French Revolution

Prelude to the French Revolution (1763-1789)

Three Estates
- First Estate (Clergy) → 130,000 people, owned 10% of land, exempt from taxes.
- Second Estate (Nobility) → 300,000 people, controlled 30% of land, held powerful positions.
- Third Estate (Everyone Else) → Wealthy commoners, financiers, shopkeepers, and peasants.
Economic Situation
- Poor harvests → Increased cost of living → Decline in consumer demand.
- Peasants were aware of government criticism but lacked power.
- Nobility and clergy controlled 50% of France’s wealth.

Finance Ministers:
- Maupeou (1770) → Abolished parlements, started tax reforms, but Louis XV died.
- Turgot (1776) → Fired after trying to reform corvée & tax nobility.
- Necker (1783) → Fired after misleading financial report that suggested no crisis.
- Calonne (1786) → Proposed land tax but fired after Assembly of Notables refused.
- Brienne (1788) → Also failed to implement land tax → Led to calling the Estates General.

December 1788 → The Doubling of the Third (More representatives, but no real power).
January 1789 → Abbé Sieyès’ pamphlet What is the Third Estate? → Argued the Third Estate is France.
Spring 1789 → Cahiers (Notebooks of Grievances) collected → Third Estate demanded reforms.
May 5, 1789 → Estates General met for the first time in 175 years → Start of the French Revolution.

June 17, 1789 → Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly.
June 20, 1789 → Tennis Court Oath → Vowed to write a constitution before leaving Versailles.
July 14, 1789 → Storming of the Bastille → Symbolic attack on absolutism.
July 15, 1789 → National Guard formed, led by Lafayette.
Late July 1789 → The Great Fear → Peasants attacked feudal estates.
August 4, 1789 → Decrees of the National Constituent Assembly → Feudalism abolished.
August 27, 1789 → Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (Inspired by Jefferson).
- Article 1 → People are equal regardless of class.
- Article 2 → People have natural rights.
- Article 3 → Authority comes from the nation, not the king.

October 5-6, 1789 → Bread March → Angry women forced Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette to Paris.
July 12, 1790 → Civil Constitution of the Clergy → Church land seized, clergy made state employees.
July 14, 1791 → France became a constitutional monarchy → Legislative Assembly created.
August 27, 1791 → Declaration of Pillnitz → Austria & Prussia threatened France if monarchy harmed.

April 20, 1792 → France declared war on Austria.
July 25, 1792 → Brunswick Manifesto → Austria threatened to destroy Paris if the king was harmed.
August 10, 1792 → Tuileries Palace stormed, King took refuge in Legislative Assembly.
September 2-7, 1792 → Paris Commune took control → Massacred suspected counter-revolutionaries.
September 21, 1792 → Monarchy abolished → France became a Republic.
January 21, 1793 → Louis XVI (Citizen Capet) executed → France officially radicalized.
February 1, 1793 → France declared war on Britain.
March 1793 → Counter-revolution escalated into civil war.

April 1793 → Committee of Public Safety created (Led by Robespierre).
June 2, 1793 → Girondists arrested, power shifted to Mountain & Sans-Culottes.
July 13, 1793 → Radical journalist Jean-Paul Marat assassinated.
July 1793 → Robespierre entered the Committee of Public Safety → Gained significant power.
September 5, 1793 → Reign of Terror officially began → Mass executions of “counter-revolutionaries.”
October 16, 1793 → Marie Antoinette executed.
November 10, 1793 → De-Christianization campaign began → Catholic Church outlawed.
March 24, 1794 → Radicals (Hébertists) executed for being too extreme.
April 6, 1794 → Danton executed for being too moderate.
May 7, 1794 → Robespierre’s Cult of the Supreme Being established.