Transcript THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION
The MODERATE
Stage
(Bourgeoisie)
ESTATES-GENERAL (1789)
Called by Louis XVI to resolve the
financial crisis
– Meets May 5, 1789
– First Estates-General since 1614! (175 years)
– The three estates DO agree on some things
• Limiting royal absolutism
• Granting basic freedoms
– Voting system
• Each estate still only gets ONE VOTE
THE VOTE
300 reps
300 reps
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
3rd Estate declares itself the National
Assembly (June 17, 1789)
– Invites both 1st and 2nd Estate to join
– Louis orders them to disband (June 27, 1789)
– **Seen as first great act of French Rev**
THE TENNIS COURT OATH
June 20, 1789
Louis XVI locks the doors of
the meeting room –
Versailles
National Assembly moves to
an indoor tennis court
Vows not to disband until a
constitution is formed
LOUIS XVI
June 27, 1789 - Ordered the National
Assembly to Disband (STRONG)
Response “..We are here by the will of the
people, and that we will go only if we are
driven out by bayonets”
(WEAK) ordered the first two estates to
join the National Assembly
Moderate middle class and liberal nobility
in control – transfer of power
Louis – Swiss and German mercenaries
stationed - Paris & Versailles
STORMING OF THE BASTILLE
Rumor = King was planning a military coup
against the National Assembly
Bastille
– French Royal Prison – 7 prisoners
• Was a symbol of the abuse of power
– Stormed on July 14, 1789
– People want … GUNPOWDER
– Is looted and destroyed by French people
– 18 died, 73 wounded, 7 guards killed
July 14th = French independence day
STORMING OF THE BASTILLE
IMPACT
City now has an armed force
• Marquis de Lafayette becomes the commander
• TRICOLOR FLAG EMERGES
Power shifts from King  National
Assembly
More uprisings followed
• Many landowners killed and their property
destroyed
LEADS TO THE “GREAT FEAR”
• Faced with great pressure, nobles concede a
plethora of privileges (no more feudal dues)
FLAG OF PARIS
LIBERTY
BOURBON FLAG
EQUALITY
FRATERNITY
THE GREAT FEAR
Time period where rumors spread
(summer of 1789)
Rumors included:
– King mounting a counterattack
– Nobles attempting to put down revolution
• Peasants ruthlessly killed nobles and destroyed
their estates
• They also burn any legal documents tying them
to the land
– Queen was hording grain at Versailles
LIMITING THE MONARCHY
National Assembly issues the Declaration
of the Rights of Man (Aug. 27, 1789)
– Called for basic human rights in France
• “Liberty, security, and prosperity”
• Ended feudal rights of nobles over peasants
• = to American Declaration of Independence
– Was mass produced and spread throughout
FRA and Europe
One question remains: HOW MUCH
POWER SHOULD THE KING HAVE?
DECLARATION OF THE
RIGHTS OF WOMEN
1791
Olympe de Gouges
(1748-1793)
Written in response to
the Constitution of 1791
“Social contract between
men and women”
Rejected by the National
Assembly
WOMEN’S MARCH ON
VERSAILLES
After the fall of the Bastille, many nobles
fled Versailles and left the country
– Thus,  in demand for luxuries
– Women, who made these luxuries as a source
of income, now see dwindling profits
– Toppled with  in price of wheat, many
women and families began to go HUNGRY
October 5, 1789  7,000 women storm
Versailles (OCTOBER DAYS)
WOMEN’S MARCH ON
VERSAILLES
Stormed the palace looking for … MARIE
ANTOINETTE
“We are going to cut off her head, tear out
her heart, fry her liver, and that won’t be the
end of it”
National Guard saves king, but he had to
agree to go live in Paris (Tuileries Palace)
– Abolishes French nobility as legal order
– Sets out to create a constitutional monarchy
• KING now a ceremonial figurehead
THE CIVIL CONSTITUION OF
THE CLERGY
The National Assembly confiscated land
from RCC
WHY?
TO FINANCE THE NEW GOV’T
ABOLISHED THE TITHE
The French government would now pay the
salary of the clergy
Bishops and priests elected by the people
Oath of allegiance? FRANCE or THE RCC
RCC branch of the STATE
THE KING’S FLIGHT
Amidst great fear and diminishing power,
Louis and family attempt to flee
June 20, 1791
– Louis is arrested in Varennes and sent back to
Paris (was only miles from the border)
– King abandoning people counterrevolutionary
Some argue that the King’s flight =
TREASON (JACOBINS)
PICTURE: Lynn Hunt
CONSTITUTION OF 1791
Completed September 3, 1791
Redefined French government
– Three branches
• National Assembly = Legislative Assembly
• Executive = King (only real power = VETO)
• Judicial
– ABOLISHED THE ESTATES SYSTEM
– Franchise = tax-paying males
constitutional monarchy
ROAD TO WAR
Leopold II and Frederick William II
Austria, Prussia  fear republics
Issue the Declaration of Pillnitz - August 1791
Brunswick Manifesto – July 1792
Intervene if French revolutionaries infringed on
Louis XVI’s rights and did not restore him to
power
French revolutionaries take this as threat,
and declare war on Austria (April 20, 1792)
PROBLEM = CIVIL WAR /FOREIGN WAR
THE FIRST COALITION
DUKE OF BRUNSWICK - “if the royal
family is harmed France will be leveled”
1792-1797
AUSTRIA
PRUSSIA
BRITIAN
SPAIN
PIEDMONT
SUCCESSES OF
THE MODERATE STAGE
Abolished special privileges
Declaration of Rights of Man and
Citizen
Reduce the power and influence of the
Roman Catholic Church, KING
Reformed local gov’t – 83 EQUAL
districts
Constitution of 1791
Picture – Lynn Hunt