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The French Revolution

The French Revolution. Absolutism. Absolute monarchs didn’t share power with a counsel or parliament “Divine Right of Kings”. King James I of England. The Seigneurial System. Feudal method of land ownership and organization Peasant labor. Receiving a seigneurial grant. Louis XIV.

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The French Revolution

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  1. The French Revolution

  2. Absolutism • Absolute monarchs didn’t share power with a counsel or parliament • “Divine Right of Kings” King James I of England

  3. The Seigneurial System • Feudal method of land ownership and organization • Peasant labor Receiving a seigneurial grant

  4. Louis XIV • Ruled from 1643–1715 • Reduced the power of the nobility • Fought four wars • Greatly increased France’s national debt

  5. The Seven Years’ War Louis XV French and English troops fight at the battle of Fort St. Philip on the island of Minorca • Louis XV • War fought in Europe, India, North America • France ends up losing some of its colonial possessions • Increases French national debt

  6. The Three Estates • First Estate: clergy • Second Estate: nobility • Third Estate: the rest of society • The Estates General Cartoon depicting the three Estates

  7. The French Urban Poor

  8. The Enlightenment • New ideas about society and government • The social contract • Tradition v. reason • L—inalienable liberties • R—general will—citizens alienated their rights. Unanimous consent of the citizenry acting out of civic virtue, not individual self- interest John Locke Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  9. The Third Estate • Taxation • Crop failures • Seyes, “What is the Third Estate?” • Ideological basis? Individual liberities or general will? • Foreshadowing of 1789?

  10. The American Revolution • France supported the colonists against Great Britain • Revolutionary ideals Marquis de Lafayette

  11. Financial Crisis • Jacques Turgot: cut gov’t spending; abolish trade guilds, end corvee. • Jacques Necker • Tax on property • Calling of the Estates General Finance Minister Jacques Necker

  12. The Suggested Voting Pattern:Voting by Estates Clergy 1st Estate 1 Aristocracy 2nd Estate 1 1 Commoners 3rd Estate

  13. The Suggested Voting Pattern:Voting by Estates Clergy 1st Estate 1 Aristocracy 2nd Estate 1 1 Commoners 3rd Estate

  14. The Estates General • One vote per estate • Clergy and nobility usually joined together to outvote the Third Estate • Met in Versailles in May 1789 • Voting controversy A meeting of the Estates General

  15. The National Assembly • The Third Estate took action and established its own government • On June 17, 1789, the National Assembly was formed

  16. Confrontation With the King • Louis XVI ordered the Third Estate locked out of the National Assembly’s meeting hall • The Tennis Court Oath • The king reverses his position Artist Jacques Louis David’s depiction of the Tennis Court Oath

  17. Tennis Court Oath • "We swear to never separate ourselves from the National Assembly, and to reassemble whenever circumstance require, until the constitution of the realm is drawn up and fixed upon solid foundations." • --The Oath of the Tennis Court, June 20, 1789

  18. Storming of the Bastille • Rioting in Paris in early July • Firing of Necker • July 14th: a mob storms and takes the Bastille

  19. The Great Fear • Rebellion spreads • Peasants destroy the countryside • End of feudal privileges • All equal in eyes of law. • Part of backdrop, with Bastille, against which National Assembly forced to create new Constitution

  20. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen • Adopted by National Assembly on August 27 • Enlightenment ideals • Outlined basic freedoms held by all • “all men were born and remain free and equal in rights.” • Natural rights include “liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression • Free speech, press, assembly, religion, freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, right to petition government • Asserted the sovereignty of the people • “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”

  21. The March of Women • Lower classes still unsatisfied • Thousands of starving women and peasants march on Versailles • Louis forced to return to Paris

  22. Civil Constitution of the Clergy • Financial crisis • National Assembly confiscates and sells off church lands--assignats • Church also secularized, reorganized • Clergy oath of loyalty • “good Catholics” vs. “good revolutionaries” • Sep. corps of clergy need to be incorporated into general will Cartoon depicting the confiscation of Church lands

  23. Flight of the King • Émigrés • Louis XVI and his family attempted to flee France • They were arrested at Varennes The capture of Louis XVI at Varennes

  24. Reaction from Other Countries • Declaration of Pillnitz (8/27/91): • monarchs of Austria & Prussia expressed concern for the French royal family and desire for the restoration of “order” in France. • Most people in France saw as an affront to their nation’s sovereignty. • clamored for the government to declare war on Austria, which they viewed as the primary threat. Prussian King Frederick William III, Austrian Emperor Leopold II, and the Comte d’Artois, Louis XVI’s brother

  25. New Constitution • Constitutional monarchy • New Legislative Assembly:power to create laws • Sans-culottes Painting depicting the 1791 constitution

  26. The French Constitution of 1791: A Bourgeois Government • The king got the “suspensive” veto [which prevented the passage of laws for 4 years].* he could not pass laws.* his ministers were responsible for their own actions. • A permanent, elected, single chamber Assembly.* had the power to grant taxation. • “Active” Citizen [who pays taxes amounting to 3 days labor] vs. “Passive” Citizen. • A newly elected LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY.

  27. War With Austria: April 1792 • France declares war. Prussia allies w/ Austria • War of the First Coalition • Levee en masse 5-800K drafted. Army of merit. First draft Painting of the Battle of Valmy, 1792

  28. The Radicals Take Over • Paris mob stormed Tuileries August 1792 • Louis and family seek aid of Legislative Assembly • Arrested and deposed Paris crowds storm the Tuileries

  29. Napoleon Becomes Emperor 1804: Napoleon crowns himself emperor

  30. Legacies of the French Revolution • End of absolutism • Power of nobles ended • Nationalism • Enlightenment ideals

  31. TWO CONTEMPORANEOUS VIEWS Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Reflections on the Revolution in France Conservative: opposed revolution as mob rule Thomas Paine: Rights of Man responded to Burke’s indictment by defending the Enlightenment principles of the revolution

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