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HOLT
World History
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
The French Revolution
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
HOLT
World History
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
The Old Regime
 Made up of 3 social classes, known as “estates”
 First Estate was the clergy of Roman Catholic Church
The clergy made up around 1% of the French population
 Second Estate was the nobility
The nobility made up around 2% of the French population
 The Third Estate was the rest of French Population
Composed of the bourgeoisie: (merchants, professional people
like doctors, lawyers, etc), city workers, artisans & peasants
(peasants were the largest part of the 3rd estate, and the poorest).
The Third Estates made up 97% of the French population
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
WINSTON
HOLT
World History
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
The Estates-General
 The Estates-General was a French representative body,
with multiple delegates from each Estate
 Each Estate got 1 vote; regardless of the number of
delegates
 The First & Second Estates had historically been exempt
from taxes & had always voted together to ensure that this
practice continued
HOLT, RINEHART
AND
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HOLT
World History
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
The Financial Crisis
 Aiding the United States during American Revolution was
a main factor in France’s increased debts
 Population growth also contributed to economic
problems; higher demand led to higher food prices-many
of the peasants couldn’t feed their families
 To fix the nation’s finances, King Louis XVI asks the
Estates-General to raise taxes
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AND
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HOLT
World History
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The Revolution begins
 The Third Estate refused to consent to new taxes unless
voting in the Estates-General was changed; they demanded
individual votes for every delegate
 Louis XVI agreed, thinking he could count on all the
delegates from the 1st & 2nd Estates and a minority of the
3rd Estate delegates to support him
 Louis was wrong, though-a significant number of 2nd Estate
delegates joined with the 3rd Estate demanding changes in
the government
 Realizing his mistake, Louis moved troops into Paris to
force the assembly to disband
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AND
WINSTON
HOLT
World History
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
The Revolution begins, cont
 The people of Paris, fearing the king and the army would
not allow any changes, took action against the Army,
captured the Bastille prison, looted it for weapons and then
destroyed it
 Peasants developed the “Great Fear”,
Fear that the Nobles would try to end the Revolution by
hoarding food & starving the peasants
This led to even greater resentment of the 1st & 2nd
Estates
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AND
WINSTON
HOLT
World History
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
The National Assembly
 The Third Estate, now calling themselves The National
Assembly, tried to end the violence by banning feudalism,
outlawing tithes, and canceling dues and rents of peasants
 Issued “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen” – guaranteed basic human rights and political
powers (only applied to men)
 1791-drafted a new Constitution, greatly limited the power
of the King & divided the government into 3 separate
branches: executive, legislative, & judicial
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AND
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HOLT
World History
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
The Legislative Assembly
 With the drafting of the new Constitution, the National
Assembly disbanded, believing the Revolution was over
 The Executive branch was weak, the real power lay with
the legislative branch, known as The Legislative Assembly
 Declaration of Pillnitz: European rulers feared
revolutionary ideas would spread-Austria & Prussia
pledged to help Louis if he were to try to return to power
in France
 Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria in 1792
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HOLT
World History
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
The End of the Monarchy
 The war with Austria went poorly for the French initially
 Louis was blamed, as he stood to regain full power if the
French were defeated
 The people called for the Legislative Assembly to depose
the king; when they failed to comply, revolutionaries
stormed the royal palace & forced the Legislative
Assembly to end the Monarchy & to establish a new
government
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HOLT
World History
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The National Convention
 The National Convention replaced the Legislative
Assembly; this would mark the beginning of The First
Republic
 The members of the National Convention would be
chosen by Universal manhood suffrage – every adult
male could vote, regardless of land ownership or social
class
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World History
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Committee of Public Safety
 France was now at war with an alliance of Great Britain, the
Netherlands, Spain, Sardinia, Austria, and Prussia
 A counter-revolutionary movement began within France
 The Committee of Public Safety was formed to protect the First
Republic from foreign attacks & domestic counter-revolutionaries
 The Committee was given supervisory powers over the executive,
legislative, AND judicial branches
 Most of the Committee members were part of the Jacobin club, so
this period became known as the Jacobin dictatorship
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HOLT
World History
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The Reign of Terror
 Committee’s period of greatest power was September 1793 to
July 1794, the “Reign of Terror”
 Revolutionary Tribunal –Created to punished and execute
those that were part of or believed to be part of the
counterrevolution, but was also used by the leaders of the
Jacobin Club to eliminate their political opponents-over 18,000
people were executed
 Eventually, the leader of the Jacobin club, Maximillian
Robespierre, would be executed himself, thus ending the Reign
of Terror & leading to the dissolution of the National
Convention
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HOLT
World History
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The Directory
 Established to replace the National Convetion after the
scandalous Reign of Terror
 Governed by five individuals from the government’s
executive branch
 Eliminated universal manhood suffrage
 Weak, corrupt rulers
 The French people were not satisfied with this
government
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HOLT
World History
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Napoléon Bonaparte
 Born in 1769 on the French Island of Corsica, attended
Military school in France, stood only 5’2”
 Strong military leader, he gained control of all northern
Italy for France
 Became very popular due to his military victories
 Napoléon takes power as a result of a coup d’état that
eliminated 4 Directors, with Napoléon being the sole
remaining director
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AND
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HOLT
World History
THE HUMAN JOURNEY
The Napoléonic Era
 Napoléon gave himself unlimited power-Dictator
1799-1814 Napoleonic Era or Age of Napoleon
He wrote a new constitution and put it to the people to
vote, which was approved by the people
 After victories over Austria, Russia, and Great Britain,
the French people voted to become an empire, with
Napoléon as Emperor
Power permanent and hereditary, virtually identical to
the Monarchy of the Old Regime
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