Transcript The French Revolution

The French Revolution
(1789-1815)
Old (Ancien) Regime France

3 Estates
– 1st
– 2nd
– 3rd

Privileges
Louis XVI

Buffoon
– Married at 15
– “Poor Man” - Marie
Antoinette
Marie Antoinette

Austrian
– Naive
– Married at 14
A Queen’s Pleasure

“Hamlet” on Versailles - Shepherdess/Dairy Maid
Origins of French Revolution

Financial Troubles
– Debt
Foreign Policy
 Court
 Other


Antiquated Tax System
Attempts at Reform





Reforming Ministers
Assembly of Notables
Aristocracy revolts
Calling of the Estates
General (May, 1789)
Elections
Third Estate Awakens

Abbé Sieyès
– “What is the Third Estate?
– How will the Estates General vote?
Estates General
May, 1789
 Versailles
 1200 delegates
 3rd Estate refuses to sit

– 17 June: National Assembly
National Assembly
Oath of the Tennis Court

June 20
Louis’ Reaction


July - Jacques Necker dismissed
Troops ordered to Paris
Storming of the Bastille


July 14, 1789 - Peasants storm the prison
Urban masses involved for the first time
Perception of Louis

Aristocracy crushed
Great Fear


July and August - Peasant Uprising
Overturn Feudal system by violence
Reaction

Decrees of 4 August - End of Old Regime
– ARTICLE I. The National Assembly hereby completely abolishes the
feudal system. It decrees that, among the existing rights and dues,
both feudal and censuel, all those originating in or representing real
or personal serfdom shall be abolished without indemnification. All
other dues are declared redeemable, the terms and mode of
redemption to be fixed by the National Assembly. Those of the said
dues which are not extinguished by this decree shall continue to be
collected until indemnification shall take place.
Declaration of the Rights of Man



27 August - Declaration of
the Rights of Man and
Citizen
Outlines direction of the
Revolution
17 articles - distributed
throughout France
Women’s March on Versailles

October 5 - Force Louis and Assembly to Paris
Reforms of the National Assembly


Generalities replaced by 83 Departments
Weights and Measures standardized
Reforms of the National Assembly

July, 1790 - Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Reforms of the National Assembly

Assignats - backed by confiscated church and
crown land
Flight to Varennes

June 20, 1791 - Reveals king’s attitude toward revolution
Return to Paris after Varennes

June 25, 1791 - King met by silent, hostile crowd
Reforms of the National Assembly



Draft a constitution
One legislative body
Power of the king?
– Absolute vs.
suspensive veto
Constitution of 1791

Constitutional monarch
– “King abducted” in June
“Active” and “Passive” citizens
 Legislative Assembly
 All new representatives - more radical

Prelude to War





Belief in spreading the message of the Revolution
Threat of counterrevolution
Declaration of Pillnitz - famous “if” (Aug, 1791)
April, 1792 - France declares war on Austria
Distrust of king growing
10 August 1792 - 2nd Revolution



Tuileries Palace is
attacked
King is suspended
National
Convention
– Universal male
suffrage

Republic
proclaimed
– Year I
September Massacres




Illustrates violence
of the revolution
Political prisoners
Fear of revolt
1300 murdered
Reforms of the Convention


Revolutionary Calendar (October 24, 1793)
Republican virtues - Secular festivals
Predictably the













Vendémiaire
Brumaire
Frimaire
Nivose
Pluviôse
Ventose
Germinal
Floréal
Prairial
Messidor
Thermidor
Fructidor
Wine-harvesting
Foggy
Frosty
Snowy
Rainy
Windy
Plant germination
Flowering season
Meadows
Reaping and harvesting
Heat
Fruit harvest
furiously anti-French literary
establishment across the Channel in Britain made
fun of this by christening the months, Wheezy,
Sneezy, Freezy, Slippy, Drippy, Nippy, Showery,
Flowery, Bowery, Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety.
Each month was divided up into 3 equal decades of 10 days each, and the
day was divided up into 10 decimal hours. Each hour contained 100
minutes and each minute 100 seconds. Each day in the 3 decades had its
own name, as in days of the week, and the 10th day, Decadi, was a day of
rest when shops and businesses had to close. It became a criminal offence
for a shop to close on the old Sunday. The full list is:
–
–
Primdi; Duodi; Tridi; Quartidi; Quintidi
Sextidi; Septidi; Octidi; Nonidi; Decadi
Political Struggles
National Convention
Jacobins
Jacobins
Mountain
Mountain
Maximilian Robespierre
Girondins
Girondins
Georges Danton
Political spectrum – Mountain is “left”
Execution of Louis XVI

January 1793 - “I am innocent and shall die without
fear. I would that my death might bring happiness to
the French, and ward off the dangers which I foresee.”
“War against Tyranny”

Battle of Valmy (Sept. 20, 1792)
– Saved the Republic



German Rhineland
Austrian Netherlands
February, 1793 - War with Britain, Holland
and Spain
Tide Turns


War turns against
French
Vendée Revolt
– Opposition to
conscription
– 3 year civil war

Power Struggle
between Girondists
and Mountain
– March 1793
Vendéeans attack Nantes - February, 1793
Sans-Culottes


Mountain sides with Sans-Culottes
June 2 - 31 Girondist deputies arrested
– Mountain assumes power
End of the Republic?



Committee of Public Safety - dictatorial power
War is a disaster
Massive revolts
Danton
Robespierre
Domestic Front

Economic Action
– Mobilize Sans-culottes





Planned economy - “Law of Maximum Prices”
Rationing
“Bread of Equality”
Nationalization of small industries - enhance the war effort
Early socialism
– Frightening - why?
Domestic Front

Political Action
– Reign of Terror (1793-1794)




Revolutionary Courts - “Enemies of the nation”
40,000 executed - “new” Guillotine
300,000 imprisoned
Necessary?
Death of Marat - July, 1793
Revolutionary Committees

Sans-cullottes ensure loyalty of all French citizens
Execution of Marie Antoinette

Convicted of Treason
– Executed October, 1793
Foreign Front

French Patriotism
– Birth of modern nationalism



Unite against foreign and internal enemies
Levée en Masse - conscription of all single males
War becomes a secular crusade - Total War
– January, 1794: 800,000 men
– “No maneuvering, nothing elaborate … Just cold steel, passion and
patriotism” - General Hoche

Spring, 1794 - French armies victorious
Revolutionary Wars

Gains made by
Republican
Armies
Thermidorean Reaction


Republic of Virtue
Terror expands
– Hébert (March, 1794)
– Danton (March, 1794)


9 Thermidor (July 27) Robespierre arrested
Executed (10 Thermidor)
Thermidorean Reaction

Middle class reasserts
itself
– Price controls repealed
– Prices rise
– Self-indulgence

Early 1795 - sans-culottes
revolt
– Army suppression
– Fade into background

Return to a normal life . . .
Lower class women bring
back religion
Church
Directory (1795-1799)

New constitution
(August, 1795)
– 5 man Directory

Convention ensured
2/3 of legislature
would be reelected
– Royalists/reactionaries
attack Convention
– Dispersed by Napoleon
“Whiff of Grapeshot” - October 1795