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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Causes:
 Absolute monarchy – King Louis XVI ruled France in the late 18th Century, had absolute power over his people,
claimed he had a divine right (God-given) to rule and could make whatever laws he wished, his Austrian wife was
unpopular with the French people – very extravagant and showed off her wealth at huge palace of Versailles,
educated French people wanted to change the system of government and make the king share power
 Privileges of Nobility and Clergy – French people divided into ‘Three Estates’, First Estate = Clergy (bishops
and priests), Second Estate = Nobles, Third Estate = Common people, clergy and nobility were generally wealthy
but paid almost no taxes, third estate was mixed between wealthy and educated people like doctors, lawyers,
bankers etc and very poor peasants, but all had to pay taxes like Taille (land tax), Corvee (repair roads for free) and
Tithe (10% of produce to the Catholic Church)
 The Philosophes – Writers and thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu criticised the Ancien
Regime (system of government where King held all the power), these Enlightenment thinkers wanted the King to
share power and wrote their ideas in essays, books, pamphlets etc
 Influence of American Revolution – Many Frenchmen admired what had been achieved in America, French
soldiers who had fought in America returned home full of the ideas of liberty and equality, France has spend a
fortune and incurred great debts during the war and Louis needed to raise taxes to pay for it so he called a meeting
of the Estates General
 Meeting of the Estates General – A kind of parliament where members of each of the Three Estates met (last
had been in 1614), huge disagreement over voting as soon as meeting began, Nobles and Clergy wanted to vote by
estate (so they would win 2 – 1) while Third Estate wanted to vote by member (so that their 621 members could
outvote the combined 593 members of the other two estates), debate dragged on for six weeks until Third Estate lost
patience and said they would conduct national business without the other two and walked out of the meeting and met
in the Royal Tennis Court instead, here they took the Tennis Court Oath – to stay together until change in
government had been accepted, Louis eventually gave in and ordered the Three Estates to meet and form an official
assembly – the Constituent Assembly (later called the National Assembly)
The Revolution Begins:
 Political tension grows through the summer of 1789 due to high food prices
 Citizens of Paris form their own army or militia called the National Guard
 14th July sees an angry crowd attack the Bastille Prison (perhaps looking for weapons, perhaps to free prisoners,
perhaps because it was a symbol of the old order) – governor was captured and imprisoned
 Bastille Day is a French national holiday to this day
The Revolution Spreads:
 Fall of the Bastille inspired the middle class, peasants and labourers to take further action – nobles houses were
attacked and many fled
 National Assembly took action – abolished the feudal system and its taxes (privileges of the Nobility), all titles
were abolished and everybody was called ‘citizen’, tithes were abolished, ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’
was published – all men born free and equal, all had right to liberty, property and security, law to be the same for
all, freedom to speak, write and print what you wished, summarised in slogan ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’
 Many people still feared and hated the King and Marie Antoinette (his wife) – feared he would use the army to
crush the revolution – women and fishwives of Paris marched to Versailles and forced King and family to
leave the palace and live in Paris at the centre of the revolution (terrifying experience for King and his family)
 Louis hated the revolution and planned to destroy it by getting help from his brother-in-law, the Emperor of
Austria – he attempted to escape disguised in a carriage but was recognised at Varennes and forced back to Paris
where he was stripped of much of his powers, France now a Constitutional Monarchy
France at War:
 Other European rulers alarmed and disgusted at events in France – did not want similar ideas spreading to their
own countries, and some were related to either Louis or his wife
 Austria seen as the main threat by the revolutionaries – war declared on Austria in 1792 in an attempt to stamp
out the danger of invasion by acting first
 Austria and Prussia joined forces to fight France – many French nobles and officers had fled and the French
army was thus short of good leaders
 People of Paris, especially the working class who did not wear the fancy breeches of the upper classes and were
known as the Sans Culottes, were suspicious that the King was still trying to help France’s enemies – they
stormed the Tuileries Palace in August and the King was imprisoned by the National Assembly
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War went badly at first but appeal was made to all common people to help save the Revolution and as huge
numbers joined the army things began to improve – this success led to France being declared a Republic in
September 1792
Documents found in a safe in the Tuileries Palace seemed to prove Louis had been working with France’s
enemies to overthrow the Revolution – he was put on trial, found guilty by a small majority and executed at the
guillotine in January 1793
Robespierre and the Reign of Terror:
 War still in progress – Britain, Holland and Spain have joined Austria and Prussia to fight France
 Situation thought to be so serious that a ‘Committee of Public Safety’ was set up with Robespierre as president
– aim was to root out any opponents or traitors to the Revolution
 Robespierre had been trained as a lawyer, elected to the Third Estate in 1789, strong supported of the
Revolution’s ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, voted in favour of executing the King, called
‘Incorruptible’ due to his honesty and refusal to accept bribes, leader of the Jacobins (a political group in
Revolutionary France), believed ruthless government and harsh punishments necessary to protect the revolution
 Robespierre and the Committee for Public Safety faced several problems – French upper classes opposed the
revolution, discontent at conditions had led to peasant rebellions in the Vendee and other areas, the war was
still dragging on against many of Europe’s strongest states, food prices continued to rise
 The Committee took the following measures to protect the revolution and did not shy away from violence and
terror – (1) ‘Law of Suspects’ was passed to punish anybody suspected of betraying the revolution, guillotine
became the symbol of the Reign of Terror which lasted from June 1793 to July 1794 when Robespierre himself
was killed, 2,500 executed in Paris, 16,000 across the rest of France, (2) Rebellions in the Vendee put down with
great savagery and brutality, (3) To fight the war there was another mass enlistment to the army so that the
French army became so massive it outnumbered all her opponents put together and saved the revolution from
outside forces, (4) ‘Law of Maximum’ was passed to control rising food prices and for other goods
 As danger passed away and revolution seemed safe, people expected the terror to end but instead it got worse,
people thought Robespierre had too much power and the Sans Culottes eventually turned against him, there were
several attempts on his life and he was eventually arrested, tried and executed along with 100 of his supporters by
the National Assembly, this is commonly seen as the end of the terror and the revolution
Results of the French Revolution:
 ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ – this slogan spread to other countries and more people demanded more freedom
and equality
 Rise of Napoleon – Napoleon rose to power after the terror as a successful army commander, he inflicted great
defeats on many of Europe’s powers before eventually being defeated and exiled, he established the French legal
system which again influenced other countries
 Abolition of Slavery – slavery was abolished in France (later re-introduced into the French Empire by Napoleon)
 Rise of the Middle Class – the power of the Nobles was reduced, middle classes gained more political power
 Metric System – France adopted the metric system for weights and measures and this spread across Europe