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Causes of the French Revolution
The American Revolution showed that democracy and liberation from an oppressive monarchy was possible. The Revolution reinforced Enlightenment ideas by democratizing government, an idea that the peasants began to adopt with the creation of the National Assembly. Additionally, France incurred many debts because of their fighting in the Revolution and poor economic decisions from rulers. People no longer accepted divine rights, opposed the ancien regime, and were on edge because of the famines. -
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The French Revolution
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Meeting of the Estates General
Louis XVI's finance minister proposed taxing the wealthy to mitigate the debts France incurred: a controversial idea. They needed the support of the Estates General, representative of the clergy, nobility, and lower classes. The lower class representatives ad the largest incentive to pass it, as the nobility and clergy were exempt from taxes. The conflict over these taxes led to the creation of the National Assembly, as the clergy and nobility continued to limit peasant government participation. -
Creation of the National Assembly
The Estates General met about the reforms, but tried to diminish peasant participation by voting by estate. The 3rd Estate stormed out to the King's tennis court, declared themselves the National Assembly and the true government. Louis threatened the peasant's display by urging the nobility and clergy to join the Assembly, and gathering troops. These radical changes created the air of uncertainty and opposition to social hierarchy that helped to prompt the peasants' reaction of the Great Fear. -
The Great Fear
The governmental uncertainty, rumors about starvation and overthrow, and the gathering of troops prompted the peasants to revolt. During the Great Fear, the peasant stormed manor houses to confiscate and burn feudal land documents to dismantle the system that oppresses them. The peasants successfully abolished the feudal regime and tithes, as well as passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. The violence also forced the King to recognize the Assembly. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
As the peasants demonstrated their displeasure with the system through the Great Fear, the government passed the Declaration to expand the rights of the peasants, similar to the US Bill of Rights. It included rights such as liberty, equality, property, and the right to resist oppression. This excluded women, which prompted them to write their own declaration asserting their desire for rights. -
October March
Continuing the spirit of the Great Fear, 30,000 parisians marched on Versailles in October of 1789. They were angry with the royals' disdain for the revolution, their excessive lifestyles, and food shortages. The people successfully got Louis to return to Paris. The October March is significant because it demonstrates the influence of popular pressure in the Revolution. The common man drove the Revolution, with their influence broadening through newspapers, liberty trees, and Bastille Day. -
National Constituent Assembly - Moderate Phase Reforms
To fulfill the peasants' wishes, the Assembly passed Enlightenment reforms that abolished feudalism, slavery, and expanded suffrage. They also nationalized Church lands, pushed for a more secular society, and enacted bureaucratic reform. These reforms are significant because they shifted the nation towards the democratic system many revolutionaries, such as the Jacobins, demanded. However, they were not enough, as revolutionaries became more radical and targeted the royals more violently. -
Constitution of 1791
The new constitution was an extension of the Assembly's Enlightenment reforms. It kept the monarchy but gave the most power to the legislative assembly, elected by active citizens. It was heavily influenced by the US Constitution, and gave the citizens many of the same basic rights. This constitution lasted less than a year because Louis XVI wanted more power. He tried to flee, but was caught at the border and brought back to Paris; he was becoming increasingly concerned about the revolution. -
Declaration of the Rights of Woman
Written by Olympe de Gouges, the Declaration of the Rights of Women was a response to the Assembly's adoption of DORMAC. It mirrors DOROMAC's language to express the Revolution's failure to uplift women; it was the primary advocate for women's rights at the time. For expressing such radical ideas, Gouges was convicted of treason and executed, proving her assertion that the revolution did not protect women and consequently did not fulfill the Enlightenment ideal of equality it was based on. -
Creation of the National Convention
The National Constituent Assembly is dissolved in 1792, and is replaced by the National Convention. It abolished the monarchy and established a full republic. Within the Convention, there was a divide between the bourgeois Girondins and the lower class Montagnards. The Montagnards seize power and drive out the Girondins, leading to more radical actions such as the conviction and execution of Louis and Marie Antoinette. Robespierre was also a Montagnard, facilitating his Reign of Terror. -
Execution of King and Queen
The royalty's execution was part of the radical phase, began by Montagnard power in the Convention. In addition to ousting the royalty, the Convention passed radical economic and social reforms such as the maximum, taxes on the rich, assistance to the poor and disabled, free and compulsory education, property assumption, and a new calendar. As foreign forces from Louis's war threatened Paris, the radical gained more support, allowing them to pass these reforms and get widespread public support. -
Reign of Terror
Robespierre, the main perpetrator behind the Reign of Terror, rose to power through the Montagnards. He wanted to crush any opposition with violence, causing the execution of 17,000 counterrevolutionaries and many more that died in prison or without trial. Robespierre also raised a great army that occupied Belgium, but the military victory caused the Terror and restrictions pointless. Soon, Robespierre is overthrown and the radical social reforms and abandoned. Conservative policies are popular. -
Thermidorian Reaction
Between Robespierre's death and the Directory, the National Convention debated a new constitution. During this time, the White Terror erupted, as royalists seize power in Paris only to be crushed by Napoleon. This period was important because it introduced Napoleon and gave him prominence, while also serving as the transitional phase between the radical Montagnards to more conservative positions. -
The Directory
The Directory was the last of the revolution constitutions. It put executive power in a 5 member directory, and legislative power in a bicameral body. The 5 consuls were chosen through an indirect election, so France was retaining some of the more revolutionary ideas. The bourgeois republic was destabilized by on-going war and the coups d'etat set Napoleon as the First Consul in the Directory. Napoleon soon dissolved the Directory in 1799 which marked the end of the revolutionary period. -
Napoleon's Accession to Power
After crushing the White Fear, Napoleon sought to increase his power through a series of coups. The last coup successfully instituted him as the First Consul after which he dissolved the Directory entirely in 1799, leaving himself as the sole leader. One of the main effects of the French Revolution as a whole was the dictatorship of Napoleon, for he was a strong military leader that would go on to wage wars across Europe.
