The French Revolution

Transition from Absolute Monarchy to Republic

Marks the Death of Feudalism

Enlightenment Ideas In Action

Sent Shock Waves Around the World

Transformed Europe as well as France

Ancien Régime 1700’s France was seen as the most advanced country in Europe

Had a large population & prosperous foreign trade

Social & political system in place was the Old Regime

Characterized by Absolute Monarchy & lingering Feudalism

To Recap:Both Feudalism & Absolute Monarchy

Feudalism:system of reciprocal relationships between Kings & nobles

1780s in France: Feudal countryside

Absolute Monarchy:Centralized Authority

Stranglehold on the Nobility

Very Costly!!!

Social Classes of the Ancien Régime

1st Estate: Clergy

2nd Estate: Nobility

Third Estate

Causes of the Revolution

1. The 3rd Estate is increasingly resentful

2. The Enlightenment ideas of individual freedom & equality spread through France

3. Economic TroublesPrevious debt from Louis XIV still not paid off

Heavy taxes made it impossible to make a profit

Crop failures

4. Louis XVI (16th) is a weak leader

Louis XVI

Estates-General Meeting May 1789

Tennis Court Oath

Storming the Bastille

The Great FearJuly 1789

Women March on Versailles

The Old Regime is DeadAugust 4th, 1789: National Assembly declares the end of Feudalism:

“The National Assembly abolishes the feudal system entirely… any kind of tithes and fees… are abolished… Financial, personal, or real privileges are abolished forever…”

Civil Constitution of the ClergyChurch officials become state employees

Sell Church land

Splits the 3rd Estate & Church: bourgeoisie vs. peasant

Declaration of Rights of Man27 August 1789

Full of Enlightenment Ideas!!!

Guarantees many basic rights:Property, liberty, security, speech, religionLiberté, Egalité, Fraternité!!!

Caveat: these rights did not apply to women

Olympe de Gouges published a Declaration of the Rights of Women

her ideas were rejectedSeen as an enemy of the Revolution

Out with the Old, In with the New

OLD & gone:

Feudalism

Slavery

Nobles’ titles

Independent Church

Absolute Monarchy

NEW:

Jews given citizenship

Loyalty Oath

Divorce legalized

Trade unions & guilds banned

Constitution

Currency: assignat

1st Republic

La Nuit de Varennes

Constitutional Monarchy

1 October 1791 a new Constitution approved by Louis XVI

1791 Constitution establishes

Constitutional Monarchy

Legislative Assembly

Political SpectrumParticipants in French Revolution

Moderate

(Liberal)

RadicalConservative

•Some change•Girondins•Mountain

•oppose monarchy•want sweeping changes•Jacobins•Sans culottes

•limited monarchy•a few changes•Many peasants•nobility

France at War1792 - Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria

Mob invades the Tuileries Palace

kills guards & imprisons the Royal Family

September Massacres: Fear Monarchists take over

Raid prisons & murder over 1000 royalists

The SansculottesParisian workers & small shopkeepers

They want the Revolution to bring even greater changes

Sans-culottes ally with Radicals in the Legislative Assembly

Jacobins

The End of the Monarchy

First French Republic:A Republic of Virtue

The Reign of Terror

Death of Marat

Execution of

Robespierre

After the TerrorNational Convention drafts another constitution

Creates Directory:bicameral legislature & executive

moderates, not revolutionaries

Corrupt