French Revolution (Lecture)1789-1794 1799-1855

ID Terms

Feudalism

Hierarchal social system in Europe

Nobility held lands peasants worked on

The Third Estate

Clergy, nobles, bourgeoisie and peasants.

Committee of Public Safety

Make decisions of who to kill based on who is a revolutionary and who is not

Guillotines whoever they think is a risk to the state.

Bourgeoisie

French Middle Class

Shut out of political systems

Enlightened Influences

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

August 26, 1789

Lists various rights and ideas wished to be established

Equal rights, no sovereign power

Individual freedoms

Maximillian Robespierre

Jacobin club member

Lawyer and statesman seen as incorruptible with belief in Revolution

Napoleon Bonaparte

Franchise

Those who can vote

2/3rd franchised (only men)

Jacobins

Radicalized pushers of revolution

Storming of the Bastille

July 14th, Peasants storm prison and armory

94 killed and 7 prisoners freed, weapons taken

Napoleonic Code

Guillotine

Modern for its time

Fast and humane way of execution

Still public and brutal

France: 1789-1794

Europe: 1799-1855

1789, August 4th: Abolish all compulsory labor for peasants, personal privileges renounced, regretted morning after, too late to reinstate

Why did the first European revolution happen in France?

Bankruptcy and Enlightenment undermined absolute monarchy; starving peasants

Why did the revolution end with the terror?

Terror was unpleasant for everyone and unsustainable

Why did a revolution that removed a king end up with an emperor?

18th Century

  1. 7 Years’ War, Prussian fighting, aid American revolution

    1. Expensive and owed money

    2. Nobility privilege not paying taxes, all from peasants

    3. Commons hated nobles

  2. 1786 Monarchy broke

    1. Nobody giving money to monarchy

    2. Tax nobles as solution

    3. Nobles mad (no taxation without representation)

    4. Estates General called by Louis

      1. Symbol of popular liberty

      2. Bourgeoisie want to be included (no taxation without representation) (share enlightenment ideas) (bourgeoisie begins revolution rather than peasants)

    5. 1789 Election fever

      1. Reps for nobles, clergy, and peasants elected

        1. Peasants tend to choose enlightened bourgeoisie

      2. Issuing grievances with french government into the ballot box when voting.

      3. Debt debate turned into constitutional politics of the nation debate

      4. National Assembly created

        1. Accidentally locked out of Estates General and they hold meeting at a tennis court

          1. Constitution or death

  3. Peasant crisis due to food prices rising and famines and shortages

    1. Peasants angry and storm Bastille

  4. King recognized national assembly in response

  5. Disorder continues in Paris and the countryside

    1. Rumors and hysteria spread

    2. Insurrection

    3. Peasants break into lord’s houses and burn records of taxes owed.

  6. National Assembly establishes Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

    1. Eliminates old divisions of french society

    2. Enshrines enlightenment ideals in law

    3. Rights guaranteed

  7. King consents but is scared by March on Versailles

    1. Public debt still owed

    2. Sell church lands

    3. All clergy forced to swear oath if alleigance to france

    4. Church becomes enemy and excommunicates those who swear to France

    5. Clergy divided

  8. National Assembly passes new constitution 1791

    1. Louis agrees

      1. Pretends to be a revolutionary but plots to escape

      2. Wants other European monarchs support

      3. Austria warns france

    2. National Assembly declares war on Austria 1792

      1. All European monarchs attack France

      2. Royal family tries to escape in disguise but are caught on the Austrian border and returned to Paris 1792

      3. Radicalization of revolutionary

    3. National Assembly becomes radical National Convention 1792

      1. First ideological war

      2. Initially goes okay in war

    4. Kill King Louis for treason

      1. Guillotine

  9. Conscription for war

    1. War is for the cause of the nation

    2. Everyone involved

  10. Jacobins come into power

    1. Opposition to revolution grows on the inside

    2. Insurrection against revolution kills 150,000

    3. The terror

    4. Committee of Public Safety

      1. Feminists, bourgeoisie, clergy killed by guillotine