THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

1. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION “OFF WITH HIS HEAD”

2. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY The motto of the French Revolution

3. Revolution of Politics • The “era of revolutions” began in North America in 1775 • No country felt the consequences of the American Revolution more than France • The French government gave direct aid to the American Colonies – both financially and militarily • Hundreds of French officers served in America and were inspired by the experience

4. Revolution of politics • The most famous of these officers was the young and impressionable, Marquis de Lafayette. • His initial reasoning for fighting in the American Revolution was only to fight against France’s traditional enemy, Great Britain. • He returned with a love of liberty and very firm republican convictions. • The American Revolution undeniably hastened the upheaval in France

5. Marquis de Lafayette

6. Revolution of Politics • The French Revolution, however, was no mirror of the American one. • It was more radical and more complex • For Europeans, it was the great revolution of the 18th century • It was “THE” revolution that opened the modern era in politics

7. CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION • Like the American Revolution, the immediate origins are found in the financial difficulties of the government • It began in the reign of Louis XV (1723-1774)

8. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION • The ministers of Louis XV had tried to raise taxes • But the courts and widespread public opposition stopped the effort • In 1776 the money to help finance the American Revolution had to be found by borrowing • By the 1780s 50% of France’s annual budget went for interest payments on the increasing debt

9. Financial Difficulties • 25% went to maintain the military • 6% went to pay the costs of a very extravagant king, Louis XVI, and his court at Versailles • <20% was available for administrative functions . • Could not declare bankruptcy, could not print money, no paper currency, no central bank, no means of creating credit • WHAT TO DO?????

10. The Effects • The financial crisis created a huge inflation and a rise in prices. • It created great distress, with the peasants. • landlords began raising fees on the peasantry when they saw their purchasing power decrease. • By 1789, over 80 percent of an average peasant's household income went to purchasing breadalone—just bread. • In that same year, unemployment in many parts of France was over 50%.

11. Social Classes & Government • Society in France in the 18th century was still based on feudal society • There were 3 social classes or estates • First Estate – the clergy appx. 100,000 owned 10% of the land paid “voluntary” taxes or “gifts” to the government every 5 yrs. Church levied its own tax or “tithe” amounting to appx. 10%

12. SOCIAL CLASSES AND GOVERNMENT • Second Estate – The nobility 400,000 Nobles – men and women Owned 25% of the land Paid very little in taxes but they were allowed to tax the peasants just as in the days of feudalism enjoyed many privileges which gave them a superior standing in society

13. Social Classes and Government • Third Estate - - Everybody else – Commoners - Merchants, artisans, lawyers, unskilled laborers, peasants - huge diversity in the members of this estate – united only by their shared legal status as being not nobles or clergy - known as “bourgeoisie” or middle class

15. The Old Regime • Old Regime – describes the system in France prior to the Revolution • Had ceased to correspond with the social realities of 1780 • Legally society was still based rigid orders inherited from the Middle Ages • In reality, France was moving toward being a society based on wealth and education • Both were at odds with a monarchy that continued to claim the right to absolute power.

16. The Execution of the King • Louis XVI, king of France, arrived in the wrong historical place at the wrong time • He soon found himself overwhelmed by events beyond his control. • Ascending the throne in 1774, Louis inherited a realm nearly bankrupt through the opulence of his predecessors Louis XIV and XV. • After becoming King, things only got worse

17. The Execution of the King • The people were not happy. • To top it off, Louis had the misfortune to marry a foreigner, the Austrian Marie Antoinette. • Louis was only 18 when he inherited the throne from his grandfather, Louis XV; he was very inexperienced • The anger of the French people, fueled by xenophobia, targeted Marie as a prime source of their problems. • Xenophobia? • Hatred of all foreigners

18. The Execution of the King • In July 1789, the mobs of Paris stormed the Bastille – a symbol of the monarchy • Feeling that power was shifting to their side, the mob forced the imprisonment of Louis and his family forcing them to return to paris from versailles • Louis attempted escape in 1791 but was captured and returned to Paris. • In 1792, the newly elected National Convention declared France a republic • brought Louis to trial for crimes against the people.

19. The Execution of the King • On January 20, 1793, the National Convention condemned Louis XVI to death, his execution scheduled for the next day. • Louis spent that evening saying goodbye to his wife and children. The following day dawned cold and wet. Louis arose at five. At eight o'clock a guard of 1,200 horsemen arrived to escort the former king on a two-hour carriage ride to his place of execution. Accompanying Louis, at his invitation, was a priest, Henry Essex Edgeworth, an Englishman living in France. Edgeworth recorded the event and we join his narrative as he and the fated King enter the carriage to begin their journey:

20. Eyewitness Account • The path leading to the scaffold was extremely rough and difficult to pass; the King was obliged to lean on my arm, and from the slowness with which he proceeded, I feared for a moment that his courage might fail; but what was my astonishment, when arrived at the last step, I felt that he suddenly let go my arm, and I saw him cross with a firm foot the breadth of the whole scaffold; silence, by his look alone, fifteen or twenty drums that were placed opposite to me; and in a voice so loud, that it must have been heard it the Pont Tournant, I heard him pronounce distinctly these memorable words: 'I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.'

21. Eyewitness Account • Many voices were at the same time heard encouraging the executioners. They seemed reanimated themselves, in seizing with violence the most virtuous of Kings, they dragged him under the axe of the guillotine, which with one stroke severed his head from his body. All this passed in a moment. The youngest of the guards, who seemed about eighteen, immediately seized the head, and showed it to the people as he walked round the scaffold; he accompanied this monstrous ceremony with the most atrocious and indecent gestures. At first an awful silence prevailed; at length some cries of 'Vive la Republique!' were heard. By degrees the voices multiplied and in less than ten minutes this cry, a thousand times repeated became the universal shout of the multitude, and every hat was in the air."

22. Louis’ execution

25. THE FATE OF THE OTHER ROYALS • Louis was executed in 1793. • Marie Antoinette’s son, the “Lost Dauphin” or Louis the XVII was taken from her and sent to prison. He was 8. He died two years later. • Marie was put on trial. She was accused of all sorts of horrid things, including child abuse. She was called “Prisoner 280” or Antoinette Capet”. • Condemned to death for high treason. • Louis XVI’s sister, Elisabeth, is guillotined • Louis and Marie’s daughter, Marie-Therese, survives, but is emotionally scarred by all the things she saw during her imprisonment.

26. TRIAL OF MARIE ANTOINETTE

27. Execution of Marie Antoinette • She has to ride to her execution in a public cart with dozens of other prisoners. • Her final words” • Priest: “This is the moment, Madame, to arm yourself with courage”. • M-Antoinette: “Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me”. • Her head is displayed. Her body dumped in a mass grave. • Many, many executions are to follow….

28. The Reign of Terror Events of this period 1. execution of the King and Queen 2. war – In an effort to spread the ideas of the Revolution, France declared war on several countries with monarchies

29. The Reign of Terror 3. French success led to Spain and Britain joining the war against France ; foreign troops march towards Paris 4. food prices soaring out of control - caused looting 5. In Western France, clergy and nobles led a counterrevolution movement 6. disputes among revolutionaries • a. Jacobins - most radical group, centered in Paris • b. Girondists - more moderate group support came mostly from outside of Paris

30. 7. Dictatorial Government 1. a people’s army - first European national draft 2. The Reign of Terror a. Committee of Public Safety - Robespierre as leader b. executed anyone who disagreed with Jacobins

31. Return to Moderation • led mostly by the bourgeoisie - they did not want the monarchy restored nor did they want the common people to have political power • established the Directory - a republic headed by five men • weak government - fall from power 1799

32. Robespierre • Maximilien Robespierre • 1758-1794

33. Robespierre • was elected to the Estates General in 1789. • He attached himself to the extreme left wing, and soon commanded attention. • His influence grew daily, and the mob greatly admired his earnestness and his apparent incorruptibility.

34. Became the leader of the twelve man Committee of Public Safety • The Committee was elected by the National Convention, and it governed France at the height of the radical phase of the revolution. • He had once been a fairly straightforward liberal thinker - reputedly he slept with a copy of Rousseau's Social Contract at his side. • But his own purity of belief led him to impatience with others.

35. Robespierre was frustrated with the progress of the revolution. • After issuing threats to the National Convention, he himself was arrested in July 1794. • He tried to shoot himself but missed, and spent his last few hours with his jaw hanging off. • He was guillotined, as a victim of the terror, in July 1794.

36. in the five months from September, 1793, to February 5, 1794, the revolutionary tribunal in Paris convicted and executed 238 men and 31 women and acquitted 190 persons by February 1794 there were 5,434 individuals in the prisons in Paris awaiting trial.

37. Results of the French Revolution • 1. absolute monarchy came to an end in France • 2. church and nobility lost their special privileges • 3. decline of the nobles aided the rise of the Bourgeoisie • 4. ideals of liberty and individual rights echoed in other lands • 5. introduction of new style of warfare • 6. Advanced nationalism

38. Jean-Paul Marat • Marat, friend of Robespierre, Jacobin deputy to the Convention, a fiery orator; he was also a violent man, quick to take offense.

39. On July 13, 1793, a young Royalist, Charlotte Corday, managed to gain entry into his apartment. • When Marat agreed to receive her, she stabbed him in his bathtub, where he was accustomed to sit hour after hour treating the disfiguring skin disease from which he suffered.

40. Portrait of Marat’s Death

42. The French Revolution results in another dictator assuming absolute power