French Society & Kings Louis XIV and XVI

• French society was divided into three Estates.

• The First Estate consisted of clergy/church officials and made up 1% of the population. They paid no taxes

• The Second Estate consisted of nobility/land owners and made up 1% of the population. They paid no taxes

• The Third Estate consisted of commoners like merchants, peasants, serfs, and the bourgeoisie and made up 98% of the population

• The Third Estate paid all the taxes

King Louis XIV (14th)

• He became known as The Sun King due to France's prosperity under his rule.
• He built the Palace of Versailles.
• He was an Absolute Monarch, exemplifying ABSOLUTISM.
• He believed in the Divine Right of Kings, asserting that his power came directly from God.
• He seprated the people from the king, and the Palace was an exessive representation of the monarchy, funded through high taxation of the Third Estate

King Louis XVI (16th)

• King during the French Revolution.
• He married Marie Antoinette.
• During the revolution, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were eventually executed by guillotine for treason.

Estates-General

• The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Estates met to discuss France's problems.
• The Third Estate faced many problems, including paying heavy taxes, poverty, starvation due to limited and expensive bread, and a lack of political power due to the 1st and 2nd Estates always voting together.
• Each estate has 1 vote, therefore the second and first estates always voted together, out voting the third.

National Assembly

• Members of the Third Estate were angry and formed the National Assembly.
• They swore the Tennis Court Oath, vowing not to disband until they created a constitution.

Storming the Bastille

• The Bastille was the king's prison and where weapons are stored.
• The 3rd estate wanted weapons, so they took them from the prison and killed the guards.
• The event symbolizes the start of the revolution and was a victory for the 3rd Estate.
• "Equality, liberty, and brotherhood" was the slogan of the Revolution.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

• The National Assembly wrote a document with a focus on equality, liberty, brotherhood, rights to property, rights to a fair trial, freedom, and fair taxation (everyone pays taxes):
  • Similar to the American Declaration

Women's March

• Women marched on the Palace of Versailles because they were starving due to high bread prices.
• They wanted to kill Marie Antoinette because her representations of the monarchies spending caused high bread prices, and overall corruption
• They forced the royal family to move back to Paris.

Constitution of 1791

• The National Assembly created the constitution. This saw the end of revolutionary success:
  • The monarchy was kept for now.
  • Legislative assembly was added, meaning the people now had a voice in government, very different from absolutism/monarchy from before.
  • Fulfills the Tennis Court Oath.

National Convention

• The National Assembly reforms to become the National Convention.
• Maximillian Robespierre led the body and was a radical who wanted to kill anyone who might have liked the king and queen.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette Executed

• Louis and Marie tried to flee away from France, but the people of France saw this as ultimate betrayal.
• People thought they were trying to get help from other countries to invade France and re-establish the monarchy.
• Louis and Marie were executed by guillotine in 1793, signifying the end of the monarchy.

Reign of Terror

• Maximillian Robespierre created the "Committee of Public Safety," which was a group of people who would kill anyone who might have liked the king or queen or wanted to establish a monarchy again.
• 40,000 people were executed by the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror.
• Everyone was afraid to be accused and killed.
• Maximillian Robespierre was eventually executed, which ended the Reign of Terror.
• Roughly 40,000 people were executed by the Committee of Public Safety as they were accused of not supporting the revolution

Napoleon Bonaparte

• A military general declared himself emperor of France.
• He made good changes for France:
  • Created the Bank of France.
  • He balanced France's budget (no longer in debt).
  • Implemented the Napoleonic Code, which put all the laws together in one clear list of laws.

Causes of French Revolution

• The origins of the French Revolution lay in a financial crisis due to wars between 1740 and 1783, especially French involvement in the American War of Independence (1778-83),.
  • This increased the national debt.
• Frivolous spending by monarchs in the construction of the Palace of Versailles and excessive deficit spending also contributed.
• Deficit Spending was brought on due to unneccessary expenditures by the Monarchs
• The 1st and 2nd Estates (clergy and nobility) resisted attempts to be taxed and demanded the calling of a representative assembly, the Estates-General.
• The Estates-General hadn't been called for over a century because French kings didn't want to be challenged by the nobility.
• 1788 brought France to the verge of bankruptcy.
  • Bread riots were spreading, and nobles, fearful of taxes, denounced royal tyranny.

Estates-General summoned

• Louis XVI summoned the group to meet at Versailles.
• Each of the three estates was supposed to prepare cahiers, lists of formal grievances.
• In September 1788, the 1st and 2nd Estate (3% of the population) would be able to outvote the Third Estate (97% of the population) in the Estates-General.
• Bourgeois leaders of the Third Estate struggled against the French government system. They sought equality through destroying the privileges of the Church and the nobility, setting up merit-based promotion to high office, equal taxation, and equal application of the law.
• The poorer members of the Third Estate wanted an end to the Corvée, and the expectation that commoners could be forced to engage in unpaid labor for the state.

Influences

• The ideas of the American Revolution and the writings of philosophers inspired the ideas of equality.
• The French Revolution was a struggle for equal rights.
• Fed up with the Estates General injustice, the Third Estate formed the National Assembly to legitimately represent the French population.
• The National Assembly was locked out for the meeting of the Estates General.
• The group moved their meeting to a nearby tennis court and swore to draft and pass a new constitution in the Tennis Court Oath.
• In July 1789 the Crown prepared to use force to dissolve the Estates-General and National Assembly but were prevented by the "sans-culottes", the poorly dressed artisans and workers of Paris
• In response, the sans-culottes attacked the Bastille on 14 July, 1789. -This saved the Assembly and ensured the success of the Revolution, and the King lost control of Paris, the towns, and the countryside (The Great Fear, 20 July-6 August 1789).

Declaration of Rights of Man

• The National Assembly issued The Declaration of the Rights of Man in late August 1789.
• Influenced by the American Declaration of Independence, it asserted that all "men were born free and equal in rights.".
• The King King initially refused to accept the declaration
• The Women's March on Versailles forced Louis XVI and the rest of the royal family to return to Paris due to bread prices rose and people starved
• Many members of the Third Estate saw the king's wife, Marie Antoinette as the symbol of the monarchy's frivolous and extravagant nature, this spread a "let them eat cake" scandal
• Once back in Paris, Louis XVI was forced to sign the Declaration of Rights of Man in 1791.

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

• The National Assembly worked to solve the financial crisis of France, voting to take over and sell Church lands to pay off the government's debt.
• The Issued Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790 which - Declared that bishops and priests would become salaried elected officials,and Papal authority was ended in France
• Catholics in and out of France began to support the French counter revolution

War

• The National Assembly completed the task of the Tennis Court Oath and declared the Constitution of 1791 which established a constitutional monarchy in France, that would subject the kind's executive power to approval
• Afraid of the monarchy and revolution in Europe, Austria and Prussia issued the Declaration of Pilnitz. This threatened military action to support the French monarchy which led to the French declaring war on Austria, Prussia, and Britain. These wars began in 1792 and lasted on and off until 1815
• The National Convention replaced the Legislative Assembly and abolished the monarchy, declaring France a republic in September of 1792.

Timeline summary:

• 1682 - Louis XIV moves the palace to Versailles
• 1778-1783 - French involvement in American Revolution provides the ideals of revolution
• 1788 - Poor harvest leads to poverty and starvation
• Increase to taxes on 3rd estate forces Louis XVI to call estates general.
• May 5, 1789 - Estates General meets
• June 17, 1789 - 3rd estate forms National Assembly
• June 20, 1789 - Tennis court oath
• July 14, 1789 - Storming of the Bastille
• July 20-August 6 - Great Fear
• August 27 - Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen
• October 5 - Women's March
• 1790 - Civil Constitution of the Clergy redistributes the wealth of the church
• 1791 - Royal family flees France. They are arrested, signifying the end of the monarchy.
• August 27 1791 - Declaration of Pillinitz
• April 1792-1815 - France at war with Austria, Prussia, Russia, Britain, others
• September 1792 - Formation of National Convention led by Robespierre
• September 2-7 1792 - September Massacres of royalists
• January 1793 - Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette Executed
• April 1793 - Committee of Public Safety formed
• September 1793-July 1794 - Reign of Terror
• July 1794 - Robspierre Executed, and ends the radical phase
• 1795 - Constitution of 1795
• 1799 - Napoleon takes control