1. The French Revolution Unfolds Summer Jarrett

2. The French Revolution The revolution was divided into different phases by historians. 1789-1791 was the moderate phase in which France turned into a constitutional monarchy. 1792-1794 was the radical phase where violence escalated which led to the end of the monarchy. 1795-1799 was the directory phase which was the period of reaction against extremism. 1799-1815 was the age of Napoleon this was the time period in which many revolutionary changes were made.

3. Political Crisis Leads to Revolt 1789 was the time of a political crisis. Hungry peasants lurked around the countryside, others flocked to town where they increased the level of unemployment. The price of grain increased to the point where people had to spend 80% of their income on bread. During this time rumors were spread around town that government troops were taking away peasants crops. Because of these rumors peasants released their fury on nobles who wanted peasant's to pay fees. Peasants revolted by setting records on fire, stealing grain from stores. As time passed the attacks died down but they represented the peasants anger towards the way they were being treated.

4. Paris Commune Comes to Power Paris was the center of the revolution. Groups of people competed to gain power in France. Some people turned to Marquis de Lafayette who fought with George Washington in the American Revolution. He was the leader of the largest middle class militia organized for the arrival of royal troops in Paris. (National Guard) The National Guard was the first group to use the red, white and blue badge, after time the flag of France adopted these colours. The Paris Commune replaced the royalist government of the city. They mobilized whole neighbourhoods for protests to add fuel to the revolution.

5. National Assembly Acts August 4 th nobles in the national assembly voted to end their own privileges. They agreed to give up their old manorial dues, hunting rights special legal status, and exemptions of taxes. During this act Feudalism was abolished. The national assembly turned the reforms of August 4 th into law. In late August the assembly issued the declaration of the rights of man and the citizen. The document was modeled from the American declaration of Independence. All men were born and remain free and equal in rights. They had natural rights to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. The declaration allowed freedom of religion. It also called for taxes according to ability to pay.

6. Continued Many women were disappointed because in the declaration of rights men were not considered equal to women based on the amount of rights men had. 1791 a journalist by the name of Olympe de Gouges, he demanded equal rights in the declaration of the rights of women and the female citizen. She felt that women’s rights should be equal to men's rights for all public offices, positions, and jobs. Later in the revolution, Olympe de Gouges was imprisoned and executed.

7. Women march on Versailles On October 5 th 6000 women marched 13 miles in the pouring rain from Paris to Versailles. They demanded to see the king. Most of the women were upset with the Austrian born Queen Marie Antoinette. She lived a life of great happiness. She was compassionate towards the poor, but because she was so wealth she wasn’t liked by most of the women in France. The was against reforms, she often went on retreats in a palace in Versailles where she lived a life of great amusement. The women who endured in the march wouldn’t not leave Versailles until the king met their most important goal. After great debate the king finally agreed. The next morning the crowd and the king set out for the city. At the head of the crowd women rode on barrels. They told spectators that they were bringing Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their son back to Paris.

8. National Assembly Presses Onward The National Assembly followed the King to Paris, they worked to draft a constitution to solve the continuing financial crisis. To pay off the government debt, the assembly voted to take over and sell church lands. They put the French Catholic Church under state control. 1790 bishops and priests became elected, salaried officials under the civil constitution of the clergy. The civil constitution ended papal authority over the French church and dissolved convents and monasteries. Many bishops and priests refused to accept the laws in the civil constitution. Many French peasants were conservative when it came to religion, also rejected the laws. When the government punished clergy who refused to support the civil constitution, there was a huge gap between revolutionaries in Paris, and the peasantry in the provinces.

9. The Constitution of 1791 establishes a New Government The national assembly completed its main task by producing the constitution. The constitution set up a limited monarchy in place of the absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries. A New legislative assembly had the power to make laws, collect taxes, and agree on issues on war and peace. Lawmakers were elected by tax-paying male citizens over age 25. In efforts to make government more efficient, the constitution replaces the old provinces with 83 departments of roughly equal size. The constitution abolished the old provincial courts, and it reformed laws. To most reformers the constitution completed the revolution, because it achieved the enlightenment goals, it included equality for all male citizens and ended Church interference in government. It put power in the hands of men who wished to serve in the government.

10. Louis’s Escape Fails Marie Antoinette and others had been urging the king to escape their humiliating situation. In June of 1791, a coach came north from Paris towards the border. The king was inside disguised as a servant, the queen was masked as a governess, and the royal children. The plan to escape failed, in town on the way back to Paris Louis's disguise was uncovered. A company of soldiers escorted the royal family back to Paris, as the crowd hurled insults to the king. Louis’s attempted escape to the border showed that he was traitor to the revolution.

11. Radicals Take Over Supporters of the enlightenment applauded the reforms of the National Assembly. European rulers and nobles denounced the French Revolution. They increased border patrols to stop the spread of the French plague. Nobles and the clergy who fled France during the revolutionary forces, they reported attacks on their privileges, property, religion and their lives. Even many “enlightened” rulers turned against France. Louis’s failed escape brought further hostile rumblings from abroad. In August of 1791, the king of Prussia and the emperor of Austria issued the declaration of Pilnitz. It stated that two monarchs threatened to intervene to protect the French monarchy. Revolutionaries in France took the threat seriously and prepared for war. The revolution was about to enter a new, more radical phase of change and conflict.

12. Radicals Fight For Power and Declare War In October of 1791 the newly elected legislative assembly took office. It only survived for less tan a year, economic problems fed renewed turmoil. Assignats, the revolutionary currency, dropped in value, which caused prices to raise. In Paris and other cities, working-class men and women, pushed the revolution into action. 1791 they demanded a republic, which is a government ruled by elected representatives instead of monarch. In the legislative assembly, many people competed for power. The Jacobins were middle-class lawyers. Opposing the radicals were moderate reformers and political officials who wanted no more reforms at all.

13. The National Assembly Declares War on Tyranny The radicals soon held the upper hand in the legislative assembly. April 1792, the war of words between French revolutionaries and European monarchs moved onto the battlefield. Eager to spread the revolution and destroy tyranny abroad. The Assembly declared was first on Austria and then on Prussia, Britain, and other states. The great powers thought they would win against France, a land divided by revolution. The fighting that began in 1792 lasted on and off until 1815