The French Revolution

Causes and Moderate-Liberal Phase

 Standards
• Learning Objective (Unit 5: D): Explain the causes, events, and consequences of the French Revolution
• Key Concept 2.1.IV.A: The French Revolution resulted from a combination of long-term social and
political causes, as well as Enlightenment ideas, exacerbated by short-term fiscal and economic crises.
• Key Concept 2.1.IV.B: The first, or liberal, phase of the French Revolution established a constitutional
monarchy, increased popular participation, nationalized the Catholic Church, and abolished hereditary
privileges
• Key Concept 2.1.IV.C: After the execution of Louis XVI, the radical Jacobin republic led by Robespierre
responded to opposition at home and war abroad by instituting the Reign of Terror, fixing prices and wages,
and pursuing a policy of de-Christianization.
• Key Concept 2.1.IV.D: Revolutionary armies, raised by mass conscription, sought to bring the changes
initiated in France to the rest of Europe.
• Key Concept 2.1.IV.E: Women enthusiastically participated in the early phases of the revolution; however,
while there were brief improvements in the legal status of women, citizenship in the republic was soon
restricted to men
 What was it?
• French Revolution (1789-1799)
• Period of dramatic change that posed a fundamental challenge to Europe’s
political and social order
• France changed from an absolute monarchy to a republic
• The Revolution underwent various phases (Liberal, Radical, & Conservative)
• Mixed views in history due to its legacy of violence in the Reign of Terror
(executions of up to 40,000 people)
 TAX
EXEMPT

Background – The Ancien

3%
Regime (Old Regime)
• Ancien Regime = France’s feudal system from 15th c. to
1789
• The Three Estates:
• First Estate – Clergy
• Second Estate – Nobility
• Third Estate – Everyone else
• The first and second estates were exempt from taxation
• The rise of the bourgeoisie (French professional class –
merchants, lawyers, etc.) who wanted greater
representation in govt.

Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate and

the Second Estate on its back.
 Causes of the French Revolution
• Massive debts:
• Louis XIV’s war debts (loans from wealthy nobles)
• 60% of tax revenues went towards repaying loans
• Seven Years’ War
• American Revolution
• People became increasingly resentful of the
extravagance of Versailles
• Marie Antoinette (Queen) spent lavishly while many
French subjects starved
 Causes, Continued…
• Louis XIV forced to call the Estates General (legislative assembly had not been
called for 200 years)
• 1st Estate – 1% of population; owned 10% of land
• 2nd Estate – 2% of population; owned 30% of land
• 3rd Estate – 97% of population; owned 35% of land
• Estates-General was ineffective:
1. Each estate had one vote (3rd estate outnumbered in govt even though 97% of pop.)
2. 1st Estate had lost French confidence because of rise of secularism in the Enlightenment
3. 1st and 2nd Estates refused to give up tax exemptions and always voted together
4. 3rd Estate seen as less important
The Estates General
The French king’s advisory body
– Not convened since 1614
Each estate cast one vote as a group.

1 2 3
The The Everyone
Clergy Nobility Else
Reform Proposals
#1: “Doubling” the Third

1 2 3 3
The The Everyone
Clergy Nobility Else
Reform Proposals
#2: Vote By Head
3 3 3
1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
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1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
3 3 3
3 3 3
Reform Proposals
#2: Vote By Head
1 3 3 3
1 1 2 2 1 3 3 3
1 1 2 2 1 3 3 3
1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
In a single assembly, individual 2 3 3 3
nobles and priests could vote with
the Third Estate delegates. 2 3 3 3
 Indecision
“Doubling” Vote by
the Third Head
 Causes, Continued…
• Cahiers de Doleances – grievances by 3rd Estate. Wanted:
1. Fair taxes
2. Fair voting (Estates General)
3. Stop forcing peasants to provide unpaid labor for landowners
4. Eliminate fees levied by nobles on peasant land holdings
5. Stop tithes (10% tax paid to Church)
• By June 1789 (6 weeks), nothing had been resolved, so the Third Estate walked out
and declared itself the official representative govt of France (the National
Assembly [1789-1791])
The National Assembly
June 17, 1789
3 3 3
1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
3 3 3
3 3 3
The National Assembly
Join us!
1 1 1 2 2 2
1 1 1 2 2 2
1 1 1 2 2 2
The National Assembly

1 1 2 2 2
1 2 2
1 2 2
Photo Credit: Ravages
Photo Credit: Amara U
The National Assembly
pledged not to adjourn until
they had adopted a
constitution for France.
Photo Credit: Amara U
Jacques-Louis David, The Tennis Court Oath
Compare

John Trumbull, The Declaration of Independence, 1819

 The Tennis Court Oath (June 1789)
• The National Assembly was locked out of its traditional meeting hall
• Met at an indoor tennis court, swearing an oath that they would not disband
before creating a new constitution
• Some members of the clergy and nobles joined
• Louis XVI stated that he accepted the govt, but was secretly mobilizing the
army around Paris and Versailles to disband it
• The Tennis Court Oath is largely considered the start of the French
Revolution
 Food Shortages
• Bread shortages resulted from a drought in
1788 • For one thing, the original French phrase that
Marie-Antoinette is supposed to have said—
• Louis XVI removed price controls, hoping to “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”—doesn’t exactly
translate as “Let them eat cake.” It translates as,
incentivize grain farming. Instead, prices rose well, “Let them eat brioche.” Of course, since
sharply and the king allowed grain to be brioche is a rich bread made with eggs and butter,
almost as luxurious as cake, it doesn’t really change
exported (while people were starving) the point of the story. But the queen wouldn’t
have been referring to the sort of dessert that
• Pamphleteer propagandists reported that Marie English speakers often imagine.
Antoinette responded to the crisis by saying
“Let them eat cake” (probably not true), which
furthered resentment
The Liberal Phase
1789-1791
 Liberal Phase Overview
• Produced liberal (not radical) reforms
• Abolished hereditary privileges for the aristocracy
• Increased popular participation in voting
• Nationalized the Catholic Church
• Established a constitutional monarchy
• Moved towards violence and radicalism
 Bastille
• Storming of the Bastille (French prison in Paris)
July 14, 1789
• Sans-culottes stormed the Bastille, fearing that
Louis XVI would disband the National Assembly.
• Sans-culottes = without knee breeches. Could not
afford the breeches of the rich, so wore long pants.
• Demonstrated the repression by the French govt.
• Widely seen as the beginning of the French
Revolution
The Bastille
July 14, 1789
 The Great Fear
• Summer of 1789
• Peasants rose up in the countryside (starvation)
• Destroyed Manorial records
• Burned and looted the houses of tax collectors and nobles
• National Assembly abolished feudalism on August 4
• Voted to end seigniorial rights and fiscal privileges of nobility, clergy, and towns
• Marked the end of the Revolution for many peasants, who simply wanted to be freed
from feudal obligations
 Summer,
1789

PEASANT REVOLT
Decrees of
August 4th
Abolished the
“feudal system”
• feudal dues
• nobles’ hunting rights ABOLISHED
• tax exemptions

Photo Credit: One lucky guy

 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

• August 26
• Similar to the Bill of Rights (influenced by
Locke and Jefferson)
• Called for equality, free speech,
representative government, and popular
sovereignty (people to rule themselves
popularly).
August 26, 1789
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
-- The Declaration of Independence
The Representatives of the French people, organized
in National Assembly, considering that ignorance,
forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are
the sole causes of public miseries and the corruption
of governments, have resolved to set forth in a
solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and
sacred rights of man...

FULL TEXT
 INFLUENCERS
of the
Declaration

US Declaration
of Independence

Jean J.
Rousseau
The British System
of Gov.
Women’s March on Versailles
• October, 1789
• 7,000 women marched from Paris to Versailles (25 km)
• Bread riot
• Broke into Versailles looking for Marie Antoinette (she used her children as shields;
they beheaded two of her guards, instead, and put their heads on pikes). Demands:
1. Distribute hoarded bread from the palace
2. Accept the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
3. Come back to Paris (instead of Versailles) to see how the people lived
• Result: Royal family forced back to Paris (sort of on house arrest)
WOMEN’S MARCH ON VERSAILLES
October, 1789
WOMEN’S MARCH ON VERSAILLES
October, 1789

ROYAL FAMILY → PARIS

Parisian
Revolution

After the Women’s March on

Versailles, Paris became the
Revolution’s epicenter.
 Civil Constitution of the Clergy
• 1790
• National assembly had already abolished monastic orders and confiscated the lands of the
Catholic Church in France. Expansion of this included:
1. Catholic Church under authority of the state
2. Eliminated tithe paid by peasants
3. Demanded that clergy owe allegiance to France instead of Rome
4. Bishops and priests would be elected by the people
• Sold Church lands in order to raise money for the govt
• These new restrictions turned many away from the French Revolution (France was Catholic)
Departments
• National Assembly abolished the
provinces of the ancient regime in 1790
• Replaced with departements in 1792,
based on geographical features.
• Same departments exist today.
 Constitution of 1791
• Established September 3, 1791
• Created a constitutional monarchy
• Lawmaking powers given to new Legislative Assembly (1791-1792)
• King had a limited veto power; could appoint own ministers
• Many did not believe Louis XVI would follow the constitution
Flight to Varennes
• June 1791, the royal family attempted
to flee France in disguise
• Louis XVI decided to stop at his
favorite restaurant on the way, was
recognized, and captured
• Upon capture, a letter was intercepted
in which the king denounced the
Revolution
• People lost trust in the monarch
 Declaration of Pillnitz & War of 1792
• French Loyalists who had left the country urged Prussia and Austria to
invade France to restore the monarchy
• Declaration of Pillnitz – statement by HRE Leopold II and Prussian King
William II urging European powers to restore the French monarchy.
• Stated they would only intervene if all major European leaders would get involved,
which was not likely
• Seen by the French as a declaration of war
• France declared war on Austria in 1792
 Tuileries Palace & September Massacres
• As Louis XVI vetoed more radical legislation from the Legislative Assembly, the
French public saw this as further treachery
• Working-class Parisians stormed the Tuileries palace (August 10, 1792), killing
600 members of the king’s guard and threatened the legislative assembly
• The king was arrested and the monarchy was abolished in essence
• September Massacres – France feared Prussia’s invasion would release prisoners
to help fight against France. Murdered more than 1,000 prisoners in 20 hours.