileries Palace in Paris.

14. Champ de Mars July 1791 Jacobins organize to eradicate King
Meet in Paris Park (Champ de Mars)
French troops fire into crowd
Killing 50 people who were armed with rocks.

15. Jacobins Revolutionaries Most radical political group Ruthless
Robespierre: Leader
See King as unnecessary / useless
King escaping is treason punished by death.
They call for a Republic: elected officials
Want to eliminate ideas of Medieval France and the 3 social classes

16. Declaration of Pillnitz
Aug. 1791
Austria and Prussia intend to bring the Monarchy back to power.
Threaten War
Leopold II of Austria: Brother of Marie Antoinette

17. Brunswick Manifesto (August 3, 1792)
Duke of Brunswick if the Royal Family is harmed, Paris will be leveled!!
Intended to intimidate Paris
Instead it increases radicalism (Pushes the Revolution Forward)
FRANCE
AUSTRIA PRUSSIA BRITAIN SPAIN

18. Guillotine Apr. 1792 New Killing Device Humane Death Penalty, equality
Invented by Dr. Joseph Guillotine