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TRANSCRIPT
French Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUrEJBsWLf
A http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTTvKwCylFY
Documentary and Crash Course
Seven’s Year- left French monarchy in debt Support of the American Revolution further
endangered Financial stability Louis XV and Louis XVI were unable to solve
taxation disputes with the parlements Jacques Necker- issued a report blaming the
aristocratic government for France’s financial troubles
The Crisis of the French Monarchy
Charles Alexandre de Calonne proposed new
taxes: Taxes on salt-Gabelle Tax on landowners regardless of status
Meeting with Calonne: Assembly of Notables Claimed that they had no authority to consent
to new taxes only Estates General had the Right 1788 Louis XVI agreed to convene the Estates
General
Crisis Continued
Estates General
First Estate (the Clergy) Second Estate (the nobility) Third Estate (wealthy members of professional
middle class) First conflict that arose was the organization
the Estates General After calling the Estates General conflicts
emerge between the Aristocrats (2nd Estate) and Bourgeoisie (3rd estate)
The Revolution of 1789
Cahiers de Doleances- list of grievances
presented to the Monarchy The Third Estate petitioned the king fro
equality of rights among the king’s subjects
Revolution Continued
After a standoff the third estate leave and
assembles at a near by tennis court Invite Nobility and Clergy to join (some do but
a majority do not) June 17th 1789-
Take an oath of loyalty known as the Tennis court oath)
declare itself the National Constituend Assembly
Tennis Court Oath
July 14, 1789 800 Parisians stormed Bastille
(prison where they hold debt violations and political activists)
Search for weapons for the citizen militia in response to presence of royal troops in the city
Crowd stormed the fortress, released prisoners, killed troops and governor
Bastille
Driven by peasants who felt they were
reclaiming what was rightfully theirs but what had been lost t aristocrats over time
The Great Fear
August 1789
Set Forth by the National Assembly Claimed that all men “were born to remain free
and equal in rights” Louis XVI was forced by a group of women to
return from Versailles to Paris After First Hesitating Louis XVI sanctioned the
measures
Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen
National Constituent Assembly reforms:
Men paying annual taxes equal to three days of local labor were allowed to vote
Women could not vote or hold office This law transferred power from aristocratic
wealth to anyone who accumulated land or property
Judical Adminstration: 83 departments replaced the ancient provinces
The Reconstruction of France
Suppressed guilds (artisan organizations),
liberated grain trade, established the metric system
Confiscated Church property and sold it to pay for debts
Civil Constitution of the Clergy- the result of the reconstruction of the Roman Catholic Church into a branch of the secular state
Emigres- wealthy who left France and settled on the border to plot a revolution
Reforms Continued
Jacobins- desired more radical reform Known as the Girondists (Jacobins in
Legislative body) ordered the emigres to return from border Demanded clergy who refused to take the oath
to support the civil constitution to do so or lose state pensions
Louis XVI vetoed both acts
Second Revolution
A Parisian crowd invaded the Tuileries Palace
forced Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to take refuge in Legislative Body
Louis XVI loses power to the Paris Commune a committee of representatives from wards of Paris
September Massacres- Paris Commune Murders about 1,200 people in jail The Convention (a new assembly) declared France a
Republic December 1792 Louis XVI was executed
A month later France is at war with England, Holland, Spain and Prussia
August of 1792
Edmund Burke- a British statesmen and Irish
born writer condemned the Revolution for its extreme measures Reflections on the Revolution in France
William Pitt (England) and other European leaders (Prussia and Russia) would discourage popular uprisings
Europe at War with the Revolution
The revolutionary government established a
series of committees to protect its new creation
Committee of General Security and Committee of Public Safety Carried out executive duties of the government
A levee en masse: a military conscription for all males in the
population was mobilized to defend the country Citizen led army led to Reign of the Terror
The Reign of Terror
Autumn of 1793- mid-summer 1794:
A period marked by quasi-judicial executions Christian calendar was replaced by a secular
calendar and all other places of worship were “de-christianized”
Executions grew increasingly arbitrary Sans-culottes revolutionaries served as victims
as well as persecutors Marie Antoinette and other members of the
royal family were the first victims
Reign of Terror Continued
Maximilien Robespierre- powerful member of the
Committee for Public Safety Established the “cult of the Supreme Being”
A civic religion modeled after the views of Rousseau Encouraged the execution of key republican political
figures including committee colleague Jacques Danton
Robespierre would also be executed during this period
The reign of terror would claim more than 25,000 victims
Reign of Terror Continued
Involved:
Political reconstruction Abandoned constitution of 1793
The Convention issued the Constitution of the Year III Provided for a legislature of two houses:
Upper Body (Council of Elders)- consisted of men over 40 who were husbands or widowers
Lower council of 500- consisted of men who were at least 30 years old and either married or single
The executive body was a 5 person directory chosen by the elders from a list submitted by the Council of 500
The Thermidorian Reaction