French Revolution
- 1. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Detail From Triumph of Marat, Boilly, 1794 (Musee des Beaux-Arts)
- 2. THE THREE ESTATES Before the revolution the French people were divided into three groups: The first estate: the clergy The second estate: the nobility The third estate: the common people (bourgeoisie, urban workers, and peasants). Legally the first two estates enjoyed many privileges, particularly exemption from most taxation.
- 3. The First Estate was of Catholic Church officials- ~CLERGY~
- 4. THE NOBILITY…. With the exception of a few liberals, the nobility wanted greater political influence for themselves but nothing for the third estate.
- 5. THE THIRD ESTATE TThis cartoon from the era of the French Revolution depicts the third estate as a person in chains, who supports the clergy and nobility on his back.hainsk
- 6. TAX PAYERS !! The Third Estate bore the entire tax burden . * Tithe- 1/10th of the agricultural produce & * Taille- Tax paid to the state. Clergy and Nobility enjoyed at their cost.
- 7. THE FRENCH ROYALTY The royal family lived in luxury at the Palace of Versailles. Hall of Mirrors
- 8. LOUIS XVI Louis XVI was an awkward, clumsy man who had a good heart but was unable to relate to people on a personal level.
- 9. MARIE ANTOINETTE Marie Antoinette, in her early years as Queen, was flighty and irresponsible. – She spent huge amounts on clothes, buying a new dress nearly every other day. – Being Austrian, she was terribly unpopular in France and had few friends.
- 10. MARIE ANTOINETTE
- 11. THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES The King and Queen of France lived in luxury and splendor at the magnificent Palace of Versailles outside of Paris.
- 12. GROWING MIDDLE CLASS-POLITICAL PHILOSOPHERS John Locke Montesquieu
- 13. SUBSISTENCE RIOTS
- 14. LONG QUEUES FOR BREAD! SUBSISTENCE CRISIS….
- 15. Calling the Estates General meeting of the Estates General May 5, 1789 l
- 16. THE TENNIS COURT OATH The delegates agreed and all but one of the 578 delegates signed it. – Their oath is known as the Tennis Court Oath. oa"The National Assembly, considering that it has been summoned to establish the constitution of the kingdom... decrees that all members of this assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath not to separate... until the constitution of the kingdom is established on firm foundations..." June 20, 1789
- 17. MOUNIER’S SUGGESTION “Let us swear to God and our country that we will not disperse until we have established a sound and just constitution, as instructed by those who nominated us.” -M. Mounier
- 18. The Tennis Court Oath by Jacques Louis David
- 19. A plate depicting Estates General. the Estates General met, each estate solemnly marched into the hall at Versailles. When the Estates General met, each estate solemnly marched into the hall at Versailles. The third estate dressed all in black, the nobility dressed in all their finery, and the clergy dressed in full regalia. in black, the nobility dressed in all their finery, and the clergy dressed in full regalia.
- 21. WHERE IS THE MONEY? In this cartoon from the time, Louis is looking at the chests and asks “Where is the tax money?“ The financial minister, Necker, looks on and says “The money was there last time I looked." The nobles and clergy are sneaking out the door carrying sacks of money, saying "We have it."
- 22. Revolution Spreads to Common People …. Cartoon representation of the confiscation of church lands
- 23. WOMEN’S MARCH TO VERSAILLES On October 4, 1789, a crowd of women, demanding bread for their families, marched toward Versailles. When they arrived, soaking wet from the rain, they demanded to see "the Baker," "the Baker's wife," and "the Baker's boy". The King met with some of the women and agreed to distribute all the bread in Versailles to the crowd.
- 24. “RAGING MOB” OR “SOLDIERS OF LIBERTY”? THE PARISIANS WHO STORMED THE BASTILLE The King was unwilling to use force and eventually ordered the first and second estates to join the new National Assembly. The third estate had won.
- 25. Women's march to Versailles
- 26. The Storming of the Bastille!! The Bastille as a medieval fortress
- 27. MOBS SEARCH FOR WEAPONS !..! Mobs roamed in search of weapons. Although some muskets were found when they broke into a public hospital for wounded soldiers, there was no ammunition. The ammunition was stored in the Bastille.
- 28. The Fall of the Bastille!!
- 29. Liberated prisoners parading later in the day
- 30. Burning chateaux as the peasants riot in the countryside
- 31. DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND CITIZEN "Men are born free and equal in their rights....These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression. The fundamental source of all sovereignty resides in the nation. The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to take part personally, or through representatives, in the making of the law."
- 32. THE KING’S RETURN TO PARIS Under pressure from the National Guard, the King also agreed to return to Paris with his wife and children. It was the last time the King saw Versailles.
- 33. THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES Although the King reluctantly accepted the new constitution, he could not accept all the reforms (e.g., the Civil Constitution of the Clergy) and decided to leave the country. On June 20, 1791, the King and his family set out for the border in a carriage. The King was disguised as a steward and his son was wearing a dress. At the border village of Varennes, he was recognized and eventually apprehended.
- 34. The apprehension of Louis XVI at Varennes
- 35. The Parisian Mob
- 36. THE SAN-CULOTTES-JACOBIN CLUB Atthe beginning of the revolution, the working men of Paris allowed the revolutionary bourgeoisie to lead them. But by 1790 the sans-culottes were beginning to be politically active in their own right. They were called sans-culottes (literally, without trousers) because the working men wore loose trousers instead of the tight knee breeches of the nobility. Eventually sans culottes came to refer to any revolutionary citizen.
- 37. The sans culottes The bourgeoisie
- 38. ATTACK ON THE TUILERIES The royal family was living under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace. An angry mob got into the building on June 20, 1792, and found their way to the King. The crowd shouted insults and was in an ugly mood. The King remained calm and obediently put on the red cap of liberty (a symbol of revolution) at the mob's insistence.
- 39. Mob placing the red cap of liberty on the King's head at the Tuileries
- 40. PRESSURE FROM THE PARIS MOB When the mob thrust a bottle of wine at the King, he drank a toast to the health of the nation but refused to change his position on the clergy. Under the new constitutional monarchy, he had exercised his veto of a proposal to punish priests who refused to support the changes to the church. A religious man, the King felt it would violate his conscience to agree to the mob's demands. Theincident ended without bloodshed but by August the mob was back.
- 41. August 10, 1792, attack on the Tuileries
- 42. THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI The constitutional monarchy put in place by moderate revolutionaries gave way to a radical republic. The National Convention decided to put Louis on trial for his crimes. Although his guilt was never an issue, there was a real debate in the Convention on whether the king should be killed. They voted for his execution. On January 23, 1793 Louis Capet went to the guillotine in the Place de la Concorde, where a statue of his predecessor, Louis XV, once stood. At the scaffold he said "I forgive those who are guilty of my death."
- 43. The execution of Louis XVI
- 44. THE RISE OF THE JACOBINS When the constitutional monarchy fell and he King was put on trial for treason in December, the Girondins argued against his execution. The Jacobins thought he needed to die to ensure the safety of the revolution. When the Jacobins were successful the tide turned against the Girondins. The Jacobins in the National Convention had 22 Girondin leaders arrested and executed. The Jacobins had won.
- 45. MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE "Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible"
- 46. THE REIGN OF TERROR After the death of Louis in 1793, the Reign of Terror began. Marie Antoinette led a parade of prominent and not-so- prominent citizens to their deaths. The guillotine, the new instrument of egalitarian justice, was put to work. Public executions were considered educational. Women were encouraged to sit and knit during trials and executions. The Revolutionary Tribunal ordered the execution of 2,400 people in Paris by July 1794. Across France 30,000 people lost their lives.
- 47. WATCH COMMITTEES The Terror was designed to fight the enemies of the revolution, to prevent counter-revolution from gaining ground. Most of the people rounded up were not aristocrats, but ordinary people. A man (and his family) might go to the guillotine for saying something critical of the revolutionary government. Watch Committees around the nation were encouraged to arrest "suspected persons, ... those who, either by their conduct or their relationships, by their remarks or by their writing, are shown to be partisans of tyranny and federalism and enemies of liberty" (Law of Suspects, 1793).
- 48. SUSPENSION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES Civil liberties were suspended. The Convention ordered that "if material or moral proof exists, independently of the evidence of witnesses, the latter will not be heard, unless this formality should appear necessary, either to discover accomplices or for other important reasons concerning the public interest." The promises of the Declaration of the Rights of Man were forgotten. Terror was the order of the day. In the words of Maximilien Robespierre, "Softness to traitors will destroy us all."
- 49. THE LAST VICTIM OF THE REIGN OF TERROR Eventhe radical Jacobins, the supporters of Robespierre, come to feel that the Terror must be stopped. Danton rose in the Convention calling for an end to the Terror. He was its next victim. When Robespierre called for a new purge in 1794, he seemed to threaten the other members of the Committee of Public Safety. The Jacobins had had enough. Cambon rose in the Convention and said “It is time to tell the whole truth. One man alone is paralyzing the will of the Convention. And that man is Robespierre.” Others quickly rallied to his support. Robespierre was arrested and sent to the guillotine the next day, the last victim of the Reign of Terror.
- 50. THE DIRECTORY People had grown tired of the instability and bloodshed of the revolution and were ready for something more moderate. By 1795, the republic was gone, and 5 men with business interests had the executive power in France. This new government was called The Directory. It was far more conservative than the Jacobin republic had been. It was also ineffectual.
- 51. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE The people readily accepted the coup d'etat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The revolution was over. Or was it?
- 52. SOURCES Adapted from Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité: The French Revolution by Jennifer Brainard. See http://www.historywiz.com/frenchrev- mm.htm