The French Revolution

2. The French Revolution The French Revolution and the beginning of a new United States of America both happened in 1789

3. The French Monarchy:1775 - 1793 King Louis XVI Queen Marie Antoinette

4. Europe on the Eve of Revolution

5. People Under the Old Regime • This image shows "the people" as a chained and blindfolded man being crushed under the weight of the rich, including both clergy and nobility. Such a perspective on the period before 1789 purposely exaggerates social divisions and would have found few proponents before the Revolution, but the image does reveal the social clash felt so intensely by the revolutionaries.

6. The Impact of the French Revolution • The French Revolution became the model for revolution in the modern world. • The power of nationalism was first experienced during the French Revolution and it is still powerful in existing nations and emerging nations today. • The French Revolution spread the principles of liberty and equality, which are held dear by many nations and individuals today. • The Metric System-the official system of measurement in all but three countries in the world (the US being on of the three)

7. Vocabulary • Nationalism- proud loyalty and devotion to a nation or can be excessive or fanatical devotion to a nation and its interests, often associated with a belief that one country is superior to all others • Bourgeoisie- or middle class • Meritocracy: leadership chosen on the basis of abilities and achievements rather than birthright (such as the 2nd Estate, the nobility)

8. Causes for the Revolution • Ideas of the Enlightenment • The Salon

9. Causes for the Revolution • Near collapse of the government’s finances: the French government continued to spend lavishly on wars and court luxuries. • The queen, Marie Antoinette, was especially known for her extravagance. Where is the tax money?

10. Causes for the Revolution • BREAD! • Poor harvests lead to high grain prices. The people were hurting economically from a rise in prices higher than any increase in wages.

11. Causes for the Revolution • Who owned the land? Who paid the taxes?

12. Estates General • The government of Louis XVI needed money and was finally forced to call a meeting of the Estates-General, the French parliament, which had not met since 1614, 175 years!

13. Three Estates • France was divided into three orders, or estates • The First Estate: the clergy. The clergy were exempt from the taille, France’s chief tax. • The Second Estate, the nobility. They held many of the leading positions in the state and had their own privileges. • The Third Estate, everyone else, was 98 percent of the population.

14. What Is The Third Estate? • Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes or Abbé Sieyès • Wrote: What is the Third Estate? • Pamphlet, published in early 1789. • Attacked noble and clerical privileges . • Hugely popular amongst the many who hoped for reform. • The plan of this book is fairly simple. • We must ask ourselves three questions: • 1. What is the Third State? Everything • 2. What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing • 3. What does it want to be? Something.... Abbé Sieyès1748-1836

15. The Third Estate • Peasants were 75 to 80 percent of the total population. • Serfdom had been abolished, but peasants had obligations to landlords or relics of feudalism that they resented. • Not a cohesive group, they were divided by differences in occupation, education, and wealth. Some were as wealthy or more wealthy than nobility. • Artisans, shopkeepers, and other wage earners were another part of the Third Estate.

16. Estates General • Each order of French society had representatives in the Estates General • In order to fix France’s economic situation, most members of the Third Estate wanted to set up a constitutional government that would abolish the tax exemptions of the clergy and nobility.

17. Voting in the Estates General Clergy 1st Estate 1 Vote • VOTE BY ESTATE • Under the old system the single vote of the First Estate and the single vote of the Second Estate together could outvote the Third Estate. 1 Vote Nobility 2nd Estate 1 Vote Everyone Else 3rd Estate

18. Voting in the Estates General Clergy 1st Estate 291 members • VOTE BY HEAD • The Third Estate had many more members than the other two estates. • The change to each member having a vote would give the Third Estate much more say in matters. 270 members Nobility 2nd Estate Everyone Else 3rd Estate 578 members

19. Voting in the Estates General • The Third Estate favored a system of each member voting, but the king upheld the traditional voting method of one vote per estate. • The Third Estate reacted by calling itself a National Assembly and deciding to draft a constitution. • King Louis XVI locked them out of their meeting hall. • The Third Estate was joined by ‘liberal’ members of the other two Estates and moved to a nearby tennis court

20. Tennis Court Oath • The Third Estate swore they would continue to meet until they had finished drafting a constitution. • This oath is known as the Tennis Court Oath.

21. The Tennis Court Oath at Versailles by Jacques–Louis David • This amazingly rich sketch by Jacques–Louis David is one of the most famous works from the French revolutionary era. The thrust of the bodies together and toward the center stand for unity. The spectators, including children at the top right, all join the spectators. Even the clergy, so vilified later, join in the scene. Only one person, possibly Marat, in the upper left–hand corner, turns his back on the celebration. David is commemorating a great moment of the Revolution on 20 June 1789, in which the deputies, mainly those of the Third Estate, now proclaiming that they represent the nation, stand together against a threatened dispersal.

22. The Third Estate-The Bourgeoisie • The bourgeoisie, or middle class, was another part of the Third Estate. • It was about 8 percent of the population. • They owned about 20 to 25 percent of the land. • They were merchants, teachers, and other professional people. They were unhappy about the privileges given to the nobles.

23. Storming of the Bastille-July 14, 1789 • The Bastille-an armory and prison in Paris was a symbol of the tyrannical Bourbon monarchy • The commoners stormed and dismantled the Bastille looking for gunpowder and to free political prisoners • Only 7 prisoners were inside • This action became the flashpoint of the Revolution • The king’s authority collapsed.

24. Demolition of the Bastille • This watercolor painting illustrates the "demolition" of what the text refers to as the "horrible prison" of the Bastille. As workmen tear down the spires on the roof, ordinary people rip stones off the base. These stones soon became collectors’ items, souvenirs of the people’s role in the outbreak of the Revolution—and symbols of the way in which many more people wanted to commemorate the event than had participated in it.

25. Awakening of the Third Estate • With the Bastille being destroyed in the background, a member of the Third Estate breaks his shackles. Here, the clergy and nobility recoil in fear, thereby emphasizing the conflict between the estates.

26. Symbols of The Revolution • The Tricolor Flag • The WHITE of the Bourbons • The RED & BLUE of Paris. Liberté, égalité, fraternité Or Death Phrygian cap with cockade

27. The Great Fear • Peasant rebellions due to a vast panic hit France in 1789 • Rumors were spread that feudal lords hired robbers to murder peasants. This rumor was false, but it flamed fear that lead to the peasants uprising against their local lords. • Peasants broke into manor houses, killed many nobles, and took possession of their properties.

28. The Path of the “Great Fear”

29. National Constituent Assembly • One of the National Assembly’s first acts was to destroy the relics of feudalism, or aristocratic privileges • In August the assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. August 26, 1789 • The declaration proclaimed freedom and equal rights for all men, access to public office based on talent (meritocracy), and an end to exemptions from taxation.

30. Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen • All citizens were to have the right to take part in the making of laws • Liberty: Freedom of speech and press were recognized. • Resistance to oppression. • The question arose whether “all citizens” included women. • Louis XVI stayed at Versailles and refused to accept the laws of the National Assembly

31. Olympe de Gouges  La Première Féministe • Olympe de Gouges would not accept this exclusion of women from political rights, such as the vote. • She wrote a Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, September 14, 1791 • The National Assembly ignored her plea. • Guillotined 3 November 1793 aged 45

32. Women’s March on Versailles5 October 1789 • Thousands of Parisian women armed with pitchforks, swords, muskets, marched to Versailles. • Why did they march? BREAD • The target of their anger was the Queen • “We want the baker and the baker's wife!"

33. Results of the Women’s March • The royal family was taken to the Tuileries Palace in Paris and virtually held prisoner. • The Women's March on Versailles was one of the turning points of the French Revolution; it showed that the peasants of the Third Estate were a force to be reckoned with. • This march also showed that women could be a driving force in history Tuileries Palace

34. Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin • English born French physician. Proposed on October 10, 1789 the use of a mechanical device to carry out death penalties in France-humane and equitable. • The proposal did not gain popularity until 1791 long after Guillotin had exited the debate. • Dr. Guillotin did not invent nor improve upon this machine • He did not die by the guillotine.

35. The Guillotine-History • Decapitation machines had been used throughout history. • Beheading had been reserved for the nobility as a humane way to die. • The guillotine was reinvented by Antoine Louis and Schmidt, who was German. • Traditional methods like the sword or axe could prove messy and difficult, especially if the executioner missed or the prisoner struggled; a machine would not only be fast and reliable, and it would never tire.

36. The Catholic Church • Civil Constitution of the Clergy- 12 July 1790 subordinated the Roman Catholic Church to the French government. • France’s Roman Catholic Church became a branch of the state • The National Assembly seized and held the lands of the Church-helped finance the new government. • Bishops and priests were to be elected by the people and paid by the state. • The Church became an enemy of the revolution. Confiscation of church lands

37. King and Queen Attempt to Flee • June 20, 1791 • Helped by the Swedish Count Hans Axel von Fusen (Marie Antoinette’s lover). • Headed toward the Luxembourg border. • The King was recognized • at Varennes, near the border • They were arrested • and returned to Paris

38. Image of the King’s Departure • This engraving depicts the King, his wife, and his children meeting at half–past midnight on 21 June 1791, about to board a carriage in which they will flee secretly from Paris toward the border. The King and Queen were poorly disguised as servants to a German noblewoman. Since most French people outside of Paris had never seen the King or Queen in person, they expected to avoid recognition if only they could get clear of the capital and the surrounding towns.

39. Constitution of 1791 • The Assembly adopted its Constitution of 1791 • September 14, 1791 • Set up a limited monarchy with a king and a Legislative Assembly with the power to make laws • Suffrage was male only and restricted to certain economic levels • Only men over 25 who paid a specified amount in taxes and owned land could vote.

40. Louis XVI “Accepts” the Constitution and the National Assembly

41. Storming of the Tuileries Palace August 10, 1792 • Both Austrian and Prussian troops were moving ever closer to the city of Paris, the people of Paris began to panic. • Believing that the king or his wife was giving information to these foreign powers, the Paris Commune, a group of local representatives, decided to lead an attack on the Tuileries Palace. • Nearly 30,000 French citizens were involved.

42. Arrest of the King and his Family • After killing numerous Swiss guards the Paris mob moved to the Legislative Assembly building • King Louis XVI and his family, who had been hiding, were found and arrested.

43. Imprisonment of the Royals Tour du Temple • Built by the Knights Templar from the 12th century, as their European headquarters. • In 1808, the Temple having become a place of pilgrimage for royalists, Napoleon ordered its demolition, which took two years. Marie Antoinette in the Temple Tower Louis XVI at the Tour du Temple

44. End of the Monarchy • This event signified the end of the monarchy in France and started the official trial of the king. • The next day the Commune abolished the monarchy and declared a republic. • This date was later retroactively adopted as the beginning of Year One of the French Revolutionary Calendar • The French Revolution was about to enter a more radical phase.

45. Sans-Culottes • Power went to the Paris Commune. • Many members proudly called themselves the sans-culottes, French for without knee-breeches- they usually wore pantaloons (full-length trousers) instead of the fashionable knee-length culottes • The sans-culottes were made up of working people and the poor, as well as merchants and artisans who were the elite of their neighborhoods.

46. The Move to Radicalism • Led by the minister of justice, Georges Danton, the sans-culottes sought revenge on those who had aided the king and resisted the popular will. Thousands of people were arrested and massacred • The morning after the effective fall of the monarchy, Danton became minister of justice • He was guillotined on • April 5, 1794 at aged 34.

47. Jean-Paul Marat • One of the more important radical leaders was Jean-Paul Marat, who published the radical journal Friend of the People. • He argued that the poor had a right to take from the rich whatever they needed, even by violence. • Marat, a member of the Mountain was stabbed to death in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, a Girondin on • July 13, 1793 at age 50

48. The Death of Marat • This famous depiction of Marat’s assassination (1793) is by the unofficial (and sometimes official) artist of the French Revolution, Jacques–Louis David, a leading exponent of the neoclassical style. Scholars have seen this vision as a revolutionary pietà because of the repose of the corpse, so different from a normal body in a stage of rigor mortis. David also planned Marat’s funeral on behalf of the government.

49. The National Convention 1792 • The National Convention met in 1792, acting not only as a constitutional convention but also as a sovereign ruling body. • Its first act was to end the monarchy and establish the French Republic. • The members disagreed over the king’s fate. • Two factions, or dissenting groups–the urban Mountain and the rural Girondins–of the Jacobin political club divided over the issue.

50. The Politics of the National Convention 1792-1795 Clash Girondins Mountain Power base in Paris. Main support from the sans-culottes. Would adopt extreme measures to achieve their goals. Saw Paris as the center of the Revolution. More centralized (in Paris) approach to government. Wanted to execute the king Power base in the provinces. Feared the influence of the sans-culottes. Feared the dominance of Paris in national politics. Supported more national government centralization (federalism). Moderate toward the fate of the king