The French Revolution Pre-Revolution ( ~1789) A monarch ruled France; their current king was Louis XVI, member

r of the Bourbon family. Large wealth and social gaps between rich and poor. o Nobility- 300,000 pop, they usually were decedents of medieval lords, had special privileges. o Bourgeoisie- 3 million pop, comprised of high salaried professionals: lawyers, judges, doctors, merchants. o Peasants- +20 million pops, lowest social and economic ranks, most were farmers, or commoners. o Life was harshest for the peasants who often faced malnutrition and starvation, the bourgeoisie would be considered todays middle class, and nobility lived lavishly, owning about a third of the land Even though France was a monarchy, there were many divisions in the government. o France had many provinces, which each had their own governor, laws, and tax code. o Taxes were not even or fair, tax rates changed depending on province, and the nobility and clergy were exempt from paying taxes. o The king created and passed laws, but relied on the nobility and clergy to carry out the laws among the provinces, and so he relied on them to preserve his authority. The church in France was a well-established institution that provided a large number of services, and acquired large sums of money. o The church provided structure, order, and purpose for the life of the peasants. o Most education was performed through the church, and the church provided a large amount of charity and welfare for the poor. o The church owned about 10% of the land in France, and many of the higher clergy members amassed large amounts of wealth. Frances problems consisted mainly of economic and social concerns o France acquired large debts through many wars in which they had to borrow large sums of money. o Because of many bad harvests, there was wide spread starvation among the peasant class in France. o France had just lost the Seven Years War to Britain, and besides a loss of national pride, France also lost a large amount of its colonial land in the Americas. Enlightenment thinkers in France started to propose ideas of freethinking and reason through logic.

o Voltaire: Prided freedom of speech, speaking out against institutions such as the church and the monarchy for their persecution of free thought and speech. o Montesquieu: Outlined the inner workings of government, and supported divisions in the government, to limit the ability of politicians to gain too much power. o Diderot: Published the first encyclopedia, in which he promoted and included enlightenment writers and ideas, by providing these texts. o Rousseau: Believed in the principle of Social Contract, where people will naturally come together to form a government, where they have to relinquish some rights. He believed that society corrupted man. The Revolution: Moderate Period (1789~1793) France experienced many crises including agricultural and financial ones. o The price of grain became unregulated, because it was believed that price caps would discourage production, promote scarcity, and cause starvation. However, with the price of grain increasing, peasants became irate, and started to horde grain, and seize it from merchants. o France supported the American Revolution, but this increased their debt, and Frances financial situation became dire, because there was increased possibility of the government defaulting on their debts, so creditors were weary to loan them money. o The tax code was not uniform, and so certain regions of France had low taxes while others had high. Nobility and Clergy were exempt from taxes, yet, the government frequently had to increase taxes on the rest of classes to pay for the accumulating debt. Frances financial minister, Necker, proposed many reforms to the government, including the release of the kings accounts. He gained popularity with the people, but was soon fired for it was feared that he challenged the monarchy. Calonne was then hired, and he proposed three reforms: uniform tax system with no exemptions, ending internal custom controls, and increase in borrowing, by forming the Assembly of Notables o Assembly of Notables: was formed as a counter measure to the Estates General, so as to pass reforms the king wanted. o The king hand picked members of the Assembly, but the reforms he wanted met resistance, and so the Assembly was soon disbanded. As the crises worsened, the king was forced to call the Estates General after financiers refused to lend France more money. He also reappointed Necker to finance minister. o The Estates General was comprised of 3 estates, the Clergy, Nobility, and Commoners. o Each estate had one vote, and so a simple majority of 2-1 votes would pass or deny a law.

o Clergy and Nobility: these two groups both had 300, and both represented about 300,000 people. Both groups also had certain privileges, like exemption from taxes and church tithes. o Commoners: this group represented the rest of France, 26 million, but they only had 600 representatives. o The Estates were not really a representative of the nation, for each group had an equal amount of power, even though the populations of the commoners were far greater than the other two groups. This created situations where the Nobility and Clergy who shared common interests could block a law favoring the majority. There was a list of grievances given to the Estates by voters. The list mainly comprised of anger toward the tax code, noble privileges, and starvation. Tennis Court Oath: After Louis became frustrated with the Estates lack of progress; he called a meeting, but locked the doors. When the 3rd Estate arrived, they were angered at this, and decided to meet at a tennis court, where they swore not to disband until they had passed a constitution. o They feared that the king would disband the Estates early o Louis was angered at this, but encouraged the Estates to meet separately, and said that the Nobility and Clergy had the right to veto any law. The French prison Bastille was attacked by a group of rioting peasants, because the Bastille was viewed as a symbol of the Old Regime, they were fearful of machineries stationed in France, the Financial Minister Necker was fired, and they believed that gunpowder and weapons were stored in the Prison. The Great Fear was a period in France, where fears of hunger took hold of the peasant population, and so they began to attack nobles and merchants. o Peasants feared that either nobles were hoarding grain, that their crops would be attacked, or that they would be robbed. o Many also refused to pay taxes and tithes. The Estates finally created a new constitution, which created a Constitutional Monarchy ruled by a unicameral legislature, the Constitutional Assembly, and the King. o The new constitution limited the kings power o Many different special interest groups came to power, including the Jacobins, a group of well-educated bourgeoisie who were prorevolutionaries. o Hunger and hardships still remained in most of the classes, and so the Assembly did little to nothing. o They decided that only active citizens could participate in government, which limited members to males, above a certain age, who paid a certain number of taxes.

o The new assembly tried to make the church a state institution, meaning they seized church lands, allowed for priests to be elected, and forced Priests sign an oath of allegiance to the government. o The Assembly still held the institution of slavery, because they believed that it boosted the economy. The king soon became fearful of the revolution, realizing that he had little power, and was a prisoner in Paris, so he fled France for the Austrian border, but was captured in Varennes and brought back to Paris as a traitor. o The king did this because he was forced to stay in Paris instead of Versailles, after women marched on the palace, and rioted for the government and royal family to live in Paris. o The kings power was limited to the point were he had restricted veto powers, and was forced to sign most bills. o Austria and Prussia agreed to the Declaration of Pillnitz, which promised to restore and protect the French monarchy. The Revolution: Radical Period (1793~1795) The September Massacre o After the French has suffered heavy losses to the Prussians, the Sans-Culottes, a radical group of poor revolutionaries, urged the executions of what they called counter revolutionists. o Sans-Culottes were poor radicals who rioted frequently against the government, and pressured the Assembly to take radical reforms. o The Massacre killed mostly priests and common criminals, yet the Sans-Culottes were inspired and confident that Paris was free from dissenters, so they quickly went to the front, where they defeated the Prussian army. After being brought back to Paris, the King was treated like a prisoner in Paris, because the people believed that he abandoned France. After a close vote, he was charged guilty, and executed. o Many nations were shocked at this, and fearing the chaos would spread to their nations, declared war on France. o France already had enemies with Austria and Prussia, who both the King and some revolutionaries wanted to go to war with, even though the French army was greatly disorganized. The Committee of Public Safety o Jacobins mainly ran this committee, with its head being Robespierre. o The committee with the help of the Law of Suspects, limited the rights of the citizens, and persecuted many different political groups in France. o Many people were tried and executed by the committee; this period in time is known as the Terror, where over sixteen thousand people were executed in July. o The committee instituted a draft, which vastly increased the armys size, and resulted in further French victories.

o The committee finally tried to de-Christianize France by introducing scientific measurements, laws, calendars, and cults. o An unintended consequence was that much of the poor class suffered, for the church that was in charge of charity, was no longer involved. The end of the Radical Period came, when Robespierre became increasingly paranoid, leading to mass executions, and power hungry, which lead to the Cult of the Supreme Being. o Robespierre was tried for treason and executed by his own peers. o A strong opposition to the Radical period formed, and a counter terror movement pushed for a new constitution, which would reorganize the government. Post-Radical Period (1795~1799) A bicameral legislate was formed, called the Directory after the fall of the Committee of Public Safety. o The Directory was comprised of an executive branch and a legislative branch. o There was a strong royalist opposition to this new government, which led to further political strife. o There were still some economic problems, and a large cap between the rich and poor. Soon a Jacobins began to retake power in the Directory, and so, an opposition lead by Napoleon and Sieyes overthrew the Directory, and formed the first Consulate. o Napoleon was an aspiring military general who had gained much fame from an outstanding amount of victories. o Napoleon took main control of the government, establishing an Empire. Napoleon enacted many reforms, which restricted Freedoms of Speech, and liberties granted by the Revolution. Essentially Napoleon ended the French revolution, but started the French Empire.