The French Revolution
The Old Regime
Was the social class system of France that dated back to the Middle Ages
The people of France were divided into 3 “Feudal Estates” or social groups (which were, the First Estate, Second Estate, & Third Estate)
1st “Estate”
Roman Catholic Church
Owned 10% of the land
Provided relief and education for the poor
The Clergy- paid 2% of the taxes
2nd Estate (2% of the population)
Nobles owned 20% of the land
Paid little to no taxes
The Clergy of the 1st Estate
Nobility of the 2nd Estate
Both Estates scorned Enlightenment ideas
3rd Estate (98% of population) that were divided into 3 groups
Most of the tax burden fell on the 3rd Estate
The bourgeoisie – lived like nobles but were thought of as peasants
doctors, lawyers, manufacturers, bankers etc…
The second group – earned lower wages and frequently lost their jobs
butchers, brewers, weavers, tanners, peddlers, cooks, servants
The peasants - 80% of the population, the poorest of France who lost half their income paying taxes
All resented the First and Second Estate
FORCES OF CHANGE
The Enlightenment
The ideas of the Enlightenment: liberty, equality, and democracy were spreading among the Third Estate
They were inspired by the American Revolution
Comte d’Antraigues – believed in popular sovereignty
He proposed that power resides in the people
In 1788, he wrote…
"The Third Estate is the People and the People is the foundation of the State; it is in fact the State itself... It is in the People that all national power resides and it is for the People that all states exist."
Struggling economy
Economic Woes:
Population increased – gave rise to the cost of living
Crop failures of the 1780’s – caused bread prices to rise
The cost of a loaf of bread grew to the equivalent of one months salary
Businesses suffered – as taxes cut into businesses profits
Debt Crisis:
The government held great debt due to:
the extravagant spending of Louis XVI
and the war debt left over from the American Revolution
European banks refused to lend money to France
A weak leader:
Louis XVI – indecisive and weak
Neglected the “debt” crisis – preferred hunting over governing his kingdom
He allowed the crisis to boil
He never cut spending or raised taxes
He married Marie Antoinette (daughter of the Austrian Queen Maria Theresa & 1 of 16 children)
As an Austrian, she was most unpopular as Austria was France’s long time enemy
Her extravagant spending – earned her the nickname “Madame Deficit”
When Louis XVI attempted to raise aristocratic taxes
The nobles forced him to call the Estates-General meeting
To legally raise taxes to remedy the debt crisis
It was the first Estates General meeting called in 175 years
Historically each Estate met privately to cast one vote
The 1st and 2nd Estates had always outvoted the 3rd Estate (2 to 1)
The Third Estate “bourgeoisie” hoped to change this old system
Creation of the National Assembly
The Third Estate called for a rule change to give them an advantage
They insisted that each delegate in attendance should get one vote, the Third Estate had more delegates than the First and Second Estates
Louis XVI said No to the rule change and sided with the nobles ordering the Estates-General to follow Medieval rules
The clergyman, Abbe Sieyes, sympathies were with the Third Estate; he argued on their behalf
He encouraged the delegates of the Third Estate to rename themselves the National Assembly
And then pass laws and reforms for the French people
June 17, 1789 – delegates of the Third Estate agreed with Sieyes and created the National Assembly
They immediately proposed to end Absolute Monarchy in France
Which was a deliberate act of Revolution
Tennis Court Oath - june 20, 1789
Three days later, the National Assembly - “Third Estate” found themselves locked out of their meeting room, at the king’s request
Angered, they broke into an indoor tennis court and pledged to stay there until they formed a new Constitution for France
The “Capitulation” of Louis XVI
The king was in a bind, to make peace with the Third Estate he had to yield to their demands
He ordered the Nobles and Clergy to join the National Assembly
This was his Greatest Mistake
Storming the Bastille - July 14, 1789
After Louis XVI legitimized the National Assembly by allowing them to meet
Then he moved his Swiss Guard into Paris
Fearing retaliation from Louis XVI, the people of Paris revolted and stormed the Bastille prison
Why? – gunpowder was stored there
A national French holiday, similar to our July 4th
The fall of the Bastille symbolized their Revolution
Great Fear swept France
Rumors spread among the peasants that nobles (of the 2nd Estate) were hiring thugs to terrorize them in retaliation
The peasants panicked, and responded violently “a peasant revolt”
Their reaction initiated the Great Fear a very violent period in French History
Peasants carried pitchforks and torches to the nobleman’s homes
They tore up legal papers that bound them to pay their feudal taxes to a lord
Moreover they burned many manor houses of the French lords
Great Fear & the march on Versailles
October 1789 - thousands of women rioted over the rising price of bread
their anger quickly turned onto the king and queen
About 6,000 (mostly women) seized knives and axes, and marched on the king’s palace at Versailles
The mob broke into the palace - ransacked the Queen’s apartments
They killed two palace guards
Finally, the king appeared on a balcony and told the angry mob: “My friends, I will go to Paris with my wife and children.”
The king with his family were sent to the Tuileries palace in Paris
Great Fear and the end of Feudalism
The Great Fear spread terror among the nobles and clergy as peasant revolts swept through France
On August 4, 1789 The National Assembly with the support of the nobles (out of fear) voted to end Feudalism; gone were the special privileges of the nobles and clergy
Commoners were now equal with the upper classes of France
The “Old Regime” was dead
Declaration of the Rights of Man
The National Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man - August 27, 1789
Inspired by the Enlightenment and the American Declaration of Independence
Asserted that all men are born free with equal rights
These rights being: liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression
Included freedom of speech, press, and religion, with equality under the law (but these rights did not apply to women)
Women united with Olympe de Gouges and wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women
But National Assembly rejected it.
The French State seized control of the Church in France
The National Assembly targeted the Catholic Church
They seized church lands and sold their new properties to pay off the French national debt (which was caused by France’s involvement in the American Revolution)
Church officials had to be elected to their positions by other property owners
Additionally, clergy members were to be paid by the state as state officials (The state became the boss of the Church)
The Church lost its political independence - “ it lost everything”
By August 1789, the nobles had joined the Revolution
Peasants reacted negatively to a state-controlled Church
Most peasants were devoted Roman Catholics who disagreed with the bourgeoisie over these new arrangements inflicted on the Church
Most peasants began to withdraw their support from the bourgeoisie and the Revolution all together
Louis XVI in Peril
By August 1789, the nobles of France had joined the Revolution putting themselves with the populace of France against the the church and king of France
The harsh example that the National Assembly exacted against the Church caused many to fear for the kings’ life
Supporters of absolute monarchy began to leave France
Even the king attempted to flee to the Austrian Netherlands
Louis attempted to leave France for the Austrian Netherlands
He was arrested near the border and was forced to return to Paris
His attempted escape further weakened his status in France
France embraces a Limited Monarchy
In 1791 the National Assembly created a new Constitution; France became a Limited Monarchy
The new constitution stripped the king of most of his power
A newly created Legislative Assembly held the power to create French law
The King and his Ministers retained executive power to enforce French law
In September 1791 the king reluctantly handed his power over to a newly elected Legislative Assembly
The New Legislative Assembly
Began as food shortages and government debt still plagued France
The result – The Legislative Assembly was divided into factions
conservatives - supported Limited Monarchy and opposed additional changes to the government
radicals – wanted more changes, no king, and more power for the people (a republic)
moderates - wanted some change but not as much as the radicals demanded
Moreover, there were more extreme divisions
The émigrés - or extreme right, were the old nobles who longed to return to the Old Regime
The sans-culottes – the extreme left, the more radical Parisian wage-earners who did not have a role in the Legislative Assembly
France Declared War - 1792
Austria and Prussia
Austria and Prussia encouraged France to restore Louis XVI to power as an absolute monarch
Marie Antoinette’s brother (in Austria) threatened to attack France if the monarchy wasn’t restored
The Legislative Assembly desired to spread their Revolution throughout Europe, so France declared war on Austria in April 1792
Prussia also joined forces with Austria to halt the French Revolution
Prussia advanced toward Paris
On July 25, 1792 the Prussian army threatened to destroy Paris if harm befell any member of the Royal Family
In response, Parisians invaded the Tuileries palace where the Royal Family was housed
A mob of 20,000, killed 900 of the king’s Swiss Guard guarding the palace
They imprisoned Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their children were moved and locked in a stone tower
The September Massacre - 1792
Additionally, many other noblemen and clergy members of Paris were rounded up and imprisoned
In September, Parisian volunteers left their city to defend Paris from the invading Prussian army
But rumors soon spread that jailed royalists would seize control of Paris in there absence
So the Parisian volunteers returned to Paris and slaughtered over 1,000 prisoners
The rise of the Jacobins
Parisian radicals began to threaten the Legislative Assembly
By 1792 - Parisian radicals “mobs on the street “ had more power than the French government
Mob leaders were from the bourgeoisie
The Jacobins “club” was the most radical group led by Jean Paul Marat
Marat a newspaper writer called for the heads of 5-6 hundred to rid France of its Revolutionary enemies
France embraced a Republic
And created the National Convention
Not even a year old, members of the Legislative Assembly dissolved the Constitution of 1791 and its Limited Monarchy
A new governing body was elected on September 21, 1792; they named this newly elected body the National Convention, and a Republic was formed in France
The king and his family were now merely citizens of France
The National Convention’s new Republic
After voting to end the Limited Monarchy and declaring a new French Republic
Louis XVI became an ordinary citizen
The radical Jacobins pushed the delegates of the National Convention to put Louis XVI on trial for crimes against the Revolution
He was found guilty of treason
January 21, 1793 he met the guillotine (and was beheaded)
The execution of Louis XVI
Louis addressed the crowd in a clear voice, “I die innocent. I pardon my enemies and I hope that my blood will be useful to the French, that it will appease God’s anger...” At this point, the drums began to roll, and Louis’ final words were inaudible.
Europeans United to end the
French Revolution
The French war with Austria and Prussia continued
The French were determined to influence revolutionary movements throughout Europe and abolish monarchies worldwide
The death of Louis XVI caught the attention of every monarchy in Europe
Great Britain, Holland, and Spain all joined forces with Prussia and Austria against the French Revolution
France needed a greater army and created a “citizen-army”
The National Convention drafted 300,000 men between ages of 18-25 into the French military
Robespierre’s - Reign of Terror
Maximilien Robespierre rose to power and began his Reign of Terror
He called it a “Republic of Virtue”
He moved to wipe out all reminders of old French traditions; the Monarchy and the Catholic faith were to be erased from man’s memory
Decks of cards removed kings, queens and jacks
He closed churches; saying churches were dangerous
He created a secular 10 day calendar; with no Sundays
Maximilien Robespierre
Ruled as a dictator 1793-1794
Robespierre created the Committee of Public Safety
Which determined the “enemies of the republic”
Citizens were tried in the morning
And guillotined that afternoon
Robespierre proclaimed that French citizens would remain true to the ideals of the Revolution through terror
Terror ensured virtue and virtue was terror
Under Robespierre, terror ruled in France
The Reign of Terror
The Revolutionaries even turned on the founding leaders of the Revolution
Georges Danton was beheaded
Marat was murdered in his bathtub
An 18 year-old boy who cut down a Liberty Tree was beheaded
A tavern keeper that sold bitter wine was beheaded
Marie Antoinette was beheaded at this time
And finally Robespierre himself was beheaded – July 28,179
That same Day, the Reign of Terror ended
Consequences of the Reign of Terror
Over 3,000 Parisians were sent to the guillotine
Possibly 40,000 were executed nationwide
85% of the executed were from the LOWER CLASSES hurting the very people whom the Revolutionaries claimed to be helping and saving
Ironically the French Revolution was initiated to end the suffering of the Lower Classes of France
French Moderates seized control and created a new Constitution for France
Power returned to the Upper Middle Class
A new Constitution was created in 1795,
The new Constitution established a two-house legislature
And an executive branch which consisted of five men was known as the Directory
The Directory (of five men) found a successful general in Napoleon Bonaparte to rule France