French revolution timeline

Prerevolutionary france: absolute monarchy

Bourbon Dynasty

Louis XVI

Versailles

Ancien Regime

Formal Social Classes

1st Estate - Clergy

2nd Estate - Nobility

3rd Estate - Everyone Else (97% of population)

Peasants to Middle Class

France's economic problems

Need to reform agriculture

Debt from wars

Inefficient administration and tax collection

Budget deficits

Resistance to Reform

France's foreign policy problems

Support for American Revolution incurs debt, spreads ideas about rebellion

Growing dependence on colonial economic output - St. Domingue

Debts from previous wars

estates general

Pressure on Louis XVI to address problems, seek advice for solutions

groups uneven

opening of the estates general

List of Grievances: Cahier de doleances

Fairness in taxes

Limit to privileges of nobility

End tithes to Church

Devotion to King

Not revolution, but...

Call for National Assembly

tennis court oath

Third Estate Members find themselves locked out of Hall

Sparks anger, fear resentment

Pledge taken in nearby tennis court to remain assembled until new constitution written

storming of the bastille

Rumors spread that King stationing soldiers, hiring mercenaries - fear that Assembly will be forcibly disbanded

Urban workers in Paris agitated, search for weapons, gunpowder - storm arsenal, Bastille

King orders troops withdrawn, endorses National Constituent Assembly

The great fear

Unrest spreads from city to countryside - peasants fearful of attacks on crops, angry about taxes, tithes, debts to nobility and church

Peasants attack nobles, estates, businesses

National Constituent Assembly has to respond to stop violence and unrest

National assembly votes to end privileges of nobility

Goals? - Reduce unrest in countryside, Reduce power of nobles hoping to stop revolutionary reform

Privileges Ended? - Payment of dues and taxes by the peasants to the nobility, Exclusive hunting rights and private tolls, Payment of tithes and purchase of public offices. , In theory, positions would now be gained by ability and merit

State Controlled Church

Catholic Church loses lands and political independence

Declaration of rights of man and citizen

Written as preface to Constitution

Promised liberty and equality to citizens

Emphasized need for Constitutional protections of those rights

Suggested sovereignty (right to rule) lie with people of a nation, not just the king

national assembly debate

right, left, center (conservatives, radicals, moderates)

Women's march to Versailles

Oct 1789 - Hungry peasants storm palace, demand Louis move to Paris

civil constitution of the clergy

1790-Catholic Church under state control, priests must swear loyalty oath to state

Flight to Varennes

June 1791 - Louis and family try to flee France, cau

Declaration of Pillnitz

Aug 1791 - Leopold II, King of Austria (HRE) and Marie Antoinette's brother, threaten war if Louis and family hurt

Legislative assembly

constitutional monarchy

War of First Coalition begins - France declares war on its enemies

Jacobins and other radicals gaining influence, question Louis' loyalty

August/September 1792-riots and massacres

Call for new government

National convention: Radical Republic/Reign of Terror

Revolutionary Calendar

Trial and Execution of Louis XVI

Robespierre and Committee of Public Safety

Reign of Terror

Thermidorian Reaction - Robespierre executed

Call for more moderate government

the directory

Moderate Republic, 1795-1799 Call for new, stronger leadership - Napoleon's coup - 18 Brumaire

a new group of conserbvative men seized power

were unable to resolve the economic and military problems

prelude to revolution

old regime, 1775-1789, absolute monarchy

national assembly

june 1789-september 1792, limited monarchy

legislative assembly

October 1791 - September 1792, constitutional monarchy

national convention

september 1792 - 1795, radical republic