1. French Revolution

2. Documentary and Crash Course

3. The Crisis of the French Monarchy
Seven’s Year- left French monarchy in debt
Support of the American Revolution further endangered Financial stability
Louis XV and Louis XVI were unable to solve taxation disputes with the parlements
Jacques Necker- issued a report blaming the aristocratic government for France’s financial troubles

4. Crisis Continued Charles Alexandre de Calonne proposed new taxes:
Taxes on salt-Gabelle
Tax on landowners regardless of status
Meeting with Calonne:
Assembly of Notables
Claimed that they had no authority to consent to new taxes only Estates General had the Right
1788 Louis XVI agreed to convene the Estates General

5. The Revolution of 1789 Estates General
First Estate (the Clergy)
Second Estate (the nobility)
Third Estate (wealthy members of professional middle class)
First conflict that arose was the organization the Estates General
After calling the Estates General conflicts emerge between the Aristocrats (2nd Estate) and Bourgeoisie (3rd estate)

6. Revolution Continued
Cahiers de Doleances- list of grievances presented to the Monarchy
The Third Estate petitioned the king fro equality of rights among the king’s subjects

7. Tennis Court Oath
After a standoff the third estate leave and assembles at a near by tennis court
Invite Nobility and Clergy to join (some do but a majority do not)
June 17th 1789-
Take an oath of loyalty known as the Tennis court oath)
declare itself the National Constituend Assembly

8. Bastille
July 14, Parisians stormed Bastille (prison where they hold debt violations and political activists)
Search for weapons for the citizen militia in response to presence of royal troops in the city
Crowd stormed the fortress, released prisoners, killed troops and governor

9. The Great Fear
Driven by peasants who felt they were reclaiming what was rightfully theirs but what had been lost t aristocrats over time

10. Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen
August 1789
Set Forth by the National Assembly
Claimed that all men “were born to remain free and equal in rights”
Louis XVI was forced by a group of women to return from Versailles to Paris
After First Hesitating Louis XVI sanctioned the measures

11. The Reconstruction of France
National Constituent Assembly reforms:
Men paying annual taxes equal to three days of local labor were allowed to vote
Women could not vote or hold office
This law transferred power from aristocratic wealth to anyone who accumulated land or property
Judical Adminstration:
83 departments replaced the ancient provinces

12. Reforms Continued
Suppressed guilds (artisan organizations), liberated grain trade, established the metric system
Confiscated Church property and sold it to pay for debts
Civil Constitution of the Clergy- the result of the reconstruction of the Roman Catholic Church into a branch of the secular state
Emigres- wealthy who left France and settled on the border to plot a revolution

13. Second Revolution Jacobins- desired more radical reform
Known as the Girondists (Jacobins in Legislative body)
ordered the emigres to return from border
Demanded clergy who refused to take the oath to support the civil constitution to do so or lose state pensions
Louis XVI vetoed both acts

14. August of 1792 A Parisian crowd invaded the Tuileries Palace
forced Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to take refuge in Legislative Body
Louis XVI loses power to the Paris Commune a committee of representatives from wards of Paris
September Massacres- Paris Commune Murders about 1,200 people in jail
The Convention (a new assembly) declared France a Republic
December 1792 Louis XVI was executed
A month later France is at war with England, Holland, Spain and Prussia

15. Europe at War with the Revolution
Edmund Burke- a British statesmen and Irish born writer condemned the Revolution for its extreme measures
Reflections on the Revolution in France
William Pitt (England) and other European leaders (Prussia and Russia) would discourage popular uprisings

16. The Reign of Terror
The revolutionary government established a series of committees to protect its new creation
Committee of General Security and Committee of Public Safety
Carried out executive duties of the government
A levee en masse:
a military conscription for all males in the population was mobilized to defend the country
Citizen led army led to Reign of the Terror

17. Reign of Terror Continued
Autumn of mid-summer 1794:
A period marked by quasi-judicial executions
Christian calendar was replaced by a secular calendar and all other places of worship were “de-christianized”
Executions grew increasingly arbitrary
Sans-culottes revolutionaries served as victims as well as persecutors
Marie Antoinette and other members of the royal family were the first victims

18. Reign of Terror Continued
Maximilien Robespierre- powerful member of the Committee for Public Safety
Established the “cult of the Supreme Being”
A civic religion modeled after the views of Rousseau
Encouraged the execution of key republican political figures including committee colleague Jacques Danton
Robespierre would also be executed during this period
The reign of terror would claim more than 25,000 victims

19. The Thermidorian Reaction
Involved:
Political reconstruction
Abandoned constitution of 1793
The Convention issued the Constitution of the Year III
Provided for a legislature of two houses:
Upper Body (Council of Elders)- consisted of men over 40 who were husbands or widowers
Lower council of 500- consisted of men who were at least 30 years old and either married or single
The executive body was a 5 person directory chosen by the elders from a list submitted by the Council of 500