French Revolution

Edit 0 7 …
Dawon Lee

Pre-French Revolution (Old Regime)
  • 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
French Revolution

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. http://history-world.org/french_revolution.htm.

http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/collections/frenchrev.html