Transcript The French Revolution

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.
2.
3.
The 3rd Estate is increasingly resentful
The Enlightenment ideas of individual
freedom & equality spread through France
Economic Troubles
Previous 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 Fear
July 1789
Women March on Versailles
The Old Regime is Dead
August 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 Clergy
Church officials become state employees
Sell Church land
Splits the 3rd Estate & Church: bourgeoisie vs. peasant
Declaration of Rights of Man
27 August 1789
Full of Enlightenment Ideas!!!
Guarantees many basic rights:
Property, liberty, security, speech, religion
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!!!
Caveat: these rights did not apply to women
Olympe de Gouges published a Declaration of the
Rights of Women
her ideas were rejected
Seen 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 Spectrum
Participants in French Revolution
Conservative
limited
monarchy
•a few changes
•Many peasants
•nobility
•
Moderate
(Liberal)

Some change
•Girondins
•Mountain
•

Radical
•oppose
monarchy
•want sweeping
changes
•Jacobins
•Sans culottes
1792 - 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
France at War
The Sansculottes
Parisian 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 Terror
National Convention drafts
another constitution
Creates Directory:
bicameral legislature &
executive
moderates, not revolutionaries
Corrupt