The French Revolution - Background and Causes



The French Revolution - Background and Causes

1. Absolute Monarchy - The Ancien Regime

• In the late 18th C France was ruled by an Absolute Monarch - Louis XVI

• He had power over everybody – there was no parliament and he could make laws as he wished. – he has power of life or death over his subjects- ‘the divine right of kings’

• His wife Maire Antoinette was an Austrian – not liked

• She displayed too much wealth in the Palace of Versailles

• The French educated classes criticised the system of government and wanted the king to share power.

2. The privileges of the Nobility and the Clergy

• The people of France were divided into three ‘estates’

• The First estate: The Clergy – bishops / priests

• The Second Estate: The Nobility

• The Third Estate: The Rest of the French people

|The Clergy |The Nobility |The French people – 90% |

|Special privileges |Special Privileges |Some were well off – the merchants / |

|No Tax |No Tax |bankers / lawyers |

|Received taxes from the poor |Lived in the great Chateaux |Others less well off – shopkeepers / |

| |Castles or in Versailles |farmers / manufacturers |

| |About 100,000 nobles in France |Others were peasants – labourers – very |

| | |badly off |

| |All important jobs in the army and |These paid taxes |

| |government were reserved for the nobles |Taille – land tax |

| | |Corvee – peasants and labourers had to |

| | |repair the roads with no pay |

| | |Tithe – 1/10 of crops to clergy to maintain|

| | |the church |

3. The French Philosophes

• France was the birth-place of the Enlightenment - During the 18th C many French thinkers like Montiesque / Voltaire / Rousseau criticised the system of government - said King had too much power- wanted him to share power with a parliament – Philosophes - Their views influenced many people

4. The influence of the American War of Independence

• French people admired what the Americans had done

• Felt the ideas of the Philosophes could be put into practice

• Some of the French soldiers who had fought in American became involved in the Revolution in France

• French help for America cost so much that France was almost bankrupt (broke)

5. The Meeting of the Estates General

• Louis XVI wanted to raise taxes to pay off France’s debts but needed the French Parliament to agree.

• He called a meeting of the three estates for May 1789- The Estates General (Parliament) (first meeting in almost a century)

• There were serious disagreements over the system of voting which was unfair.- each estate has one vote

• The third estate wanted one vote for each member – (621 members)

• It could then outvote the First Estate (308 members) and the Second Estate (285 members)

• In June 1798 the Third estate made a motion – ‘to declare boldly to the privileged orders that if they will not join the commoners, the latter will proceed tin the national business without them’.

• They formed the National Assembly

• When the members of the Third Estate was locked out of their meeting place in Versailles – they met in the Royal tennis court and took and oath

• The tennis court oath – ‘to stay together until a constitution was drawn up’ and Louis and the other two estates agreed to make the systems of government and taxation fairer.

• The King reluctantly agreed to discuss changes and reforms

• The three estates of France became known as the Constituent Assembly – later called the national assembly.

The Revolution Begins

1. The Fall of the Bastille – 14 July 1789

• Louis didn’t like being told what to do and ordered soldiers to be brought to Paris.

• Excitement was growing in Pairs – people were angry because of bread shortages and high prices

• The city of Paris formed its own militia (part time voluntary soldiers) – called the National Guard

• On 14 July 1789, a large crowd attacked the Bastille – a large prison fortress in the centre of the city – because they thought guns were stored there

• They captured the Bastille and killed the governor.

2. The Spread of the Revolution

• The fall of the Bastille encouraged the middle classes, the peasants and the labourers in other parts of France to take action

• Nobles houses were attacked and many fled the country

• The National Assembly was forced to take action

A) The Assembly abolished the feudal system (privileges of the nobles) and feudal dues

B) Tithes were abolished

C) The Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man

• Man is born free and equal

• People have rights to liberty, property and security

• The law must be the same for all

• People have freedom to speak, write print what they wish

• The ideas of the revolution were summed up on he slogan – ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (all people should be free, equal and all people were brothers)

3. The Women of Paris

• Bread shortages continued, and there were rumours that the king was bringing in troops to stop the revolution

• The market women and fish wives of Paris marched on Versailles – they forced the king and his family to leave Versailles and live in Paris.

4. The Flight to Varennes – 1791

• Louis continued to resist the revolution – he planned to leave France and get help from his brother-in-law the Emperor of Austria

• He attempted to leave in a carriage but was recognised and stopped at the village of Varennes

• He and his family were brought back to Paris and some of his power was taken from him.

5. France at War

• Tension rose between France and Austria – war was declared on Austria in April 1792

• The French army did badly – not enough soldiers and the officers had gone abroad

• France seemed in great danger as the Prussians joined the Austrians

• A huge recruiting campaign was started – thousands of young men joined the army.

6. The Storming of the Tuileries

• There was now grave danger that the Austrians and the Prussians would win and give the king back his old power

• The people of Paris were worried that the King and Marie Antoinette were working with France’s enemies

• One group was particularity angry – the sans culottes

• These working class people were strong supporters of the Revolution

• In August 1792 they stormed the Tuileries palace where the king lived – the king had to seek protection from the National Assembly but they had him and his family imprisoned.

7. The Execution of he King

• Eventually France gained the upper hand over Prussia and Austria on the battle fields

• France was declared a republic in September 1792

• A hidden safe was discovered in the Tuileries palace – it held documents proving that the king was plotting with other countries to overthrow the revolution

• Louis was put on trial by the Assembly and found guilty (387-334)

• He was executed by guillotine on 21 Jan 1793

Robespierre and the Terror

• The war was still in progress and spread as Britain, Holland and Spain joined Austria and Prussia against France

• The National Assmebly had been divided between Conservatives and Radicals – in 1793 the radicals seized power – Jacobins

• The country was in great danger so the Committee of Public Safety was set up to organise the defence of France

• It had 12 members and its President was Maximilien Robespierre – a trained lawyer

• He was elected to the Third Estate in 1789 and supported the ideas of the revolution (liberty, equality and fraternity) – He voted for the execution of the king

• He was called the incorruptible because of his honesty in financial affairs

• He was a leading members of the Jacobins – a political group in revolutionary France

• He believed that a strong government and a reign of terror was needed to save the Revolution

Problems in France and the Reign of Terror

• Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety were faced with a number of problems- They decided that violence and terror were needed to save the revolution

Problems Reign of Terror

|Opposition to the revolution from the nobles |The Law of Suspects – was passed to punish anyone thought to be |

| |against the revolution- subject t death penalty - The guillotine|

| |became the symbol of the reign of terror June 1793-July 1794 |

| |(death of Robespierre)- in that time 2,500 were executed in Paris|

| |and 16,000 in the rest of France |

|Rebellions in the Vendee (the area around Nantes in the western |The rebellions in the Vendee and other parts of France were put |

|and south-western France) and elsewhere |down with great cruelty |

|The War |There was mass enlistment – 1 million soldiers in the French army|

| |saved revolution from defeated by an outside power |

|Rising food prices |The Law of Maximum – set max prices |

| | |

The Death of Robespierre

• The revolution was no longer in danger and many expected the reign of terror to end – it got worse

• The Sans-culottes eventually turned against Robespierre and many people thought he had too much power – he was feared and hated and there were attempted on his life

• He was arrested and tried by the Assembly – the sans culottes did not support him

• He was guillotined on 27 July 1794 and 100 of his supporters in the days that followed

• His death brought an end to the reign of terror

• Order was restored by a new government called the Directory by 1799 total control was held by Napoleon Boneparte

• In 1804 he was named the new Emperor of France

The Results of the French Revolution

• Liberty, Equality and Fraternity – the slogan of the revolution spread to other countries where people demanded more freedom and greater equalities – they also demanded independence if they were under the control of another country (nationalism)

• Rise of Napoleon – After the Reign of Terror, Napoleon rose to power as a very successful army commander- he established the French legal system (Code Napoleon) which influenced other counties on the Continent

• Abolition of Slavery – It was abolished but later re-introduced in the French Empire by Napoleon

• Rise of the Middle Class – The power of the Nobility was reduced and the middle class gained greater power

• Metric System – The system of weights and measurements was introduced and spread to other countries.

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