1. The French Revolution:
7.1
The French Revolution:
Revolution Threatens the French King
MAIN IDEA:
Economic & social inequalities in the Old Regime
French Revolution
France in the 1700’s was probably the most advanced country in Europe possibly the World. It was the center of the Enlightenment; where they would gather at these salons and explore new ideas on government and equality…However there was great unrest in France due to high prices, high taxes and disturbing questions raised by the Enlightenment.
Main Idea: The system of Feudalism was still left over from the Middle Ages in France called the Old Regime. The people of France were still divided into three large social classes, or estates.
Fuedalism: a political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to their king, in exchange for loyalty and military service.
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2. The Old Regime
1770s: France ruled by the Old Regime: system of feudalism
unequal society
French citizens divided into Estates: social classes
First Estate
Second Estate
Third Estate

3. Owned 10 % of land but paid few taxes Scorned Enlightenment ideas
FIRST ESTATE
Roman Catholic clergy
Owned 10 % of land but paid few taxes
Scorned Enlightenment ideas
SECOND ESTATE
Rich nobles, 2% of population
Owned 20% of land
Held highest government offices
Disagreed on Enlightenment ideas
THIRD ESTATE
97% of population:
Bourgeoisie, workers, & peasant farmers
Heavily taxed and no govn’t power
Embraced Enlightenment ideas
Dissatisfied and wanted change
First estate: Church
It provided education and relief services to the poor and contributed about 2% of its income to the government.
Second estate: Rich Nobles
They paid almost no taxes. The majority of the clergy and the nobility scorned Enlightenment ideas as radical notions why? that threatened their status and power as privileged persons.
Third Estate: 97% of the people belonged to the third estate. Three groups made up the third estate and they all differed greatly.
First: The bourgeoisie were the middle class merchants and artisans. They were well educated and believed very strongly in the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and equality. Even though some were as rich as nobles, they paid high taxes and lacked privaleges. Many of the Bourgeoise felt their wealth entitled them to a greater degree of social status and political power.
Second: Workers like cooks and servants. They were poorer than the bourgeoisie. They were paid low wages and were frequently out of work and went hungry. If the cost of bread rose, mobs of these workers might attack carts of grain and bread to steal what they needed.
Third: Peasants. Formed the largest group, more than 80% of France’s 26 million people. Peasants paid about half of their income in dues to nobles, tithes to the church, and taxes to the king’s agents. They even paid taxes on such staples as salt. Peasants joined the urban poor in resenting the clergy and the nobles for their privileges and special treatment. The heavily taxed and discontented Third Estate was eager for change.

4. Forces of Change 3 Factors led to revolution: Enlightenment Ideas:
equality, liberty, democracy
American Revolution
2. Economic Troubles
High taxes & inflation
Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette are extravagant
national debt doubles
—banks refuse to lend more money
Beyond the growing resentment of the lower classes, there were other factors going on contributing to the revolutionary mood in France.
Enlightenment views: New views about power and authority in government were spreading among the Third Estate. The people began questioning long-standing notions about the structure and using words like equality, liberty and democracy. The success of the American Revolution inspired them.
Economic Troubles: The heavy burden of taxes made it impossible to conduct business profitably within France. The cost of living rose for everyone. The price of bread doubled in 1789, and many people faced starvation. During this period France’s economy was sinking deeper and deeper into debt. Extravagant spending by the king and queen was part of the problem. Louis XVI who became king in 1774, inherited part of the debt from his predecessors. He also borrowed heavily in order to help the American Revolutionaries in their war against France-France’s chief rival- which nearly doubled France’s debt. The banks refused to lend more money, which was a serious problem for Louis.
Weak Leader: Louis was an indecisive leader and allowed matters to drift. He paid little attention to his govt advisers. Marie Antoinette was a member of the Royal family of Austria (one of France’s main rivals) so she wasn’t liked the minute she came to be Louis’ bride. Eventually he tried to tax the Aristocrats, when he did this the Second Estate forced him to call a meeting of the Estates General- an assssembly of representatives from all three estates-to get approval of the tax reform.
3. Louis XVI = Weak Leader
Marie Antoinette unpopular
Tries to tax aristocrats
Forced to call Estates-General: representatives from all three estates

5. Revolution Dawns Estates-General:
Third Estate always outvoted under rules—now want each delegate to have a vote
Third Estate breaks away
National Assembly: congress to make reforms
Beginning of representative government in France
Tennis Court Oath: promise to write new constitution for France
The clergy and the nobles had dominated the Estates-General throughout the Middle Ages and expected to do the same in the 1789 meeting. Each estate had one vote, so in the past the two privileged estates could always outvote the third estate. The third estate, made up mostly of the bourgeosie, and now having all of these ideas because of the Enlightenment insisted that each delegate has a vote. The third estate had more delegates than the other two estates combined.
The third estate breaks away and establish themselves as the National Assembly, in effect proclaiming the end of absolute monarchy and the beginning of representative government. This was in fact the first deliberate act of revolution. Three days later, the Third Estate delegates found themselves locked out of their meeting room. They broke down a door to an indoor tennis court, pledging to stay until they had drawn up a new constitution. Their pledge was called the Tennis Court Oath.

6. Storming the Bastille
• Rumors spread that Louis will suppress National Assembly
Swiss guards sent to Paris—citizens panic
• July 14, 1789: Bastille Day
Mob attacks and seizes Bastille to get gunpowder
symbol of revolution
In response, Louis tried to make peace with the third estate by yielding to their demands. He ordered the nobles and the clergy to join the Third Estate in the National Assembly. Also, sensing trouble, the king stationed his mercenary Swiss guards in Paris, because he no longer trusted the French soldiers. What are mercenaries? A group of soldiers that will work for any country or employer that will pay them.
high reputation for discipline and loyalty
In paris there were rumors flying that foreign troops were coming to massacre French citizens. French people were gathering weapons trying to defend themselves from the foreign troops. On July 14, a mob tried to get into the Bastille (a Paris Prison) to get gunpowder. The angry crowd overwhelmed the the king’s soldiers and the Bastille fell into the control of the citizens. The fall of the Bastille became a great symbolic act of revolution to the French people. Ever since, July 14 has been a French national holiday, similar to the US fourth of July.

7. A Great Fear Sweeps France
Great Fear: wave of panic and violence
Peasants destroy legal papers binding them to feudal system
October 1789: Parisian women revolt over rising price of bread
storm Versailles & force Louis to return to Paris
Soon the rebellion spread from Paris to the countryside. A wave of senseless panic rolled through France. The tore up and destroyed the legal papers binding them to feudal system.
In October 1789, approximately 6000 women rioted over the rising price of bread. Their anger quickly turned against the king and queen. They marched to Versailles demanding that Marie Antoinette and Louis the 16 come to Paris. Eventually the king does agree to take his wife and children to Paris. Their exit signaled the change of power and radical reforms about to overtake France.