Download The French Revolution

The
French
Revolution
The French Revolution
(In
4
Phases)
(In Four Phases)
By: ME
by: Ryan.
Opening Activity
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What justifies a revolution?
Revolution - The Beatles - YouTube
Preconditions to Revolution
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Failing government in great debt
Raised taxes on the poor
Increased price of bread and poor harvests led to
famine
Print culture spreading Enlightenment ideals
Estates General hadn’t been called since 1608
Struggle for power between clergy, nobles, and
commoners
Estates General (made of 3
Estates)
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First Estate was clergy, 1-2% of the population
Second Estate was nobility, also 1-2% of the
population
Third Estate was everybody else, making up
98% of the population
Estates General
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Third Estate didn’t want the aristocracy in the
first two Estates to have absolute rule
Aristocracy wanted each Estate to have one
vote, but then the first two Estates would simply
just outvote the Third
As a solution, the Third Estate elected twice as
many representatives as the first two, known as
“Doubling the Third”
Creation of the National
Assembly
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Representatives from each Estate
brought their Cahiers de Doleances,
or list of grievances
The National Assembly came
together when the Third Estate
invited both the Clergy and Nobles to
organize a new legislative body on
June 1, 1789.
The Tennis Court Oath
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To reassert authority in the proceedings, Louis
XVI closed the room where the National
Assembly had been meeting.
The Third Estate went to a nearby indoor tennis
court and pledged to keep meeting until France
had a new Constitution. “Tennis Court Oath”
The Fall of the Bastille
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Tensions mounted as Louis’ royal army of 12,000
occupied the outskirts of Paris and bread prices
skyrocketed
On July 14th, after Necker was dismissed, the Paris
mob marched down to the Bastille prison to collect
more firearms in response to the threat
Fighting broke out between the troops and the
people, and the mob stormed the fortress, sparking
the Revolution
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The Great Fear and the Night of
August 4th (Moderate Phase 17891792)
Peasants rejected serfdom
Rumors spread that troops in the countryside were
going to seize farmers’ land
Refused to pay taxes and burned legal documents
Clerics and Aristocrats gave up spot holdings and
land
Abolished the sale of positions in office, and
granted equal rights to all
The Declaration of the rights of
man and citizen
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Issued on August 27th, 1789 drawing on
Enlightenment ideals
Proclaimed that all men were “born and remain
free and equal in rights”
Natural rights were liberty, property, security and
resistance to oppression,
Government existed to protect those rights
The Parisian March on Versailles
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Caused from lack of bread
and suspicions of the crown
7000 heavily armed women
raided Versailles demanding
more bread
King and family was forced
to return to Paris with mob,
to be imprisoned at the
Tuileries palace
The King’s attempt to escape
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On the night of June 20th, 1791, Louis and his
family attempted to flee the country disguised as
servants
Louis was recognized in Varennes and was
returned to Paris under military watch
Created more public tension, radicals like Marat
in his “L’Ami Du Peuple” advocated that the
King of France be executed
France at War
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National Assembly declared war with Austria on April
20th, 1792
War effort went poorly, Duke of Brunswick threatened
to destroy Paris if royal family was harmed, increasing
distrust for King
Revolutionaries created the Paris Commune
On August 10th, 1792 a large mob invaded the Tuileries
palace forcing Louis and his family to take refuge in the
Legislative Assembly
Louis lost all his authority and powers as king
The September Massacres
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Paris Commune slaughtered 1,200 criminals in
city jails
Assumed they were counterrevolutionaries
Created more hostility towards revolutionary
government
Revolution was out of control
Execution of Louis XVI
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Put on trail by the National Convention in
December of 1792
Overwhelming majority convicted the King of
France for conspiring against the liberty of the
people and the security of the state
Beheaded by the infamous guillotine on January
21st, 1793
Radical Phase (1793-1794)
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National Convention created
the Committee of Public Safety
led by Maximilein Robespierre
to calm things down
Drastic actions were taken by
the Committee of Public Safety
to protect the Revolution
Sentenced around 30,000 to the
guillotine who he believed
stood in the way of a “republic
of virtue”
Commonly known as “Reign of
Terror”
Thermidorian Reaction (17951799)
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In 1794, the public back lash led to the arrest and
execution of Robespierre
Began the Thermidorian Reaction which halted the
bloodshed
Bourgeoisie returned and established the National
Convention
Massive inflation caused by the convention invoked
public rioting
Created the First Consulate to solve these problems
Napoleon Bonaparte Phase (17991804)
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Born in 1769 on the island of Corsica.
French artillery officer by age 16
Favored the revolution as a fiery Jacobin
Command in Italy won by extraordinary
military talent, incredible leader
Conquered all of Italy and Switzerland,
and successfully put a dent in Austrian,
Sardinian, and British armies.
First Consulate
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Created during Thermidorian Reaction to form a
strong central government
Ended the Revolution in France
Achieved many of the Revolution goals
Restored peace and order at home
Napoleon used this to come to power in France by
becoming First Consul of the Republic
Napoleon’s Empire
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Crowned himself Emperor in 1804
Led an elite army and conquered most of
Europe
Imposed the Napoleonic Code and Continental
System on his empire
The territories he conquered responded with
great feelings of nationalism
The Napoleonic Code
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A code of laws that
abolished serfdom and any
internal struggles France
faced
Replaced confusing French
law that varied from region
to region
Limited opportunities to
women that had previously
protected their interests
Exposed throughout
Napoleon’s empire giving
Europe a taste for freedom
The Downfall of Napoleon
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Czar Alexander I withdrew Russia from the Continental
System, and Napoleon sought revenge
In 1812, Napoleon marched his ill prepared troops
through the harsh Russian winter
Instead of fighting directly, the Russians burnt their
country to the ground
Napoleon’s army of 600,000 was reduced to 100,000
from the brutal conditions
Napoleon rushed back to Paris, only to be exiled to the
island of Elba in 1814
A Last Hurrah
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Napoleon plotted his escape from the island of Elba to sneak
back into France and take power
The French military was still royal to their former Emperor,
and he raised an army in a period known as the Hundred Days
Napoleon crossed the Alps and whenever he met resistance his
army simply grew bigger
In June of 1815, Napoleon’s elite army was defeated at
Waterloo by the Quadruple Alliance of Britain, Prussia, Russia,
and Austria
Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena, where he passed away in
1819
Impact
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Napoleonic Code gave many European
countries a taste of freedom from feudal society
which would later cause many future revolutions
Napoleon’s conquered territories created a great
passion for nationalism which influenced the
shape of the map today
Closing Activity
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Which revolution was more influential, the
French Revolution or the American
Revolution?