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French Revolution
Estates
• Since the Middle Ages France’s social
order was based on estates
First Estate
Second Estate
Third Estate
• Clergy
• Maintained wealth from the middle
ages
• Nobility
• Government, army and court
positions
• Majority of the population
• Bourgeoisie at the top
• Majority were rural farmers
Financial Crisis
• Social Unrest + Economic Woes =
led to Revolution
• Years of Deficit Spending = French
government was spending more $
than it was making
– National Debt Soars = Seven
Years War and the American
Revolution left nation broke
• Government began to borrow
more $
– Resolution = Raise Taxes and/or
Reduce Expenses
• Nobles & Clergy fiercely
resisted
• Taxes fell on the shoulders of
the 3rd Estate
Estates General
• Louis XVI calls together the Estates General
– Legislative body made up of Reps from each Estate
• Third Estate wanted to count votes by head
– When this didn’t happen they broke from the
Estates General
– Created the National Assembly
• Reformers joined the new Assembly
Storming the Bastille
• Revolutionaries needed weapons and
gunpowder
• Attacked the Bastille
– Symbol of French oppression
– Destroyed the Bastille and released the
prisoners
• THE REVOLUTION IS ON!!
Stages of the Revolution
• Moderate Phase
– National Assembly makes France a
constitutional monarchy
• Radical Phase
– End of the monarchy – reign of terror
• Directory
– Reaction against extremism
• Age of Napoleon
Moderate Phase
• National Assembly was spurred into action
with the storming of the Bastille
• Created the Declaration of the Rights of Man
and the Citizen
– Modeled after the Declaration of Independence
• Created the Constitution of 1791
– Limited monarchy
– Royal family basically imprisoned
Radical Stage Begins
• Louis and the royal family try to escape
– Caught at the boarder and sent back
– Increases distrust of the King
• Other European rulers cracking down and
trying to suppress revolution
– People see the King as working with their enemies
– Radicals begin to gain more power in the
Assembly
The Jacobins
Jacobin Meeting House
 They held their meetings in the
library of a former Jacobin
monastery in Paris.
 Started as a debating society.
 Membership mostly middle class.
 Created a vast network of clubs.
The Sans-Culottes:
The Parisian Working Class
 Small shopkeepers.
 Tradesmen.
 Artisans.
They shared many of the
ideals of their middle
class representatives in
government!
The National Convention
(September, 1792)
 Its first act was the formal
abolition of the monarchy on
September 22, 1792.
 The Year I of the French Republic.
 The Decree of Fraternity
 it offered French assistance to any
subject peoples who wished to
overthrow their governments.
When France sneezes,
all of Europe catches cold!
The Political Spectrum
TODAY:
1790s:
Montagnards
The Plain
(swing votes)
Girondists
(“The Mountain”)
Monarchíen
(Royalists)
Jacobins
Louis XVI’s Head (January 21, 1793)
c
The trial of the king
was hastened by the
discovery in a secret
cupboard in the
Tuilieres of a cache of
documents.
c
They proved
conclusively Louis’
knowledge and
encouragement of
foreign intervention.
c
The National
Convention voted
387 to 334 to
execute the monarchs.
Marie Antoinette Died in October,
1793
Committee for Public Safety
 Revolutionary Tribunals.
 300,000 arrested.
 16,000 – 50,000 executed.
Maximillian Robespierre
(1758 – 1794)
Legislation Passed by the
National Convention
1. Law of General Maximum
 September 5, 1793.
 Limited prices of grain & other essentials to 1/3
above the 1790 prices & wages to ½ of 1790
figures.
 Prices would be strictly enforced.
 Hoarders rooted out and punished.
 Food supplies would be secured by the army!
2. Law of Suspects
September 17, 1793.
This law was so widely drawn that almost anyone
not expressing enthusiastic support for the
republic could be placed under arrest!
The Reign of Terror
Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe,
inflexible. -- Robespierre
Let terror be the order
of the day!
c
The Revolutionary
Tribunal of Paris alone
executed 2,639 victims
in 15 months.
c
The total number of
victims nationwide was
over 20,000!
The Guillotine:
An “Enlightenment Tool”?
Oh, thou charming guillotine,
You shorten kings and queens;
By your influence divine,
We have re-conquered our rights.
Come to aid of the Country
And let your superb instrument
Become forever permanent
To destroy the impious sect.
Sharpen your razor for Pitt and his agents
Fill your divine sack with heads of tyrants.
Different Social Classes Executed
8%
7%
28%
25%
31%
The “Monster” Guillotine
The last guillotine execution in France was in 1939!
Religious Terror:
De-Christianization (1793-1794)
 The Catholic Church was linked with
real or potential counter-revolution.
 Religion was associated with the
Ancien Régime and superstitious
practices.
 Very popular among the sans-culottes.
 Therefore, religion had no place in a
rational, secular republic!
The De-Christianization Program
1. The public exercise of religion was
banned.
2. The Paris Commune supported the:
destruction of religious & royal statues.
ban on clerical dress.
encouragement of the clergy to give up
their vocations.
3. The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris
was turned into the “Temple of Reason.”
4. The deportation of priests denounced by
six citizens.
The “Temple of Reason”
Come, holy Liberty, inhabit this temple,
Become the goddess of the French people.
Backlash to the
De-Christianization Program
 It alienated most of the population
(especially in the rural areas).
 Robespierre never supported it.
 he persuaded the Convention to
reaffirm the principle of religious
toleration.
 Decree on the “Liberty of Cults”
was passed
 December 6, 1793.
 BUT, it had little practical effect!
The “Thermidorean Reaction,” 1794
P July 26  Robespierre gives a
speech illustrating new
plots & conspiracies.
 he alienated members of the CPS
& CGS.
 many felt threatened by his
implications.
P July 27  the Convention arrests
Robespierre.
P July 28  Robespierre is tried &
guillotined!
The Arrest of
Robespierre
Napoleon as “First Consul”
a With the government in
disarray, Napoleon launched a
successful coup d’ etat on
November 9, 1799.
a He proclaimed himself “First
Consul” [Julius Caesar’s title]
and did away with the
elected Assembly [appointing
a Senate instead].

In 1802, he made himself sole
“Consul for Life.”

Two years later he proclaimed
himself “Emperor.”
Napoleonic Europe
Napoleon’s Major Military Campaigns
1805: France 
Annexes:
Netherlands
Belgium
Holy Roman Empire
Parts:
Italy
Poland
Prussia
Crowned “King of Italy” on May 6, 1805
 Britain
Austria
Russia
The “Big Blunder” -- Russia
a
The retreat from Spain came
on the heels of Napoleon’s
disastrous Russian Campaign
(1812-1813).
a
In July, 1812 Napoleon led his
Grand Armee of 614,000 men
eastward across central Europe
and into Russia.

The Russians avoided a direct
confrontation with Napoleon.

They retreated to Moscow, drawing the French into the
interior of Russia [hoping that it’s size and the weather would
act as “support” for the Russian cause].

The Russian nobles abandoned their estates and burned their
crops to the ground, leaving the French to operate far from
their supply bases in territory stripped of food.
Napoleon’s Retreat
from Moscow (Early 1813)
100,000 French troops retreat—40,000 survive!
Napoleon Abdicates!
e
Allied forces occupied Paris on March 31, 1814.
e
Napoléon abdicated on April 6 in favor of his
son, but the Allies insisted on unconditional
surrender.
e
Napoléon abdicated again on April 11.
e
Treaty of Fontainbleau  exiles Napoléon to
Elba with an annual income of 2,000,000
francs.
e
The royalists took control and restored
Louis XVIII to the throne.
Napoleon’s Abdication
th
“The War of the 7 Coalition”
1815: France 
e
Napoleon’s
“100 Days”
 Britain, Russia.
Prussia, Austria,
Sweden, smaller
German states
Napoléon escaped Elba and landed in France on
March 1, 1815  the beginning of his 100 Days.
Napoleon’s Defeat at Waterloo
(June 18, 1815)
Duke
of
Wellington
Prussian
General
Blücher
Napoleon
on His Way
to His
Final Exile on
St. Helena