The French Revolution

2. The French Revolution The French Revolution and the beginning of a new United States of America both happened in 1789

3. The French Monarchy:1775 - 1793 King Louis XVI Queen Marie Antoinette

4. Europe on the Eve of Revolution

5. Key Terms • Nationalism- proud loyalty and devotion to a nation or it can be excessive or fanatical devotion to a nation and its interests, often associated with a belief that one country is superior to all others • Liberal-favoring reform, especially political reforms that extend democracy, distribute wealth more evenly, and protect the personal freedom of the individual • Bourgeoisie- middle class • Meritocracy: leadership chosen on the basis of abilities and achievements rather than birthright (such as the 2nd Estate, the nobility)

6. Class Division: Three Estates • France was divided into three classes, or estates • The First Estate: the clergy. The clergy were exempt from the taille, France’s chief tax. • The Second Estate, the nobility. They held many of the leading positions in the state. They did not pay ANY taxes. • The Third Estate, included everyone else from rich and educated bourgeois to poor illiterate peasants. About 98 percent of the population.

7. Causes of the French Revolution Cartoon Analysis

8. People Under the Old Regime • This image shows "the people" as a chained and blindfolded man being crushed under the weight of the rich, including both clergy and nobility. Such a perspective on the period before 1789 purposely exaggerates social divisions and would have found few proponents before the Revolution, but the image does reveal the social clash felt so intensely by the revolutionaries.

9. The Impact of the French Revolution • The French Revolution became the model for revolution in the modern world. • The power of nationalism was first experienced during the French Revolution and it is still powerful in existing nations and emerging nations today. • The French Revolution spread the principles of liberty and equality, which are held dear by many nations and individuals today. • The Metric System -the official system of measurement in all but three countries in the world (the US being on of the three).

10. Causes of the Revolution • Ideas of the Enlightenment • The Salon

11. Causes of the Revolution • Financial support of the American Revolution led to near collapse of the French government’s finances.

12. Causes of the Revolution • The French monarchy continued to spend lavishly on court luxuries. • The queen, Marie Antoinette, was especially known for her extravagance.

13. Causes of the Revolution • BREAD! • The French ate an average of two pounds of bread a day. • Poor harvests lead to high grain prices. • The people were hurting economically from a rise in prices higher than any increase in wages.

14. Causes of the Revolution The Third Estate carried the tax burden. Who owned the land? Who paid the taxes?

15. Estates General- June 1789 • Louis XVI needed money and was finally forced to call a meeting of the Estates-General, the French parliament, had not met since 1614, 175 years!

16. Estates General • Each order of French society had representatives in the Estates General • In order to fix France’s economic situation, most members of the Third Estate wanted to set up a constitutional government that would abolish the tax exemptions of the clergy and nobility.

17. Voting in the Estates General Clergy 1st Estate 1 Vote • VOTE BY ESTATE • Under the old system the single vote of the First Estate and the single vote of the Second Estate together could outvote the Third Estate. 1 Vote Nobility 2nd Estate 1 Vote Everyone Else 3rd Estate

18. Voting in the Estates General Clergy 1st Estate 291 members • VOTE BY HEAD • The Third Estate had many more members than the other two estates. • The change to each member having a vote would give the Third Estate much more say in matters. 270 members Nobility 2nd Estate Everyone Else 3rd Estate 578 members

19. Voting in the Estates General • The Third Estate favored a system of each member voting, but the king upheld the traditional voting method of one vote per estate. • The Third Estate reacted by calling itself a National Assembly and deciding to draft a constitution. • King Louis XVI locked them out of their meeting hall. • The Third Estate was joined by ‘liberal’ members of the other two Estates and moved to a nearby tennis court.

20. Tennis Court Oath • The Third Estate took an oath (promised) they would continue to meet until they had finished drafting a constitution. • This oath is known as the Tennis Court Oath.

21. The Tennis Court Oath at Versailles by Jacques–Louis David • This amazingly rich sketch by Jacques–Louis David is one of the most famous works from the French revolutionary era. The thrust of the bodies together and toward the center stand for unity. The spectators, including children at the top right, all join the spectators. Even the clergy, so vilified later, join in the scene. Only one person, possibly Marat, in the upper left–hand corner, turns his back on the celebration. David is commemorating a great moment of the Revolution on 20 June 1789, in which the deputies, mainly those of the Third Estate, now proclaiming that they represent the nation, stand together against a threatened dispersal.

22. Storming of the Bastille-July 14, 1789 • The Bastille-an armory and prison in Paris was a symbol of the tyrannical Bourbon monarchy • The commoners stormed and dismantled the Bastille looking for gunpowder and to free political prisoners • Only 7 prisoners were inside • This action became the flashpoint of the Revolution • The king’s authority collapsed.

23. Demolition of the Bastille • This watercolor painting illustrates the "demolition" of what the text refers to as the "horrible prison" of the Bastille. As workmen tear down the spires on the roof, ordinary people rip stones off the base. These stones soon became collectors’ items, souvenirs of the people’s role in the outbreak of the Revolution—and symbols of the way in which many more people wanted to commemorate the event than had participated in it.

24. Awakening of the Third Estate • With the Bastille being destroyed in the background, member of the Third Estate breaks his shackles. Here, the clergy and nobility recoil in fear, thereby emphasizing the conflict between the estates.

25. Symbols of The Revolution • The Tricolor Flag • The WHITE of the Bourbons • The RED & BLUE of Paris. Liberté, égalité, fraternité Or Death Phrygian cap with cockade

26. National Assembly • One of the National Assembly’s first acts was to destroy aristocratic privileges • August 26, 1789 the assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. • The declaration proclaimed freedom and equal rights for all men, access to public office based on talent (meritocracy), and an end to exemptions from taxation.

27. Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen26 August 1789 • Modeled in part by the American Declaration of Independence • Men are born free and remain free and equal in rights. • Rights to liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression. • The law is the expression of the general will • Every man presumed innocent until judged guilty

28. Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen • No one should be disturbed for his opinions, even in religion • Every citizen may speak, write, and print freely • Taxes levied according to ability to pay • The question arose whether “all citizens” included women. • At first Louis XVI refused to accept the laws of the National Assembly but was later forced to sign under duress.

29. Women’s March on Versailles5 October 1789 • Thousands of Parisian women armed with pitchforks, swords, muskets, marched to Versailles. • Why did they march? BREAD • The target of their anger was the Queen • “We want the baker and the baker's wife!"

30. End of the Monarchy • Louis XVI accepted the Constitution and the National Assembly this signified the end of the power of the monarchy in France. • The French Revolution was about to enter a more radical phase.

31. Jean-Paul Marat • One of the more important radical leaders was Jean-Paul Marat, who published the radical journal Friend of the People. • He argued that the poor had a right to take from the rich whatever they needed, even by violence. • Marat, was stabbed to death in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday • on July 13, 1793 at age 50.

32. The Death of Marat • This famous depiction of Marat’s assassination (1793) is by the unofficial (and sometimes official) artist of the French Revolution, Jacques–Louis David, a leading exponent of the neoclassical style. Scholars have seen this vision as a revolutionary pietà because of the repose of the corpse, so different from a normal body in a stage of rigor mortis. David also planned Marat’s funeral on behalf of the government.

33. Fate of the King • King Louis XVI was put on trial as a traitor of France and found guilty. • On January 21, 1793 he died by guillotine.

34. Marie Antoinette Executed October 16, 1793 • Marie Antoinette was tried, convicted of treason and executed by guillotine nine months after her husband. • She was only 37 Marie Antoinette on the way to the guillotine. Pen and ink by Jacques-Louis David

35. Committee of Public Safety • From 1793 to 1794, the Committee of Public Safety and the National Convention tried to defend France from foreign and domestic threats. • The Committee took steps to control France and bring order. • Enemies of the Revolution would be quickly tried and guillotined. • A man, and his family, might go to the guillotine for saying something critical of the revolutionary government, even neighbors would turn each other in.

36. Maximilien Robespierre • Robespierre was a lawyer and activist, so known for his honesty that he was called “The Incorruptible.” • He followed Rousseau’s ideas in The Social Contract, and he believed that anyone who would not submit to the general will as he interpreted it should be executed. • Robespierre was obsessed with ridding France of its domestic enemies.

37. The Reign of Terror • Robespierre was one of the chief architects of the Reign of Terror. • Lasted from September 1793-July 1794 • Some estimates say that 40,000 or more people were killed during The Terror.

38. The National Razor

39. Republic of Virtue • National Convention had a dechristianization policy • This order was built on reason. • The new order was called the Republic of Virtue-a democratic republic of good citizens. • The titles “citizen” and “citizeness” replaced “mister” and “madame.” • The word saint was removed from street names and churches were closed. • The cathedral of Notre Dame was rededicated as a “temple of reason.”

40. DeChristianization • A new calendar was adopted. Years were numbered from September 22, 1792, the first day of the French Republic, and not from Christ’s birth. • The calendar contained 12 months with each month having three weeks of 10 days, with the tenth day a day of rest. • This practice eliminated Sundays. • No days of worship or religious holidays.

41. Temple of Reason • Churches were renamed • Temples of Reason. • The motto of the Revolution: • Liberté, égalité, fraternité • were inscribed on them. • Churches were stripped of irreplaceable works of art.

42. The Festival of Supreme Being A new secular, non-religious, holiday

43. Republican Calendar • This poster shows the Republic’s new calendar under an image of Marianne, a symbol of the Republic as well as the ultimate expression of revolutionary liberation from the past. Shown without her pike, calmly reading a book with a cupid around, she is more the mother of this new system than a warrior for liberty, as in other prints.

44. Death of Robespierre • Many deputies of the National Convention feared Robespierre, and believed that the Terror had gone too far. • Robespierre was arrested and tried. • He was guillotined on • July 28, 1794 at age 36 • After Robespierre’s death, the Terror ended, and the more radical members lost power.

45. Execution of Robespierre

46. The Directory The government of France 1795 to 1799

47. The Directory - 1795 to 1799 • Five elected directors acted as the executive committee, or Directory of France. • The period of the Directory was one of government corruption. • The Directory faced political enemies from both royalists and radicals

48. The Directory • It could not solve the country’s economic problems, and it was fighting the wars begun by the Committee of Public Safety. • The Directory relied more and more on military might to stay in power. • In 1799 a coup d’état–a sudden overthrow of the government–led by the popular general Napoleon Bonaparte toppled the Directory. • Napoleon took power.

49. Bonus Material And who doesn’t love bonus material??

50. Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat • This color image portrays Marat stabbed to death in his bathtub by Corday. Marat’s housekeeper weeps over his death while Corday is led off to face justice for her crime.