18.3 Radical Days of the Revolution

To Start:

• Read Jean-Paul Marat and the London Times’ pieces that argue for and against the execution of King Louis XVI.

• After you finish reading them both decide if you are for or against the execution. List the arguments that influenced your decision after your answer.

The Monarchy is Abolished

• Year: 1793• Scene: Middle of the revolution, France

fighting wars abroad, professional Prussian forces killing green French recruits while royalist officers were deserting the army to flee the country.

The Monarchy is Abolished• Why did revolutionaries think the king was working with the

enemy?• Disastrous losses.• What did they do?• Stormed the palace, killed the king’s guards. The king and his

family escaped the mob to the Legislative Assembly.• What were the “September Massacres” and who carried them

out?• French citizens outraged by real and imagined grievances.• Broke into prisons and killed 1,200 prisoners some were nobles

other were just common prisoners.• Why?

The Monarchy is Abolished

• Radicals took over the Legislative Assembly; what did they call the new assembly and what right did the want?

• The National Convention. Suffrage-the right to vote for everyone, not just property owners.

• How was the National Convention more radical than past assemblies?

• Voted to abolish the monarchy. Create French Republic.• New Constitution.• The Jacobins-ended the old order. Took nobles lands

and abolished their titles.

The Monarchy is Abolished

• The Convention put King Louis XVI on trial as a traitor, what was the result?

• After just one vote they sentenced him to death.

• He tried to speak but they did not let him.• His head was cut off and held for the crowd to

see.• Later Marie Antoinette suffered the same fate.

Terror and Danger Grip France

• What threats was France facing?• War with much of Europe, royalist and priests

led peasant rebel., san-culottes demanded food, shortages.

• Who was the convention divided between by early 1793?

• The Jacobins and the Girondins.

Terror and Danger Grip France

• What was the Committee of Public Safety?• 12 members, absolute power-goal: save the

revolution. Levied taxes, in charge of trials and executions.

• What did new tactics of young officers help the French accomplish?

• Win foreign battles, crushed revolts in France.

Terror and Danger Grip France

• Who was Robespierre “The Incorruptible?”• A lawyer, leader of the C.O.P.S., dedicated to the

revolution, some considered him a tyrant.• What were his views?• Influenced by Rousseau, religious tolerance, wanted

to end slavery, hated the old regime.• Believed in the use of terror or prompt severe,

inflexible justice.• “Liberty cannot be secured unless criminals lose their

heads.”

Terror and Danger Grip France

• What was Robespierre a chief architect of?• The Reign of Terror, Sept. 1793-July 1794.• What was it?• Courts had quick trials that ended in death

sentences.• Why did Robespierre believe terror was needed?• “If the basis of pop. gov. in peace is virtue, then

basis of pop. gov. in revolution is both virtue and terror.”

Terror and Danger Grip France• Who faced the death sentence?• People who resisted the revolution.• 300,000 arrested. 17,000 executed, many more packed into

prisons: died of disease.• Many were falsely accused by neighbors.• What is the guillotine?• A falling blade, invented by Dr. Joseph Guillotine, supposed to be

more humane.• What happened eventually to the Reign of Terror?• The Convention turned on Robespierre and the C.O.P.S.• Robespierre and other radicals were executed. Executions slowed

dramatically.

The Revolution Enters its Third Stage

• Who was the third Constitution written by?• 1795, moderates wrote it and set up a 5 man Directory and 2

house legislature.• Only male property owners could vote on it.• Who dominated The Directory?• Middle class, the bourgeoisie, 1795-1799.• What was wrong with the Directory?• Lined their own pockets, failed to solve issues.• Hunger riots.• What threats were there to the Directory?• Riots, emigres returning, supporters of constitutional monarchy

returned and won the majority.

Terror and Danger Grip France

• As chaos threatened France again they turned to Napoleon.

• He was popular, and the politicians planned to use him but he was smarter than them.

• Became ruler.

Revolution Brings Change

• By 1799 France had changed:– Citizen applied to all people.– All other titles eliminated.

• Revolution and war gave the French and identity.

• Nationalism- a feeling of pride and devotion to one’s country- spread.

• Social reform, religious tolerance, help for the poor, abolished slavery.