1. The French Revolution

2. Causes of the French Revolution

3. Causes of the Revolution
Poor Leadership Louis XVI
A Divided Society
influence of the American Revolution
influence of Enlightenment ideas
Political & Legal Equality (Rousseau)
Personal Freedoms (Voltaire)
Popular Sovereignty & Natural Rights (Locke)

4. Inept Ruler? King Louis XVI

5. Q. What can you infer from the pie graphs on why a revolution occurred in France?

6. A Divided Society First Estate: 100,000 Catholic clergy
Did not pay taxes
Second Estate: 400,000 nobles
Exempt from many taxes
Third Estate: Rest of Population
made up of peasants, commoners, & Sans-culottes – working class
Provided bulk of French tax revenue

7. Political inequalities for Middle Class
First Estate Second Estate Third Estate
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
1 Vote
1 Vote
X= Representative
1 Vote

8. 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 the aristocracy
Aristocracy resisted reforms
Forced Louis to call the Estates-General for the first time since 1614
start movie at 20:00 end 23

9. Phase I Moderate/liberal Goal- create constitutional monarchy

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

11. Debriefing: Meeting of the Estates General
Describe what happened at the Estates General.
How does it feel to be a member of the 3rd estate?
Do you agree with the results of the Estates General?
What options do the members of the 3rd estate have to change their status?
How many people of the 3rd estate would now vote to meet apart from the 1st and 2nd estate and be the true representatives of the people of France?
Who else might support members of the 3rd Estate who want to start a new government?

12. The National Assembly and Tennis Court Oath
Third Estate removed themselves and created their own assembly
a. renamed themselves the National Assembly and met at a nearby indoor tennis court
b. Tennis Court Oath – promised not to disband until they had written a constitution for France

13. The National Assembly and Tennis Court Oath
June 20, 1789
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

14. Storming of the Bastille-
- July 1789: people were hungry and desperate.
a rumor spread that the king’s troops were coming to sack Paris.
- hundreds of people marched to the Bastille (a medieval fort and prison) to get gunpowder
- soldiers fired on the crowd, killing many people.
- Importance = Symbolized the start of the revolution
- France enters “Great Fear” – general revolts against Old Feudal Regime.

15. Women’s March October 1789:
Storming of Versailles
October 1, 1789
October 1789:
thousands of women marched to Versailles and demanded the King and Queen come to Paris and leave Versailles
Their exit signaled the change of power and the radical reforms about the overtake France

16. Creation of a “The Declaration of the Rights of Man”
nobles in the First and Second Estates joined the National Assembly
scared of the violent commoners
voted to end their own privileges
National Assembly adopted a statement of revolutionary ideas
“A declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen”

17. 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 principles
Defines individual and collective rights
Does not address women or slavery

18. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Marquis de Lafayette The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
June 20, 1789
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

19. Phase II (1792-1794) Radical Goal- a republic; eliminate monarchists and counterrevolutionaries

20. Radicals Take Control
Arrest of Louis XVI
August 10, 1792
June 1791 Louis and is Family try to escape France
They are recognized near the border and brought back to Paris
September 1791 National assembly creates a constitutional monarchy
Stripping the king of most of his authority
Frances assemblymen would have the power to make laws
Louis reluctantly approves it
Hands over his power to the Legislative Assembly

21. neighboring countries began to worry about their own monarchies
French émigrés (nobles who fled from France) tried to convince other countries to restore Louis XVI
French revolutionary leaders declared war on Austria, then Prussia
radicals imprisoned Louis XVI,

22. Radical Reforms of the Jacobins
Jacobins was a radical political club
Led by Jean Paul Marat
Goal: remove the king and establish a
Republic
National Convention September
abolishes the monarchy and creates a
republic
Men were given the right to vote, not
women
Louis XVI’s role went from King to common citizen
He was sentence to death for treason and was sent to
the guillotine

23. Execution of Louis XVI
January 21, 1793

24. “Reign of Terror”

25. Reign of Terror Led by Maximilien Robespierre
Goal was to build a “public of virtue”
1793 became leader of the Committee of Public Safety
He decided who was an enemy of the republic
According to records 16,000+ died under the guillotine
Historians estimate could be as high as 40,000

26. British View of Reign of Terror

27. End of the Terror
Robespierre is killed
July 28, 1794

28. Phase III (1794-1815) Conservative/reactionary
Goal- To end “terror” and establish Directory

29. Directory and
Rise of Napoleon

30. Napoleon Bonaparte
Moderate government, the Directory, rules for five years following Reign of Terror
Failed to solve economic problems of France
Napoleon staged a coup d'état in 1799
Becomes emperor in 1804

31. 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

32. Napoleon’s Empire

33. Napoleon’s Failed Invasion of Russia

34. Napoleon’s Empire Left: Napoleon’s Empire by 1812
Above: Napoleon’s Retreat from Russia

35. Napoleon on Elba
This should NOT be a prison

36. Battle of Waterloo
British and Prussians Defeat Napoleon for good

37. Napoleon Banished to St. Helena

38. Napoleon’s Downfall Could not conquer British navy
Guerilla movements in Spain and Portugal
Failed invasion of Russia
Final defeat at Waterloo

39. Legacy of Napoleon
Unsuccessful attempt to unify Europe under French domination.
Napoleonic Code – great influence on modern European legal codes
Spread of nationalism in Europe
German and Italian unification
Greek independence

40. 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