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FRENCH REVOLUTION
Mr. Hardy, Randolph Middle School, 2012-2013
DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
• Read the lyrics to the song Do You Hear the People
Sing?
• Annotate as you read the lyrics. What are you
thoughts? What strikes you as important? What
do you think the mood of the song is? What is the
writer trying to say?
• Next, watch this awesome video:
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgQgzKVX9jc
– As you watch, look at the visuals. Notice how the people
act, dress, react, and do.
DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
• Answer the following questions:
Who are the “people”?
Why do you think they are angry?
At who are they angry?
How do they act upon their anger?
What does the phrase “when the beating of your heart
matches the beating of the drum” mean?
– What do you think is the most impactful line? Why?
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION
• Began in 1789, when the US was
created
• More complex, more violent, and far
more radical than American Revolution
• A turning point in EUROPEAN
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY
CAUSES OF THE WAR
• Social Inequality
– Social class was divided into three estates, or classes
– Social Conditions
• Conditions of French society
– Economic inequalities
– Enlightenment Ideas
THREE ESTATES
Nobility (350,000
people), owned
30%, held leading
positions
First
Estate
Second
Estate
Third Estate
Clergy (130,000
people), owned
about 10% of land,
Commoners
(peasants),
made up of 75
percent of total
population.
Owned 35-40 %
of land
THIRD ESTATE
• A Majority of People
– Peasants, shopkeepers, craftspeople
• Bourgeoisie– middle class, 8% of the third estate, owned 25-30%
land
– Upset at all the privileges held by people in higher
estates
FORCES OF CHANGE
Enlightenment Ideas
- Individual Rights
- Democracy
Economic Troubles
• National government financial collapse
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Bad harvest
slow manufacturing
high # of poor people
costly wars and aid to the US
expensive monarchies
High Taxes
KING LOUIS AND MARIE ANTOINETTE
–King Louis married Marie
Antoinette when he was 15 and
she was 14
• Antoinette was an Austrian princess
• Spent so much money on luxuries
she was nicknamed Madame Deficit
• French people hated her
National Assembly
• Versailles, May 5, 1789
• Meeting of all Estates
• Problem-> was voting
– Each estate would get one vote.
(traditional)
– 1st and 2nd Estate could outvote the 3rd
Third Estate & Tennis Court Oath
• Not happy with result- created their own
Assembly
• Met on June 17, 1789, at a Tennis Court,
original place was locked
• Made an oath to create a new constitution
• King Louis XVI was against this and used
force
• Rebellions started forming all over France
TENNIS COURT OATH
STORMING THE BASTILLE
• Louis fears a rebellion in Paris
– Stations Swiss guards in the city (won’t trust his
own men)
– The people of Paris see foreign soldiers, hear
rumors that Louis will disassemble the National
Assembly, and freak out
– The people storm the Bastille (a prison in Paris)
looking for weapons
REIGN OF TERROR
• Jacobins (radicals) want France to become
a true Republic
• 1793: Louis XVI is publicly tried for treason
and executed and Marie Antoinette would
be executed a few months later
REIGN OF TERROR
REIGN OF TERROR
REIGN OF TERROR
• Maximilien Robespierre
– Member of the Jacobins
– Ruled France like a
dictator
– Hunted down, tried, and
executed enemies of the
Revolution
REIGN OF TERROR
• Closed churches
• Mass executions
• Suspended civil
liberties
REIGN OF TERROR
• Eventually, members of the
National Assembly conspire
against Robespierre
–He is arrested and executed by
guillotine without a trial
–Hundreds of Jacobins are hunted
down and killed
OUTCOMES OF THE REVOLUTION
• End of absolute monarchy in France
• Republic established with
separation of powers 1795 - 1799
OUTCOMES
• Republic opposed by Royalists,
Jacobins, and others in France
–French military controlled riots
and rebellions
–French General Napoleon rises to
power, and will eventually take
over France