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French Society Divided
France was still broken down into estates. The third esate was the poorest and had to pay for everyhting that the people in the second and first estate. The enlightenment ideas got the third estate thinking why they should have to pay for everything. King Louis XIV had left France in some pretty serious debt after years of defict spending. By 1789 half the income from the taxes were going to the interest from the debt. Louis XIV had no heir meaning there was nobody to help take care of the debt -
Louis XVI calls upon the Estate General
King Louis XVI realized that there was a lot of work to be done to help France get out of debt. He hired Jacques Necker, a finacial exerpt, who recommened that the King call upon the Estate General. By 1788 Louis XVI called upon the Estate Genral. People started coming up with all their complaints and what they wanted changed. Delgates from every estate were to represent the people. Lawyers, Writers, and middle class officals represented the third estate. -
Louis XVI calls upon the Estate- Genral (part 2)
The third estate delegates declared themselves the National Assembly. They took the tennis court oath agreeing that they would not stop fighting until a new consitiution was formed. -
Parisians storm the Bastille
The 800 parisians took over the Bastille.The Bastille represented all the injustice and was a symbol of the abuse of the monarchy to the people. They were looking for weapons and gunpower to help defend themselves from the french army. They killed the commander as well as 5 of the guards. After they took control of the Bastille they tore it down brick by brick -
National Assembly Acts
The nobles that were members of the National Assembly gave up their privileges. By late August the assembly wrote the declaration of the rights of men & the citizen. This declared that all men were "born and remain free and are equal in rights". They have the rights to "liberty, property, security, and resistnace to oppresion. -
National Assembly Acts (part 2)
There were two people that were not mentioned in this, the KIng and the women. Women were not happy at all. 1791 Olympe de Gouges made her own declaration of woman and the female citizens. On October 5th 6,000 women marched 13 miles from Paris to Versailles and brought the Queen and her family back to Versailles. By 1791 a new constitution included a lot of the enlightenment ideas. It promised equality before the law for every man and ended the conncection between the Church and government. -
Threats from abroad
The King of Prussia and emperor of Austria, the queens brother, wrote the Declaration of Pilritz.This declaration promised to protect the french monarchy.The declaration was actually a bluff however the people in the revolution took it very seriously.Even though they were at war in their own country they threated war on Prussia and Austria.The king and his family tried to escape from the "prison" that they were in. They almost got to the border before they were caught and was brought back Paris. -
Civil War
Border control incresed to try to stop the "French Plague" which was the horrible stories that were told by the émigrés. They reported of how their privaliges and religion were taken away form them. Then the legislative assembly took control. This assembly only lasted for 1 year though. There was too many economic problems and the currency was losing its value. San-culottes were the working class people who demanded a more radical change. They wanted a republic government. -
Civil War part 2
A group called the Jacobins was made up of middle class layers or intellectuals. The Jacobins supported the San-culottes idea of having a a republic government. The Jacobins used the power of the press to get out the idea of this kind of government. Not everyone was on board with this though. They were called moderate reformers -
Monarchy is abolished
The "september massacres" was a time when the citizens went into the prisons that were holding the nobles and priests that were accused political officers. They went into the prison killing everyone prisoner that they saw. They wanted the monarch gone. The convention met in Septemeber of 1792 and abolished the monarchy, they established a republic government. They noted that they could not offically get rid of the monarch until the Royal family was gone. -
Monarchy is abolished part 2
King Louis XVI was then put on trial. However there was nothing that was going to change their minds. So on January 21 1793 the King was beheaded. 8 months later the Queen was put on trial. Again the people had decided before hand that she was going to die. Her treatment however was far worse than the kings. On an october day she was taken, in an open carriage where people were yelling threats to her, to her death. -
Robespierre and the Reign of Terror
France was a war with Britian, Netherlands, Spain and Prussia. They came up with the committee of Public Safety. This group of 12 men, with Robespierre as the leader, was in charge of the trials, executions, and preparing the people for war. They invented a tax that benefited the war and required everyone to pay it. Robespierre was at the height of his fame. Some people called him the "Incorruptible" while others called him a Tyrant. On july 27th 1794 he was arrested and executed the next day. -
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Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
Robespierre had declared that fear was needed to help France. Anyone and everyone could not do anything without having the fear that they could be executed. The trails wer hasty and death sentences were common. About 300,000 people were arrested during this time. Every month about 800 peope were beheaded. -
Spread of Nationalism
Everything that France had once known was changed, State schools replaced the chruch schools. There was no King to hold all the power. Every man had only the label of being a citizen. The people had gained identity from the wars. A new idea spread throughout the entire country. Nationalism was known everywhere you went. People were proud of their country. They had taken control of what they wanted and in the end they were able to get what they wanted. -
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Third stage of Revolution
Napoleon Bonaparte
This time period was under the a new constitution. There was a 5 man direcoty and a 2 house legislature. The wars with Prussia and Spain had ended, however the wars against Great Britian and Austria still continued. There was nobody to look up to until Napoleon Bonaparte came into the picture. He was a political leader, a military hero and soon to be ruler of France.
