Download The French Revolution

The French
Revolution
The Old Regime or
Ancien Regime
The Three Estates
1. Clergy
2.
Nobility
3.
Peasants
– 1st Estate= Clergy: Paid no direct
taxes, enjoyed great influence, privilege, and
wealth. Did provide some social services
such as schools, hospitals and orphanages.
– 2nd Estate= Nobility: Given top jobs in
government, the army, the courts and the
church and had freedom from paying taxes.
– 3rd Estate= Everyone Else:
A
diverse class of people who paid the most
taxes, as well as levies, fees and services,
called courvee, that dated back to the middle
ages. The Bourgeoisie or middle class was at
the top of this class, included doctors,
bankers, merchants, lawyers, and professors.
Most of this estate was made up of rural
peasants. The poorest group were the urban
workers.
Financial Crisis
• Deficit Spending: when the
government spends more than
it takes in.
• Causes of France’s Nations
Debt
– Lavish Court spending starting with Louis XIV
– The Seven year war & The Am. Revolution
– Government borrowed more and more money
• Other Causes of Strife
– Bread prices rose causing many urban
workers & Peasants to face hunger.
– Also by 1789, half of the government’s income
went to pay the interest on the national debt.
Attempts at Economic
Reform
• To Solve the Financial Crisis:
– The government needed to raise taxes,
reduce expenses or both
• King Louis XVI hired Jacques
Necker as his financial advisor,
he urged:
–
the king to reduce extravagant court spending
– Reform government
– Abolish burdensome tariffs on internal trade
– Proposed taxing the 1st and 2nd Estates
• The Clergy & Nobility forced
the King to dismiss Necker
when he proposed taxing
them.
The Estates
General
1789
• The Legislative Body made up of
representatives of the Three
Estates
• Each estate prepared a cahiers
(notebook) listing their grievances
• King insisted Estates vote by block,
1 vote per Estate, 3rd Estate
wanted to vote by head.
• Estates could not agree on Voting
system
Tennis Court
Oath
• After weeks of
stalemate about
voting, 3rd Estate
declared
themselves to be
the National
Assembly
• Found meeting
place locked and
guarded
• Delegates moved
to Indoor Tennis
Court and
declared that they
would
– “never separate
and meet
wherever
circumstances
might require until
we have
established a
sound and just
constitution”
Reform minded Clergy &
Nobility
joined cause and King
Louis XVI accepted it.
Storming the Bastille
July 14, 1789
• Paris-the street blazed with
Rumors that troops were going
to occupy the capital
• 800 Parisians assembled
outside the BASTILLE, a
prison for political prisoners
demanding weapons and other
arms.
• Commander opened fire on the
crowed, and in the ensuing
battle the commander and 5
guards were killed but no
weapons were found.
The National Assembly and the
Constitutional Monarchy
• Large Famine swept France and
led to wild Rumors of attacks on
villages and of the government
seizing peasant crops
• National Assembly Acts
– Ends taxes on nobles and other
special privileges.
– Church placed under state control
– Constitution of 1791 establishes a new
government
• Disbanded after completing
Constitution
• Legislative Assembly Takes its
place
Declaration of the
Rights of Man and
Citizen
Declaration of the
Rights of Man
and Citizen
• Fashioned after American
Declaration of Independence
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
– All men are “born and remain
free and equal in rights”
– Proclaimed that all male citizens
able to vote and hold public
office
– Established freedom of religion,
and taxes according to ability to
pay
Death of the King and
Queen
• Women march
on Versailles
demanding the
King return to
Paris.
• Royal Family
virtual
prisoners in
Paris.
• June 1791Royal Family
attempts to
escape Pairs
and are caught
and returned to
Paris.
• January 1793
Louis XVI
Guillotined for
Treason
• October 1793
Marie
Antoinette
Guillotined for
Treason
Reign of Terror
Maximilien Robespierre
Reign of Terror
September 1793-July
1794
• France declares war on
Austria, Prussia and Great
Britain.
• Radicals took control of
Legislative Assembly renamed
National Convention
– Established a Republic
– Creates Committee on Public
Safety with unlimited power to
save the Revolution under the
leadership of Robespierre
– 1700 people executed
– The Guillotine defines the Reign
of Terror
The Directory
• The Revolution
moved into the
third stage in
reaction to the
Reign of Terror.
– Established a
new
Constitution of
1795 with a
five man
directory and a
two house
legislature
elected by
male citizens of
property.
•The Bourgeoisie
were the
dominate force
in this stage of
the Revolution
•The Directory
turned to
Napoleon
Bonaparte.
Napoleonic
Wars
•Napoleon and His
wife Josephine
organized a Coup
d'état when he
returned from Egypt
and Napoleon used
his troops to
dissolved the
Directory and set up
a three man
consulate.
By 1802-Napolean
had signed peace
treaties with Britain,
Austria and Russia.
That year he had
himself named
consul for life.
In 1804, he held a
plebiscite or popular
vote by ballot and
assumed the title of
Emperor of the
French.
•In 1796 at age 27 ,the
Directory appointed
Napoleon to lead the
French army against
Austria. He crushed the
Austrian threat, forcing the
Austrians to make peace.
•1789 Led troops on an
Egyptian Campaign to
disrupt British trade but was
thwarted by Lord Horatio
Nelson, defeat not reported
in France.
Napoleon Reforms
France
• To Restore the Economy:
–
–
–
–
–
Instituted Price controls
Encouraged new industry
Rebuilt roads and canals
Opened jobs to all based on talent
Set up public schools
• NAPOLEONIC CODE
– Equality of all citizens before the
law
– Religious toleration
– Abolition of feudalism
– Women lost the right to vote
– Male heads of households
regained complete authority over
their wives and children.
Napoleonic Empire
Napoleonic Empire
• 1804 to 1812-Napoleon went to
war against Britain, Russia, Austria
and Sweden’s Coalition forces.
– Europe was redesigned as Napoleon annexed
portions of the Netherlands & Italy; abolished
the Holy Roman Empire; created the Grand
Duchy of Warsaw; and placed friends and
relatives on the thrones of Europe
• 1805-Battle of Trafalgar: Napoleon
defeated on the high seas by
British Admiral Lord Nelson.
• Continental System: a blockade
designed to economically damage
Britain, that closed European ports
to British goods, ultimately
unsuccessful
• Watch Video: Napoleons' Lost
Army
Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
• After the final Battle at
Waterloo, the heads of Europe
faced the task of restoring
order to Europe.
– Prince Clemens von Metternich
– Tsar Alexander I
– Lord Robert Castlereagh
– Prince Charles Maurice
Talleyrand
• The decisions made at the
Congress of Vienna influenced
European politics for the next
100 years.