The French Revolution: Terror & Turmoil

1789-1815

Present day France

Ancien Regime- Absolute Monarchy Middle Ages- 1789

“L’etat, C’Est Moi!”

The Eve of Revolution The three estates:

1. First Estate: Clergy, Church leaders who owned 10% of the land, and paid no taxes. (However, few parish priests did live like the peasants in the community that they served in).

2. Second Estate: Nobility, who had top government jobs, in the courts, and the army. Lost influence and power during the 1600’s, and feared they would continue to loose their influence.

3. Third Estate: Diverse social group. At the top were the bourgeoisie, (bankers, merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, professors). Followed by the rural peasants, and lastly the urban workers. They paid the bulk of the taxes, and wanted others to pay their share.

Estates: social classBourgeoisie: the middle class

Reflect on the above photo. Who does each person represent?

What does this image say about society pre-revolution?

Financial Troubles

National Debt

Seven Years War- (Took place in America, when British attacked French merchant ships).

Helped sponsor the American Revolution- (Colonists in the 13 colonies rejected British monarchy and created The United States of America).

Borrowing Money- Taxes went to paying off interest rates

Lavish spending- Versailles: palace of the French royal family.

Bad harvest increased food prices among the peasants

Economic Reform

Louis XVI chose Jacques Necker as financial adviser, who suggested reduced spending and taxes for the rich. Was dismissed because he proposed taxing the nobility and clergy.

Louis XVI called for the Estates-General so that all estates would be “represented” in deciding reforms.

Louis XVI: King of France during the French revolutionJacques Necker: financial adviser up until the beginning of the French revolution. Estates-General: an assembly where all estates were represented.

The Results of the Estates-GeneralEstates Meet:

1. Cahiers were prepared by each estate, listing where they believed France needed reform.

2. But voting was done by group, not by head. Each group had one vote, so the two upper estates ALWAYS outvoted the third.

3. The Third Estate decided to create their own group: the National Assembly. Members of the National Assembly took the Tennis Court Oath, where they swore “never to separate and to meet wherever the circumstances might require until we have established a sound and just constitution.”

Rumors spread that troops were going to occupy Paris, so Parisians assembled outside of the Bastille, demanding weapons.

The commander began shooting into the crowd, angering the mob.

The mob broke into the Bastille, killing the commander and five guards, and releasing prisoners.

July 14, 1789- Bastille Day

Cahiers: notebooks with suggestions on reforms. Head: each person receives one vote.National Assembly: group formed by the members of the Third Estate. Tennis Court Oath: oath made on a tennis court, by the Third Estate, to bring justice to France.Bastille: prison in Paris.

Women’s March on Versailles:hundreds of women stormed the Palace of Versailles, demanding to see Marie Antoinette (Louis XVI’s wife). They wanted to tear her apart, and blamed her for the troubles in France.

Constitutional Monarchy, Reign of Terror, & the Directory

1789-1799

The Revolution Unfolds

National Assembly Acts:

1. Abolished feudalism

2. Creation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and later Olympe de Gouges created the Declaration of the Rights of Women.

Factions formed as a result of peasant revolts in the countryside and in the cities:

1. Moderates: led by Marquis Lafayette, he led the National Guard and was the first group to wear the tri-colors red, blue, and white.

2. Paris Commune: replaced the royalist government, and encouraged violent actions to further the revolution.

Factions: dissenting groups of people. Feudalism: old system of rule where lords divided land to men who swore their loyalty to the lord.Declaration of the Rights of Man: proclaimed that all male citizens were equal under the law.

Rule under the National Assembly

Church is placed under state control, papal authority was ended. France dissolved all convents and monasteries, and the clergy became elected salaried officials.

A new calendar was also created, called the Revolutionary Calendar, to eliminate Christianity and any mention of God. 10 day weeks, months renamed.

Louis XVI began to wear the tricolor to show his support of the revolution. Him and his family also moved to Paris from Versailles.

New government established with the constitution of 1791. A Legislative Assembly was created, and lawmakers were elected by citizens, (males at least 25 y.o.)

Papal authority: authority from the Pope. Why would the lower classes, especially the peasants,be angered that the Church was now under state control?

Radicals RuleThe working class men and women who called themselves sans-culottes, took radical action. They demanded a republic form of government and for the abolishment of the monarch.

Émigrés fled France and told the rest of Europe about the attacks on nobles. Europe began to send threats to France that they will intervene.

A radical group called the Jacobians created the National Convention, which in turn created the French Republic.

The French Republic put Louis XVI on trial as a traitor of France, and was executed along with his wife Marie Antoinette.

Sans-culottes: radical political group. Republic: government ruled by elected representatives.Émigrés: people who fled the revolution in France. Jacobians: political club. National Convention: a new legislative body. Marie Antoinette: Austrian born wife of Louis XVI.

Reign of TerrorFrance was at war with Europe, and had social unrest within the country. To keep the “peace,” the convention created the Committee of Public Safety, 12 members who were in charge of trials and executions.

Maximilien Robespierre became the leader of the Committee of Public Safety. He was nick named “the incorruptible,” and believed in the use of prompt and severe terror. This era became known as the Reign of Terror.

300,000 were arrested, and 17,000 executed with theguillotine. Those arrested where ones who were believed to be against the revolution.

July 27, 1794- Robespierre was arrested and and beheaded. After this, executions came to a stop.

Guillotine: method of beheading,

became known as the symbol of horror.

The End of Terror

The end of the Reign of Terror, was the start of a new government and Constitution. (Third since the beginning of the revolution).

The new government created a Directory and a two-house legislature of elected officials. The new government was unstable and chaotic. The French turned to Napoleon Bonaparte for leadership.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Military hero who would later become the emperor of France.

Nationalism, “La Marseillaise”

Napoleons Reign: 1799-1815

Napoleon crowns himself emperor as the Pope looks on.

The Age of Napoleon

Napoleons Rise to Power

Napoleon was born in Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean.

At the start of the revolution he was a 20 year old lieutenant. He drove the British out of France and captured northern Italy.

Egyptian Campaign: Led a disastrous expedition in Egypt, but the French newspapers reported it as a success.

Helped overthrow the Directory, and set up a new constitution and new government called the Consulate.

In 1802 he named himself First Consul for life.

In 1804 he held a plebiscite where he was voted to be Emperor of the French.

Napoleon Reforms France

Strengthened the central government.

Replaced the old slogan of, “liberty, equality, & fraternity,” with “order, security, & efficiency.”

Balanced the budget, jobs opened to people based on talent

Built roads, canals and pubic schools

Brought back the Catholic Church to France

Created the Napoleonic Code: equality of all citizens, religious toleration, abolition of feudalism. BUT women lost their rights to their husbands.

Plebiscite: popular vote by ballot.Napoleonic Code: new code of law under Napoleon.

Napoleons Empire

Forceful diplomacy

Placed friends and family members on the thrones of Europe

Was not able to take over Britain.Napoleon prepared to invade Britain, but was crushed by Horatio Nelson, the British admiral.

Economic warfare with the Continental System, which closed European ports to British goods.

This was not successful because Britain continued to trade with the Americas and India. It also angered the French because of the scarcity of items.

The end of the Napoleonic Era

Europeans saw Napoleon as a foreign oppressor and resented the continental system. The Spanish were still loyal to their king and queen, and began guerilla warfare, small hit-and-run raids. (Guerilla means “little war” in Spanish).

Napoleon marched into Moscow with his army, but the cold winter and limited crops forced them to return home. After this defeat, Russia, Austria, Prussia and Britain became allies, defeating Napoleon in the Battle of the Nations, forcing him to abdicate, or step down, his throne.

Napoleon returned to power with the unpopularity of Louis XVIII. His return was short lived with his loss at the battle of Waterloo against the British and Prussians. He again abdicated the throne and was exiled to St. Helena. Napoleon: For or Against?

Did Napoleon protect or betray the ideals of the century?