Download The French Revolution

The French Revolution
King
King
Clergy
Clergy
Nobles
Nobles
Artisans/Merchants
Bourgeoisie
Artisans/Merchants
Peasants/Serfs
Peasants/Serfs
ESTATES
One of the three
classes into which
French society was
divided before the
Revolution.
King
Clergy
Nobles
Bourgeoisie
Artisans/Merchants
Peasants/Serfs
1st estate: Clergy – 130,000 out of 27
million people = .5%
Land: Owned 10%
Taxes: Paid 0%
2nd estate: Nobility 350,000 out of
27 million people = 1.3%
Land: Owned 25-30%
Taxes: Paid 0%
Held Government, Military,
religious, and legal positions
3rd estate: “Commoners: EVERYONE ELSE – 98%
Land: Varied among groups
Taxes: Paid 100%
1st Estate - Clergy
2nd Estate Nobility
3rd Estate Commoners
1st Estate - Clergy
2nd Estate Nobility
3rd Estate Commoners
TAILLE
An annual direct
tax, usually on land
or property, that
provided a regular
source of income
for the French
monarchy
• Peasants
The Third Estate
– 75-80%
– 35-40% of land
• Middle Class
“Bourgeoisie” owned the
rest
• Many peasants had little
or no land to own/live on
• Also, crafts people,
shopkeepers, workers
– Struggling b/c price of
consumer goods
increased faster than
wages
Peasants
Bourgeoisie
Other
Peasants/Other
Bourgeoisie
1st Estate
2nd Estate
Peasants/Other
Bourgeoisie
1st Estate
2nd Estate
Serfdom continues
• Ex: Peasants have to pay fees to grind
flour/press grapes because lord controlled
flour mill/wine press
• Harvest time: peasants had to work to harvest
noble’s crops
Bourgeoisie
The middle class,
including
merchants,
industrialists, and
professional people
Bourgeoisie
• 8% of the 3rd Estate population
• Owned 20-25% of the land
–
–
–
–
Merchants
Bankers
Industrialists
Lawyers, doctors, writers
• Unhappy with noble’s privileges
– Did not want to abolish nobility
• About 6500 new nobles had been created by appointment
throughout the 1700s
– Shared the goals of trying to employ Enlightenment ideas
– Both groups increasingly upset with monarchical system
Louis XVI
LOUIE 16th
King of France
during the late
1700s, king prior
to/during the
French Revolution
Financial Crisis
• Issue #1: Long standing social imbalance
• Issue #2: Near collapse of French Budget
– Bad harvests
– Slowdown in manufacturing
• Led to food shortages
• Rising prices for food
• Unemployment
• King and Advisers continued to spend the money!
– Wars
– Court Luxuries
• Esp. Marie Antoinette
Estates-General
• B/c of budget crisis
– Louis XVI forced to call meeting of Estates-General
• A meeting of representatives from all 3 estates
– Had not met since 1614
• b/c French kings held ALL power
• May 5, 1789
– 1st and 2nd estates had 300 reps each
– 3rd estate had 600!
• Wanted to set up a constitutional government that
would make clergy/nobility pay taxes too
Meeting with the E-G
• Arguments about voting
– Tradition
• Each estate had 1 vote
– SO… 1st+2nd estate could outvote 3rd (even though combined they only
represented 2% of the population)
• 3rd estate wanted each deputy have one vote
– Would eventually give them the majority vote
• King said he like things the way they were
• 3rd estate had had ENOUGH
– Declared themselves the “National Assembly”
– Arrived at their meeting chambers to find the doors locked
– Moved to an indoor tennis court
• Tennis court oath
Tennis Court Oath
The National Assembly
met on an indoor
tennis court and
vowed to continue
meeting until they had
formed/adopted a
new constitution.
Prepping for War
• Louis prepared to use force against 3rd estate
• July 14, 1789
– 900 Parisians (someone from Paris) gathered at Bastille (BASTEEL)
• A prison/armory (Former fortress)
– Price of bread record high
• Crowd starving and agitated
– Rumor said King’s troops were coming
• There was supposed to be ammunition in the Bastille
– The Parisians stormed the Bastille and after hours of fighting
eventually took it
• Released 7 prisoners (murderers… yay!)
• Beheaded prison warden
• Found no munitions
– Tore down Bastille brick by brick
Revolt  Revolution
• Louis mistakenly thought the Bastille was just a
“Revolt”
– Revolution
• Could no longer trust royal troops to shoot at mobs
• King’s authority had collapsed in Paris
• Revolts were breaking out all over France
– Enough was enough!
• “Great Fear”
– Panic sparked by peasant rebellions
– Peasants afraid the work of the National Assembly would be
stopped by foreign armies
– Rumors spread that foreign troops were on their way
– Reaction: breaking into houses of lords to destroy records of
their obligations
Out with the old, in with the new
• Aug 4, 1789
– N.A. gets rid of legal privileges of clergy and nobility
• Aug 26
– Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
• Inspired by English Bill of Rights & American Declaration of
Independence/Constitution
• Charter of basic liberties
• “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression”
• All men are equal under the law
• Appointment to public office based on talent
• No group is exempt from taxes
Declaration of the Rights
of Man and the Citizen
The declaration of
guaranteed equal
rights drawn up by the
National Assembly
during the French
Revolution.
Olympe de Gouges
When men made claims
that women were not
equal under the law
because they “do not
hope to exercise political
rights and functions” she
refused to accept their
opinions and spoke out
in favor of women’s
rights.
King goes to Paris
• Louis refused to accept the National Assembly’s
decrees
• October 5
– Women’s March
– Thousands of Parisian women marched on Versailles
– Met with the king
• Told him their children were starving because there was no
bread
• Forced him to accept it
• Forced to go to Paris with son and wife as prisoners
New Constitution
• Limited monarchy
– Only “active” citizens could vote
• Men over 25 who paid a certain amount of taxes
– Really, only wealthy reps. would be chosen
• Change spread
– Some still wanted more radical changes
• Poor
• Louis hated the regulation of the church & limited power of
the monarchy
– Tried to flee with family
– Almost made it
• Caught and brought back
• Assembly met and made a law that allowed to try the king if
he turned against the country
It gets worse
• Other nations feared what the revolution would
mean, talked of using force to restore Louis XVI
– Assembly struck first
– Declared war on Austria
• 1792
– Protests – bread shortages
• Defeats in the war
• Paris radicals declared themselves a commune
– Organized mob attack on royal palace and assembly
Sans-Culottes
“without breeches”
Members of the Paris
Commune who
considered themselves
ordinary patriots (they
wore long trousers
instead of fine knee
length breeches of the
nobles.
Radicals
•
•
•
•
More radical/violent stage
Calling for universal male suffrage
Birth of the sans-culottes
REALLY starting from the ground up