The French Revolution

•The Old Regime•Louis XVI

•Storming the Bastille•The Great Fear•Reign of Terror

Old Regime

• Old Regime – social/political system of France in the 1770s, people divided into three estates:– First Estate – clergy– Second Estate – rich nobles – Third Estate (97% of

France’s people) made up of three groups:

• Bourgeoisie aka middle class (richest of the three)

• Urban workers• Peasants (largest group)

The Third Estate

Blame the Enlightenment…..

• The Third Estate had a growing resentment towards the First and Second

• However, on top of that, new ideas about government, rulers, and revolution inspired members of the Third Estate

1st Estate: Clergy

2nd Estate: Nobles

3rd Estate: Middle-class workers

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

• Problems got worse in France from the extravagant spending of Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, a greedy Austrian (France’s enemy)

• The Second Estate demanded a meeting of the Estates General to approve a tax that Louis XVI planned to impose to pay of some of France’s debt

• Estates General – One delegate from each Estate– Met in separate halls– First and Second could always outvote the

Third

Storming of the Bastille• The Third Estate

changed their name to the National Assembly (N.A.)

• A rumor that the king was planning a coup against the N.A. led to the storming of the Bastille, a Paris prison, on July 14, 1789

The Great Fear

• Fear and chaos swept through France after peasants heard that nobles were hiring outlaws to terrorize them

• The Great Fear had begun

• Riots ensued in Paris - rioting women marched on Versailles

The Night of August 4, 1789

• More and more noblemen jumped on the National Assembly bandwagon

• By the morning of August 5, the Old Regime was dead

• The N.A. adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

Liberté!

Egalité!

Fraternité!

The slogan of the revolution

Other reforms

• The N.A. tried to restructure the relationship between church and state

• The assembly took over church lands and sold them for profit to pay off the French debt

• During this time, Louis XVI and his family tried to escape France. They were caught and later….

….were executed using a new invention called the guillotine.

Legislative Assembly

• Before his death, Louis XVI approved a limited constitutional monarchy

• The legislative body under this form of government was called the Legislative Assembly

• This body was split by three factions

Radicals Moderates Conservatives

• Factions outside the Legislative Assembly wanted changes too:– Emigres were nobles who

wanted to restore the Old Regime

– Sans-culottes (“those without knee britches”) were middle-class workers who also wanted reforms

National Convention

• France went to war with Prussia in 1792 because Prussia wanted France to restore the monarchy

• After the war, Louis and Marie were imprisoned and the Legislative Assembly was dissolved

• The National Convention took office.• France was now a republic in which all

male citizens were granted the right to vote.

Jacobins

• A radical political group, the Jacobin Club, were responsible for many changes in France

• Their leader was Jean-Paul Marat and he called for the death of anyone who still supported the king

Reign of Terror

• One Jacobin leader, Maximillien Robespierre gained power and became leader of the Committee of Public Safety– Goal was to wipe out

every trace of France’s past

– Ruled as a dictator and guillotined anyone who he suspected of not supporting the Revolution

# of Social Classes Executed

• Robespierre himself was executed

• After the Reign of Terror, a new form of government was drafted:– Two-house legislature– Executive body of 5 men

known as the Directory– New general for French

army – Napoleon Bonaparte