French+Revolution

Dawon Lee

Pre-French Revolution (Old Regime) French Revolution
 * 1st & 2nd Estates
 * 1st estate: Clergy; 2nd estate: nobles
 * Exempt from the taille (France’s main tax)
 * Nobles sought to gain more power
 * Nobles were divided, into Nobles of the Robe & Nobles of the Sword (hereditary)
 * 3rd Estate
 * Commoners of society, majority of French population
 * Consumer prices rose faster than wages, struggle for survival
 * Often excluded from social and political privileges (resentment)
 * Problems w. French Monarchy
 * Economic crises, bad harvests, manufacturing depressions, rising price for food, unemployment
 * Near collapse of government finances (in debt)
 * Forced to call meeting of Estates-General
 * Estates-General – French parliamentary body… needed to raise taxes

//Liberty, Equality, Fraternity//
 * Estates-General
 * Estates-General ruled that Third Estate should get double representatio
 * Cahiers de doleances – local grievances; abolished fiscal privileges of church and nobilit
 * In the Estates-General meeting… problem w. to vote by order (single vote for ea. Estate) or by head (everyone gets a say)
 * National Assembly
 * Third Estate push demands for voting by head
 * Third Estate voted to form National Assembly & draw up constitution
 * Third Estate locked out of the Estates-General meeting… went to nearby tennis courts
 * Tennis Court Oath – continue to meet until they had made a French constitution
 * Abolished privileges of nobles, clergy, towns, and provinces
 * Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (basic rights)
 * Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (ignored)
 * Different from Legislative Assembly – “self denying ordinance”
 * Common People
 * Fall of the Bastille - peasants burned down castles of lords, near prison w. weapons
 * Great Fear – fear of invasion of foreign troops
 * Jacobins – discussion groups made up of elite of local societies, artisans, tradespeople
 * National Convention
 * To draft a new constitution and sovereign ruling body of France
 * Abolished monarchy and establish a republic
 * Split btw. Girondins and Mountain (both were Jacobins)
 * Girondins – fear radical mobs & wanted king alive (Louis XVI)
 * Mountain – represented interest of city of Paris & wanted king dead (won)
 * Death of king = Death of old regime


 * …Would of reestablished old monarchical order...
 * Shut down Jacobin club, reopened Churches, creation of the Directory
 * Radical Phase
 * Committee of Public Safety – administer government; raised the largest army in European history; established “Reign of Terror” ; executed leaders of revolutionary Paris Commune (2nd Estate)

· Robespierre – obsessed w. purifying body of the corrupt politics · National Convention eager to destroy Robespierre before he destroyed them · Directory – era of corruption… relied on military to maintain power · Coup d’etat – general Napoleon Bonaparte able to seize power

Sources: Spielvogel, Jackson J.. //Western Civilization//. Belmont: Wadsworth/Thomason Learning, 2000. Print.

"French Revolution." //History-Wolrd.// History World International, n.d..Web. 24 April. 2011. [].

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