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The Enlightenment
The French Revolution Causes and Onset of
April of 1789 was an extremely important month in history, both in Europe and in America,
because that was the month that riots broke out in Paris; riots that signaled the start of a long and
bloody conflict known as the French Revolution.
April of 1789 was the also the month that George Washington was inaugurated as the first
President of the United States. While the Revolution that created the American nation had
focused on winning independence from a distant mother country, the situation in France was
quite different because the French Revolution was not about colonies gaining independence.
1. Instead, what did it focus on?
Because of the class-based hatred that had developed in France over the centuries, the French
Revolution was far more brutal and resulted in ten times as many deaths as the American
Revolution. Even though the French Revolution lasted for ten years, it took many more decades
before a successful democracy came into existence in France.
2. Why were the Revolution's effects widespread and immediate?
Causes of the French Revolution
 Cause #1: The worsening financial condition of the government.
o There were three basic causes of the French Revolution and the first was the
worsening financial condition of the government that resulted in a desperate need
for more money.
3. Why did France need more money?
But France's financial crisis did not stem from military expenses alone.
4. Why else was France facing a financial challenge?
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As a result, by the late 1780s, the government of France had borrowed so heavily it was almost
bankrupt.
But the king had decided spending could not be cut and he wanted to increase taxes. This was a
problem because for the purposes of taxation, the 26 million citizens of France had been legally
divided into groups called the Three Estates.
5. Describe the 3 estates.
 The First Estate:
 The Second Estate:
 The Third Estate:
Perhaps more than anything else, it was the tremendous unfairness of these tax laws that led to
the outbreak of the French Revolution.
 Cause #2: Economic Depression
o However, besides the crisis over taxation, a second cause of the French
Revolution was that the 1770s/1780s were times of severe economic depression in
France; when downturns in manufacturing and trade were coupled with many
years of poor agricultural harvests.
6. As a result what was happening to French incomes? Why?
That was why by the year1789, both lack of work and hunger were real problems across much of
the French nation.
 Cause #3: New Ideas of the "Enlightenment"
o In addition to the economic depression and the lack of government money that
plagued France in the 1780s, a third important cause of the French Revolution
were certain revolutionary new ideas that were coming out of a movement called
the Enlightenment. These were many of the same ideas that had inspired the
framers of the Constitution of the United States.
7. The Enlightenment was also known as what? What did it promote?
8. What Enlightenment idea inspired the leaders of the French Revolution the most? What
was it totally different from?
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The Enlightenment
The Start of the French Revolution, Spring, 1789
Late in the spring of 1789, with tremendous pressure on it from all sides, the government of
France seemed to be on the verge of a total collapse. Government leaders decided to call a
meeting of representatives of the Three Estates.
9. Which three groups attended this meeting?
It was to be presided over by the king, an event so rare that it had not occurred in France for 175
years. On May 5th, 1789, at the enormous royal palace of Versailles that was home to King
Louis the Sixteenth, hundreds of people arrived to attend the meeting.
10. What did the common people bring with them to this meeting?
But the king showed no sign that he was ready to make any changes and the nobles decided they
would block all attempts at reform. That was why the leaders of the Third Estate decided to form
a new government.
11. What did they call this new government?
12. Who was invited to join the Third Estate as equals in governing the country?
In the end, the king and nobles lacked the power to stop the new government; nevertheless, many
of them secretly plotted to destroy it.
As the National Assembly took over, a "Great Fear" seized the common people all over France.
13. What did the common people believe?
Even though this was actually not true, a few of the magnificent palace-homes, or chateaux, of
the nobility were broken into and ransacked by angry crowds searching for food.
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At that time, while the king still held some power, most people had come to believe that he had
lost his ability to rule. On July 12, 1789, impassioned speeches were delivered in the streets of
Paris warning that the king was planning to wipe out the National Assembly. They demanded
that strong action be taken to protect France's new government.
The Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789
In Paris, on July 14, 1789, the Place de la Bastille, was teemed with angry crowds of Parisians in
search of ammunition and weapons. They had come here to take them from the great prison
fortress called the Bastille that once overlooked the square. Its high stone walls dominated this
part of the city, and its dark dungeons held many unfortunate citizens.
14. Describe the storming of the Bastille.
Within two years, revolutionaries had used the stones to build a bridge, so, as they said, "so
people could trample forever on the despised old fortress."
Right after the Bastille fell; rioters marched to the City Hall of Paris, to search for more arms.
Three days later, the king himself made an appearance to kiss the new tri-colored flag just
adopted by the revolutionaries. Its red and blue colors were taken from the flag of Paris, and the
Marquis de Lafayette had introduced the royal white between them.
In the meantime, revolutionaries took over the city hall and formed a new city government to
replace the royalist followers of the king, who had governed the city for so long,
15. What was the name of this new city government?
By the end of July, the events in Paris, coupled with uprisings in other communities across
France, frightened the royalists enough that the revolutionary National Assembly was able to
continue on as the official government of France.
The National Assembly Makes some Important Changes, August 1789-September 1791
Starting in August of 1789 up through September of 1791, the National Assembly made many
important changes by passing new laws intended to solve some of the problems that had plagued
the country for centuries.
16. What were some of the actions taken by the National Assembly?
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In September of 1791, the king accepted a new Constitution for France worked out by the
Assembly. Because it established certain basic freedoms, the revolutionaries subtitled it A
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. By then, most members of the National
Assembly believed that the French Revolution was over. They disbanded to make way for a
newly elected government called the Legislative Assembly.
But as it turned out, the French Revolution was very far from over and few of them could have
imagined the desperate times that lay just ahead.
The French Revolution: The Continuing Rebellion
From its beginning here at the royal palace of Versailles in 1789, the French Revolution had
been very different from the American Revolution. Whereas the Americans basically fought one
big war to win colonial independence and eventually create a democracy, French Revolutionaries
fought against internal and external foes that wanted to protect the French monarchy.
The French Revolution involved changing the structure of the national government several times,
but in the end, a successful democratic government did not arise.
During the first three years of the French Revolution, the period when the National Assembly
ruled France, many important legal changes were enacted to benefit ordinary citizens.
Up to this point, although the king's role as a leader had been severely restricted, the success of
the revolutionary government still very much depended on receiving his cooperation. And even
though there had been some very serious outbreaks of violence during this stage of the
Revolution, only a small number of deaths had occurred.
But the relative peacefulness that existed in France in the autumn of 1791 was about to be
shattered as the newly elected Legislative Assembly, the second government of the French
Revolution, prepared to take over.
At the same time, the people of the United States were in the process of approving the first 10
amendments to the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights, while further west, Spain was busy
colonizing California by building a long chain of missions near the Pacific Coast.
The Legislative Assembly Takes Charge, October 1, 1791
When the Legislative Assembly took charge of the government of France on October 1, 1791, it
faced three serious challenges.
17. Describe these three challenges.
 First:
 Second:
 Third:
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Birth of the First Republic and The Execution of the King, April 1792 - January 1793
In the spring of 1792, all across France, there were many large areas where people were still
actively resisting the French Revolution. By then, most of the moderate revolutionaries in the
Legislative Assembly had been replaced by radicals who wished to eliminate those opposed to
their rule.
Also that spring, a newly invented killing-machine for chopping off the heads of wrong doers
was invented.
18. What was this machine called?
It was becoming clear to the government that King Louis' efforts at finding military support were
succeeding, and that a serious threat to the French Revolution was brewing to the east in the
powerful kingdoms of Austria and Prussia.
The revolutionaries declared war on them; and by July, foreign troops were poised to invade
France. Angry revolutionaries blamed the impending invasion on the king. Early that August,
his royal palace in Paris was attacked.
19. Describe this attack.
Soon the guillotine was put to work again. This time, mass executions of people accused of being
enemies of the Revolution were carried out in various public squares in Paris. The violence
continued on into the next month and during what are called the September Massacres, 1,200
prisoners, many of them members of the clergy, were cruelly butchered by the revolutionaries
while still in their cells.
That same September, the French army won a glorious victory by soundly defeating the invading
Prussians at the Battle of Valmy in eastern France.
20. Why was this a tremendous defeat for supporters of the monarchy?
The leaders of the First Republic vowed to eliminate other monarchies as well, and to sum up
their vision for the French people, the motto Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, meaning Liberty,
Equality, Brotherhood, was adopted.
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Early in 1793, a criminal court found the king guilty of plotting against the government and
sentenced him to death. On January 21 of that year, the Paris square in which the kind was to be
beheaded was filled with people who were hoping to catch a final glimpse of the king before he
died on the guillotine.
After the execution was over, cheers filled the air as the king's severed head was shown to the
enthusiastic crowd.
21. But the king's execution had the opposite effect on the rulers of what three kingdoms?
Why?
Despite pleas for help from its old ally France, President Washington decided that the United
States would not get involved in the rapidly escalating European war.
The Terror
By the spring of 1793, foreign troops were invading France from several directions, while at the
same time; large numbers of French citizens were speaking out against the French Revolution.
Important revolutionary leaders, such as Georges Jacques Danton, helped pass emergency
measures to stop those opposed to the government.
22. One of the most extreme measures was to create special courts of law known as what?
What was its purpose?
Interestingly, some of the first people convicted by the new tribunals were sent to a walled town
that had been turned into a prison, due to the fact that the nation's other prisons were so
overcrowded. In May of 1793, the first batch of 700 prisoners arrived here, and more than half of
them were women. Later on, 245 priests were imprisoned in the town for refusing to support the
Civil Constitution for the Clergy. This was the law that had placed the Catholic Church under
government control.
23. By the summer of 1793, a special _______________ had been operating for several
months as part of the National Convention, and it actually ruled France.
24. Members of the committee belonged to a Paris political group called the ____________
that was well known for its radical ways.
25. What was the name of this group’s leader?
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26. What did the Committee for Public Safety organize against anyone who publicly
disagreed with official government policies?
During the Reign of Terror, this prison in Paris, called the Conciergerie, held many well-known
political prisoners.
The most famous prisoner was the king's wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, a woman despised for
her arrogant and extravagant ways.
In October of 1793, a revolutionary tribunal sentenced the queen to death. This was not a
surprising verdict because during The Terror, nine out of ten people tried by the tribunals were
found guilty.
Before being beheaded, prisoners at the Conciergerie were escorted to have their hair cut so that
it would not interfere with the guillotine's blade. Then the prisoners were loaded into carts, and
hauled through the streets to wherever the guillotine had been set up for the day's public
executions.
Amazingly, it is estimated that the revolutionary tribunals sentenced 18,000 people to death
during the Reign of Terror.
27. What is oddly ironic about the Reign of Terror, also known as the Jacobin
Dictatorship?
However, after the invasions of France were successfully halted by the French Army, many of
these reforms were reversed when a new group of politicians gained power in the summer of
1794. By then, the main leaders of the Jacobin Dictatorship had been put to death for treason.
The Directory and the Rise of Napoleon: October 1795 - November 1799
In October of 1795, a young military officer with a great thirst for power named put down an
uprising by royalists.
28. What was this military officer’s name?
After the uprising had been quelled, a fourth revolutionary government called the Directory was
formed, and they set up their operations at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris.
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After the Directory took over, Napoleon grew to be a very popular hero in France, due to his
brilliant military victories in Italy. In 1797, the Directory even asked him to take charge of an
invasion of Great Britain. But Napoleon did not like the government's plan. Instead he convinced
the Directory to approve an invasion of Egypt. His goal was to disrupt vital British trade in the
Middle East and then establish a French colony.
In the end, Napoleon's plan for Egypt failed; nevertheless, he remained a strong and respected
leader in the eyes of the French people. As the dawn of the 19th century approached, the French
people wanted a strong leader more than a poorly functioning democracy. And in November of
1799, with the help of certain influential politicians, Napoleon brought about an end to the
French Revolution by seizing control of the government of France.
Napoleon and the Louisiana Purchase
Napoleon's rise to power had extremely important consequences for the people of the United
States, and it makes an interesting post-script to the story of the French Revolution, because only
one year after taking over, Napoleon forced Spain to return the Louisiana Territory to France
(land west of the Mississippi River that France had ceded to the Spanish after the French and
Indian War).
29. However, in 1803, in order to finance his war efforts in Europe, what did Napoleon do
with this land?