1. The French Revolution
World History AP

2. Preliminary Stage

3. Causes of the French Revolution

4. The Enlightenment Political & Legal Equality (Rousseau)
Personal Freedoms (Voltaire)
Social Contract (Hobbes)
Popular Sovereignty & Natural Rights (Locke)
Global Influence of Enlightenment Values
American Revolution
Overthrow the ancien régime (old order)

5. Inept Ruler? King Louis XVI

6. Financial Crisis During 1780s, 50% of revenue went to pay off debts
American Revolution?
Lavish lifestyle of the monarchy
Series of bad harvests 1787 & 1788
Bread prices went up 50% in 1789
Need for tax reform
Louis XVI hoped to raise taxes on ancien régime
Aristocracy resisted reforms
Forced Louis to call the Estates-General for the first time since 1614

7. Estates General First Estate: 100,000 Catholic clergy
Did not pay taxes
Second Estate: 400,000 nobles
Exempt from many taxes
Third Estate: Rest of Population
Sans-culottes
Provided bulk of French tax revenue

8. Discussion Questions
What were the similarities between the long-term causes of the American and French Revolutions? Differences?

9. Initial Stage ( )

10. Calling of the Estates-General
May 5, 1789

11. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
The National Assembly
June 20, 1789
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

12. Storming of the Bastille
French citizens fearing King Louis XVI would use violence to put down the revolution stormed the Bastille on 14 July 1789

13. Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen
Passed by the National Assembly on August 26, 1789
Not a Constitution but a statement of general principals
Defines individual and collective rights
Does not address women or slavery

14. Women’s March
Storming of Versailles
October 1, 1789

15. Crisis Stage ( )

16. Radicals Take Control
Arrest of Louis XVI
August 10, 1792

17. Execution of Louis XVI
January 21, 1793

18. Radical Reforms of the Jacobins
Universal adult male suffrage
Abolished slavery
Fuels Haitian Revolution
Universal military conscription
Increased rights of women
Could not participate in politics
Attacked Catholicism
Spirit of nationalism
Set price controls & seized crops from farmers

19. Festival of the Supreme Being

20. Reign of Terror Led by Maximilien Robespierre
According to records 16,000+ died under the guillotine
Historians estimate could be as high as 40,000
“The first maxim of our politics ought to be to lead the people by means of reason and the enemies of the people by terror.”

21. British View of Reign of Terror

22. End of the Terror
July 28, 1794

23. Discussion Question
How were the actions of American radicals and French radicals similar? How were they different?

24. Recovery Stage ( )

25. Napoleon Bonaparte
Moderate government, the Directory, rules for four years following Reign of Terror
Failed to solve economic problems of France
Napoleon staged a coup d’etat in 1799
Becomes emperor in 1804

26. Domestic Policies of Napoleon
Maintained some rights gained during the revolution
Freedom of religion
Napoleonic Code (Civil Code)
Schools and universities
Reversed other gains
Rights of women
Freedom of expression
Reformed economy
Revised tax code
Central bank

27. Napoleon’s Empire Left: Napoleon’s Empire by 1912
Above: Napoleon’s Retreat from Russia

28. Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia

29. Napoleon on Elba
This should NOT be a prison

30. Battle of Waterloo

31. Legacy of the French Revolution
Global Independence movements
Haitian Revolution
Latin American independence
Triggered by Napoleon’s invasion of Spain
Egypt broke away from Ottoman Empire
Slave Trade and Slavery
England abolished slave trade in 1807; slavery in 1833
Brazil—Last to abolish slavery (1888)
Abolition of serfdom
Except in Russia

32. Legacy of the French Revolution
Women’s Rights
Played major role in the revolutions
Sewing uniforms, nurses, running businesses, some even fought
Lost many rights after revolution
Napoleon
Feminist Movements
Mary Wollstonecraft
Spread of nationalism in Europe
German and Italian unification
Greek independence