AP Euro Unit 5 - CH 10 French Revolution

Jacques Necker

• Swiss finance minister who exposed royal waste & cost of aristocratic pensions.

• His dismissal by Louis XVI sparked the Storming of the Bastille.

Louis XVI

• King (r. 1774-1792); indecisive; lacked popular support.

• Called Estates-General due to debt.

• Flight to Varennes (1791) proved he was counter-revolutionary.

• Executed for treason in 1793.

Marie Antoinette

• Austrian-born Queen; nicknamed "Madame Deficit."

• Symbol of royal excess and opposition to reform.

• Executed during the Terror.

Estates-General (1789)

• Traditional legislative assembly of 3 Estates (Clergy, Nobility, Commoners)

• Deadlock over voting by order vs. voting by head led the Third Estate to form the National Assembly (1789).

First Estate

• The Clergy

• Owned ~10% of land, paid no taxes (only a "voluntary gift"), and collected tithes.

Second Estate

• The Nobility

• Owned ~25% of land, held top government/military jobs, and were exempt from most taxes.

Third Estate

• Everyone else (97% of pop: peasants, city workers, bourgeoisie)

• Paid almost all taxes and had no political power

Abbé Sieyès

Author of "What is the Third Estate?", arguing that the Third Estate was everything, has been nothing, wants to be something

Tennis Court Oath (1789)

Pledge taken by the National Assembly not to disband until they had written a new constitution for France, asserting popular sovereignty

The Great Fear (1789)

• Peasant panic/revolts in countryside burning manor houses & feudal docs

• Assembly abolished feudal privileges

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789)

• Doc outlining natural rights (liberty, property, security).

• Ideological foundation of the Revolution; established legal equality.

Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790)

• Law that subordinated the Church to the state

• Priests were elected & paid by state; required to swear an oath of loyalty

• Condemned by the Pope and caused a schism between state/Catholic population (refractory clergy)

Émigrés

French nobles who fled the country to escape the Revolution and plotted from abroad to restore the Old Regime

Sans-culottes

• Radical Parsian working class (artisans, laborers).

• Demanded bread and direct democracy.

• Their violence drove the Radical Phase; allied with the Mountain.

Assembly of Notables

• Nobles invited by Louis XVI to approve new taxes (pre-1789).

• Refused to pay, forcing King to summon Estates-General.

Storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789)

• Mob attack on royal prison fir gunpowder by sans-culottes admist food shortages & mil repression

• Symbolic end of Old Regime, saved the National Assembly, Paris was lost to king

Women's March on Versailles (Oct 1789)

March by Parisian women demanding bread and forcing the Royal Family to move back to Paris (Tuileries), putting them under popular influence

Declaration of Pillnitz

• Threat by Austria/Prussia to intervene if the French monarchy was harmed

• Intended to scare the revolutionaries, but instead Legislative Assembly to declare war & Terror

Maximilien Robespierre

• Leader of Jacobins and Committee of Public Safety.

• Architect of the Reign of Terror and "Republic of Virtue."

• Executed in 1794 (Thermidorian Reaction).

Jacobins

• Radical republican political club.

• Dominated the National Convention.

• Led Terror & employed theoretical universal male suffrage

Girondists

• Moderate republican faction of Jacobins.

• Feared Parisian radicalism; opposed executing the King; purged by the Mountain.

The Mountain

• Most radical Jacobin faction (Robespierre/Danton).

• Seized power from Girondists to orchestrate the Terror.

Reign of Terror (1793-94)

• Period of mass executions (via guillotine) of "enemies of the revolution," enforced by the CoPS, using Revolutionary Tribunals & Law of Suspects.

• Crushed Vendee Revolt & external invasions

Committee of Public Safety

• 12-man executive led by Robespierre (Wartime Dictatorship).

• Organized Levée en Masse (mass conscription) and Law of the Maximum.

• Enforced the Terror against internal enemies & foreign wars.

Republic of Virtue

• Robespierre's attempt to create a society based on reason and civic virtue

• Included "De-Christianization" (new calendar, Cult of the Supreme Being; worship of reason)

Thermidorian Reaction (1794)

• Moderate backlash against the Terror; bourgeoisie reasserted authority.

• Ended Terror, reduced the power of the CoPS, closed the Jacobin club, led to Directory, return to free market, limited suffrage to proeprty owners.

Storming of the Tuileries (Aug 10, 1792)

• Attack on the King's palace by sans-culottes

• Resulted in the imprisonment of the King and the creation of the French Republic

September Massacres (1792)

• Mob slaughter of Paris prison inmates (priests/nobles) due to fear of counter-revolutionary plots

• Shocked foreign opinion

Directory (1795-1799)

• Five-man executive established after the Terror (Constitution of Year III), controlled by bourgeoisie

• Weak, corrupt, and relied on the military to stay in power

• Overthrown by Napoleon

Levée en Masse

• Policy of mass national conscription (draft)

• Created a massive citizen army based on merit that turned the tide of the war

Olympe de Gouges

• Author of Declaration of the Rights of Woman, applying DRMC to women.

• Argued for female legal equality & opposed Terror; executed during the Terror.

Cahiers de doléances

• Lists of grievances from all three Estates. Demanded constitutional limits on the king's power and civil equality.

• Demonstrated widespread discontent w/ Ancien Régime and an initial unified desire for Constitutional Monarch

Bourgeoisie

• Wealthy, educated middle class (3rd Estate leaders) who lacked pol power.

• Led the Moderate Phase (1789-91).

• Goal: Constitutional monarchy, capitalism, and property rights.

National Assembly (1789–1791)

• Governing body of the moderate phase

• Issued DRMC and abolished feudalism (civic equality)

• Established a Constitutional Monarchy w/ limited suffrage (for property-owning men)

Plebiscite

• Direct vote by the ppl of a nation on an issue (e.g., gov’t policies).

• Expression of popular sovereignty & made Napoleon emperor

Jean-Paul Marat

• Radical journalist and Mountain leader.

• Incited mob violence and executions.

• Murdered by Charlotte Corday (1793); became a martyr for the Terror.

Émigrés

• French nobles who fled abroad (1789+).

• Plotted restoration of Old Regime.

• Fueled foreign threats (Pillnitz) leading to war.

Legislative Assembly (1791-92)

• Governing body under the Constitution of 1791.

• Declared war on Austria/Prussia; fell after the attack on the Tuileries.

National Convention (1792-95)

• Radical body; abolished monarchy → established First Republic.

• Executed Louis XVI; controlled by Jacobins; created CoPS.

Law of Maximum

Economic policy of CoPS.

Price caps on bread and wage controls.

Causes of French Revolution

• Long-Term: Enlightenment Ideas (Rousseau, Locke, Voltaire); Social Inequality (3 Estates); Financial Crisis.

• Short-Term: Weak Monarchy (Louis XVI); Poor Harvests.

Effects of French Revolution

• End of Absolutism; Rise of Nationalism and Liberalism.

• End of Feudalism/Serfdom; Bourgeoisie dominance; Rise of Napoleon.

Phases of the Revolution

1. Moderate (1789–92): Assembly. Goal: Const. Monarchy (Bastille, DRMC), free market.

2. Radical (1792–94): Convention/CoPS. Goal: Republic (Terror, King Executed), price caps.

3. Reactionary (1795–99): Directory. Goal: Oligarchy (Weak gov, Napoleon's Coup).

Women Status

• During: Gained civil rights (e.g. divorce) as instigators of movements like Bread March but no pol/voting rights

• After: Lost civil rights & restricted to domestic sphere (Napoleonic Code)

Edmund Burke (1729–97)

• Wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France

• Criticized FR for being too radical & ignoring tradition/history

• Believed change should be gradual rather than violent

• Correctly predicted chaos of FR would lead to a mil dictatorship & regicides

Thomas Paine

• Wrote The Rights of Man

• Defended FR; Change should be immediate

• Ppl had right to establish gov’t based on reason & natural rights

George Danton

• Charismatic Jacobin orator & CoPS leader; mobilized the sans-culottes.

• Argued to scale back on FR due to Terror (“Indulgent”)

• Executed by Robespierre for being too moderate