Download U7frenchrevPP

The French Revolution
QUICKWRITE
• How would you define an unjust government?
• What, if anything, would lead you to take part
in a violent revolution?
The Old Regime
• In the 1700s, France was considered to be the
most advanced country in Europe. It was
considered the center of the Enlightenment.
Their culture was copied by others.
• Under the old regime, the people of France
were divided into 3 large social classes, or
estates.
First Estate
• 2 of the estates had privileges, include access
to higher offices and exempt from paying
taxes.
• Roman Catholic clergy made up the First
Estate.
• Church owned 10 percent of land in France
• Disliked Enlightenment ideas
Second Estate
•
•
•
•
Rich nobles
Owned 20 percent of land
Paid almost no taxes
Disliked Enlightenment ideas
– Why do you think those in the First and Second
Estate disliked Enlightenment ideas?
Third Estate
• About 97 percent of people in France were in the 3rd Estate.
Three different groups made up this estate:
– First group, the bourgeoisie, were bankers, factors owners,
professionals, etc. Well educated and believed strongly in
Enlightenment ideas. Still paid high taxes and lacked privilege.
They believe their status entitled them to better social status
and more power
– Second group were the workers in France’s cities. They were
the poorest group and included tradespeople, laborers,
servants.
– Third group were peasants. Made up 80 percent of France’s
population. Paid about half their income in taxes. Were even
taxed for salt.
– ALL THESE GROUPS WANTED CHANGE
Causes of the French Revolution
• Bad harvest=High Prices
– Bad weather in 1780’s caused widespread crop
failure
– Result: severe shortage of grain; price of bread
doubled in 1789.
– Many people faced starvation
Causes of the French Revolution
• Enlightenment ideas
– People in the Third Estate inspired by the success
of American Revolution.
– The questioned long-standing notions about the
structure of society.
– Began to demand equality, liberty and democracy
Causes of the French Revolution
• Weak leadership
– King Louis XVI: Indecisive about economic
problems, didn’t listen to advisors.
– Marie Antoinette: Lived a very extravagant
lifestyle. Gave Louis terrible advice on
government matters
Causes of the French Revolution
• High Taxes
– Which estate do you think paid most of the taxes?
Steps toward a Revolution
• Third Estate is fed up.
• Name themselves The National Assembly and pass laws
and reforms in the name of the French people.
• King Louis locks them out of their meeting room.
• Louis stationed his army around the city of Versailles.
• Rumors flew
• Some thought Louis was going to use military force to
remove the National Assembly
• Others heard that foreign troops were coming to Paris to
slaughter French citizens.
• People panicked
• Began to gather weapons to defend their city
Steps toward a Revolution
• Storming the Bastille
– July 14, 1789 a mob searching for gunpowder stormed The
Bastille, a Paris prison.
– Mob overwhelmed the guards.
– Took control of the building.
– Hacked the guards and prison commanders to death.
– Paraded around the city with their heads on pikes.
– Became a great symbolic act of Revolution to the French
People.
– July 14th is Bastille Day in France – Similar to our July 4th
Steps toward a Revolution
• The Great Fear
– Rumors spread that nobles were hiring outlaws to
terrorize peasants.
– A wave of senseless panic called the Great Fear
rolled through France.
– In response, peasants became outlaws
themselves.
– Destroyed homes of the nobles
– King Louis and family leave
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz
K97Aaj_U8
The Assembly reforms France
• Nobles, motivated by fear, joined the National
Assembly.
• Swept away privilege.
• Made peasants, clergy and nobles equal.
• National Assembly adopts
“Declaration of the Rights of Man”
Declaration of the Rights of Man
-Men are born and remain free and
equal in rights”
-Rights include: Liberty, property,
security and resistance to oppression
-Guaranteed Citizens: Equal justice,
Freedom of Speech and Freedom of
Religion.
A Limited Monarchy
-New Constitution completed by
the National Assembly
-Created a Limited Constitutional
Monarchy.
-Stripped the King of much
authority.
-Created a new Legislative Body –
The Legislative Assembly: Made
Laws
Other Countries Fear Revolutions
• Prussia threatens The National Assembly.
• National Assembly responds with war.
• Mobs storm palace and imprison Louis and
Marie.
• Monarchy abolished.
• France declared a republic.
• Adult males granted right to vote and hold
office.
King Louis XVI Executed
-Tried for treason.
-Found guilty.
-Sentenced to Death.
-Beheaded in public by the
Guillotine
Robespierre Assumes Control
-Sought to build a “republic of
virtue” by wiping out all traces of
France’s past.
-Changed the calendar, removed
Sundays - thought religion was
dangerous.
-Closed churches
-He governed France as a dictator,
using terror to get compliance.
-Terror claimed many lives.
-Finally overthrown and sent to
Guillotine.
Effects of Robespierre
• His “Reign of Terror” claimed about 40,000
lives (Majority of them peasants)
• Public opinion shifted after his death, and
moderates formed a government and placed
power in the hands of upper-middle class
• Not a great government, but established order
in France. They also found the right general to
command France’s armies…