The French Revolu.on

Transcription

1 The French Revolu.on

2 What was happening on the ground? Economic Troubles Wars: France has been ba=ling with England off and on for years and now they were locked in expensive build up pa=erns Versailles was really freaking expensive and the monarchs were wealthy and liked to show it off Not necessarily because they wanted to rub it in the face of the people but because of compe..on between na.ons at the.me Debt clergy and nobility (1 st and 2 nd estates) did not pay taxes so the majority of the taxes came from the commoners Poli.cal Crisis Louis XVI recognized the tax burden and actually tried to tax the nobility Called the Estates General (1789) which hadn t been called since 1614 Louis XIV wanted the people to write out a list of grievances With this list, it becomes obvious that if something is not done soon, there will be a revolu.on There had been some serious draughts and crop deaths in the countryside which had caused the price of bread to spike naturally and then you add in needing to feed soldiers that were necessary for war, that s a lot of bread and prices rose even more People were starving and bread was a staple in the French diet Families would eat 3 or 4 four- pound loaves a day

3 Enlightenment Ideas The state is the state and the king is the king This is different than what it was before because these two were synonymous, when Louis XIV said I am the state he literally meant that he made up the state and what he said goes With the Enlightenment, there is a separa.on between the state and the king, the people began to be the state, while the king is just the king Louis even tries toward the end of his reign to dress like a ci.zen king He s trying to get the sympathy and support of the people

4 Can you hear the people sing? Les Miserables Building the Barricades: h=p:// miserables- 3/building- the- barricade/

5 The Dawn of the Revolu.on Estates- General 1789 Louis XVI calls the Estates- General This was the legisla.ve body of France but it existed at the whim of the king, so if the king did not want them to meet, they did not meet Ini.ally, the Third Estate wanted to double the size of the Third Estate (since they were such a big percentage of the popula.on) Then wanted to vote by number instead of the medieval way which was each estate received one total vote Louis said no to this Then the Third Estate said they wanted all the estates to meet together (tradi.onally, the First and Second would meet and vote and then the Third would do the same) King said yes to this but they were s.ll outnumbered

6 The Na.onal Assembly The Third Estate wanted to make changes to the French na.on but without the proper vo.ng power, they were stuck Then Emmanuel- Joseph Sieyes, a sympathe.c clergyman gave the Third Estate a new idea He said that since the Third Estate was actually made up of the people, they were the ones who should be running the country and so they should rename themselves the Na.onal Assembly The Na.onal Assembly would then have the power to pass laws and reforms without the approval of the Estates- General This proposal passed quickly and the newly named Na.onal Assembly proclaimed the end of absolute monarchy and the beginning of representa.ve government Three days later, they went to meet at the Estates- General to make this pronouncement but when they got there, they found the doors locked so they did what any good revolu.onaries would do and broke down a door This door led to an indoor tennis court and this is where they took the Tennis Court Oath saying they would stay in this court un.l they had drawn up a new Cons.tu.on Noblemen and clergy members who favored this change, soon flocked to the court to show their support In response, Louis sta.oned a mercenary army of Swiss guard in front of Versailles

7 Storming of the Bas.lle (14 July 1789) As all this was happening, rumors flew around Paris The most well- known ones: Louis was bringing in mercenary armies to put down the Na.onal Assembly and restore order Foreign troops were massing at the borders, ready to massacre French ci.zens The First and Second estates were preparing to a=ack They were all very violent rumors, and what happens when people are afraid of violence, they prepare for it People wanted to defend themselves and so they looked for the best place with weapons that was the Bas.lle prison Georges Danton, was one of the most famous organizers of the a=ack On 14 July 1789, a mob in Paris stormed the prison looking for gunpowder and weapons oh and to free some prisoners (of which there were only 7, although Voltaire was one of them) They overwhelmed the guards and took control of the building They hacked the warden and several guards to death before parading their heads around the streets on pikes This act scared the crap out of the Na.onal Assembly who had no idea this was meant to happen

8 Reforms of 1789 Aboli.on of feudalism The Great Fear Feudalism is abolished by the news of Paris got there before the feudalism reforms Peasants in the countryside finally get news of what is going on in Paris and they start to riot too This is driven on by the rumor that the nobles were trying to hire outlaws to terrorize and murder the peasants They armed themselves with pitchforks and then started to a=ack the homes of nobles in the countryside Specifically they burned legal papers that bound them to pay feudal dues In other cases, they just burned down the homes

9 Declara.on of the Rights of Man and Ci.zen Defines liberty as the right to do anything that does not hurt other Acts as a declara.on of promise

10 Woman s Riot October 1789 In this.me the prices of grain and bread had spiked again and the women wanted to tell the king and queen what they thought about the situa.on Marched on Versailles Forced the King and Queen to move from Versailles to Paris With the help of the Na.onal Guard the women capture the king and queen and bring them to Paris

11 The Assembly Rebuilds France Civil Cons.tu.on of the Clergy Since the people were controlling the state, they should also control the church Made clergy swear allegiance to state and monarch, so they were state employees and their salary came from the state Crea.on of Departments Allowed for governance equally, so will have elected councils Louis a=empts to flee Lem a note condemning the revolu.on before running from Paris to Belgium Was caught in Varennes someone recognized his face from the coinage he had put out when he was crowned Local na.onal guard is called in to take him back to Paris

12 The Na.onal Assembly starts to divide Legisla.ve Assembly split into three groups: Jacobins - Radicals (sat in the lem of the hall) Girondin - Moderates (sat in the center) Royalists Conserva.ves (sat on the right of the hall) Also start to see patrio.sm for the first.me This was never seen before, at least not to the same extent that you see it at this.me With the divisions, you get the dissolve of the Na.onal Assembly and a Conven.on is formed to run the country and go to war

13 Execu.on and war France at war Monarchs from near France were worried that the ideas might spread to their own countries so they start to march on Paris with a threat of violence if the king should be harmed Jacobins take control Most of the changes that happened in September 1792 were done by Jacobins They tried Louis XVI for treason to the people of Paris 21 January 1793 he was executed by Guillo.ne for treason A few months later, the man who called for Louis s execu.on, Jean- Pierre Marat, leader of the Jacobins was found stabbed to death in his bathtub A woman named Charlo=e Corday confessed to the crime She too was guillo.ned

14 War keeps going Austria and Prussia are now really upset because France just killed their king While France had been holding their own ini.ally, the execu.on of the king brought Great Britain, Holland, and Spain in on the side of Austria and Prussia France started to suffer massive defeats In order to fix this, the Jacobins ins.tuted a dram of 300,000 French ci.zens between the ages By 1794, so less than a year later, the army was 800,000 strong and included women

15 The Commi=ee of Public Safety What was the commi=ee Chief task was to protect the Revolu.on from its enemies Danton s role in it The switch to Robespierre Cons.tu.on of 1793 universal manhood suffrage, all men could vote, including poor men

16 The Great Terror Robespierre assumes control Believers in reason: Changed the calendar Closed all churches in Paris (ci.es and towns across France did the same later) Wanted to build a Republic of Virtue and de- Chris.anize France Law of the Maximum controlled price of grain and eventually bread; stabilized grain prices so everyone could eat Aboli.on of slavery Reform of the Calendar

17 His reign becomes known as the Reign of Terror This took the protec.on of the revolu.on to the extreme They would be trying people in the morning and then execu.ng them in the amernoon Many of these enemies were opposi.on to Robespierre (including Danton)

18 Thousands of unknown people were killed in the terror One woman was killed because she had cut down a tree that had been planted to symbolize liberty As many as 40,000 people were executed during the terror About 85% were members of the urban poor or middle class the people for who the revolu.on was supposedly launched for July 1794 members of the Na.onal Conven.on turned on Robespierre, demanding his arrest and execu.on 28 July 1794 Robespierre met that fate amer being shot in the jaw during his arrest

19 The Thermidorian Reac.on They have to figure out how to calm everything down Conven.on is s.ll in power Jacobins in the ci.es, Royalists in the countryside Girondins were in on both sides Republic of the Wealthy Only become 30,000 electors in a country of 30,000,000 Monsieur replaced citayen which was used in the radical phase

20 The Third Republic People were.red with the death of Robespierre and so moderate leaders in the Na.onal Conven.on dramed a new piece of legislature, it would become the Third Republic Placed power firmly in the hands of the upper middle class and called for a two- house legislature and an execu.ve body of five men, known as the Directory (taken straight from the Romans) Not to be radical idealists Queue Napoleon Bonaparte

21 Legacy of the French Revolu.on No.on of universal manhood suffrage (not even in America yet) Religious liberty for both Protestants and Jews Aboli.on of slavery Republicanism only major state with a republic in the late 1800s No.on of economic equality Terror use of fear tac.cs to use a poli.cal terror; violence can be useful in poli.cs