The French Revolution

Students investigate:
● the historical context, including:
- the causes of the Revolution, including the influence of the Enlightenment
● the nature of the French Revolution, including:
- the impact of key ideas, including liberty, equality, fraternity, citizenship and inalienable
rights
- the storming of the Bastille and its impact
- the role of individuals and groups in the French Revolution, eg Louis XVI,
Marie-Antoinette, Robespierre, the bourgeoisie and peasants – the end of the ancien
régime, changes to the social structure and the revolutionary wars
- the counter-revolution and the ‘Reign of Terror’, the end of monarchy, democracy and
rise of the middle class
- the impact of the Revolution, the rise of Napoleon and the growth of nationalism and
secularism
- the broader influence of the French Revolution, eg the abolition of serfdom and
inherited privilege
● the nature and legacy of the French Revolution and its influence on modernity

Historical context:

Causes of the Revolution French society:

Absolute monarchy: The French King Louis XVI had absolute
power, which meant that he had the final say in all matters of
government.

Ancien Regime:
● First estate: clergy
Served the Roman Catholic church: nuns, priests, etc
0.5% of the population
● Second estate: nobility
Most commonly born into it
1% of the population
● Third estate: everyone else
A good 96% of the population

Tithe: compulsory tax paid to the Roman Catholic Church,

one-tenth of annual produce or earnings, paid in kind such as
agricultural products

Causes of the Revolution:

1) Age of Enlightenment
- Ideals of liberty, freedom, democracy and reason as
the primary values of society.
- Decline of the influence of the church & monarchy
 2) Ancien Regime
- Extreme class divide
- Taxation of the poor
3) Financial crisis
- 7 years war
- American Revolutionary War
- Food shortages
- Bad harvests
- Inflation → bread riots
- Taxation
4) Estates-General
- Calling in 1789
- Cahiers de doléances (list of grievances)
- Tennis court oath (20th June)
5) King Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette
- Lived in Versailles 20km outside of Paris → very
detached from realities of poverty
- Marie Antoinette reputation → couldn’t provide an
heir to the throne for a long time, spent money on
luxuries while her people were suffering

Events of the French ● Seven years war

Revolution ● American Revolutionary War
● 3 years bad harvest - 1787-89
● Estates General - 1789 May
● Tennis Court Oath + establishment of the national assembly
- 1789 June
● Jacques Necker dismissed - 1789 July
● Storming of the Bastille - 1789 July
● August decrees - 1789 August
- Brought forward after the great fear
- Ends system of estates - overthrows social hierarchy
in France under Ancien regime
- Tax exemptions
- Tithes abolished
- Equality in eyes of the law
- Feudal privileges including military and state
appointments
- Some aspects Feudal system including seigneurial
courts and serfdom abolished
- Not all elements of feudalism abolished - some
feudal dues and taxes remained
- Wanted fair trials in seigneurial courts
● Declaration of the rights of the man and citizen - 1789
September
- Developed to give every man rights to
representation, speech, property and fair trial
- Only thing close was the bill of rights (America),
however declaration of the rights of man and citizen
was applied to every man in France while the bill of
 rights only applied to white men. Still didn’t apply to
women
→ The king reluctantly accepts the august decrees and the declaration
of the rights of man and citizen
→ People within the assembly were growing increasingly suspicious
of the King’s acceptance of the new society
→ King still had favour among the people, however gets
progressively worse
● Women’s march on Versailles
- Demanding the king return to paris
- Calling for the head of marie antoinette
- Members of the crowd find an opening
- Lafayette convinces louis xvi to address the crowd
- The king is escorted to paris
- Parading heads of guards on pikes
● Flight to Varennes 1791
- lose all respect from people bc they tried to escape
the country and got caught
● Champ de mars massacre, 17 July 1791
- The king is reinstated as king after the flight to
Varennes
- Mass protests organised
- Lafayette addresses the crowd and then has them
fired upon when they did not disperse
- 60 casualties
- Marked the beginning of the loss of influence of
moderates and the increasing influence of the
radicals
● 1791 constitution, september
- Created the legislative assembly with elected
representatives
- Constitutional monarchy instated
- Provided fundamental rights to male citizens
including
- The right to assembly
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom of worship
- Proportionality of taxation according to
means
- Access to employment in state offices based
on merit and talent
- Equitable sentencing for all people in
society
- The rules for the king
- King given the power to veto
- The king would be forced to abdicate if
- He failed to take an oath of office
 - Commanded an army in a war
against the assembly
- If he left France and did not return
within 2 months of a request to
return
● War declared on Austria 20 April 1792
- Prussian and Austrian leaders called for intervention
in france to reinstate the monarchy
- As a result france declared war on Austria with
support from both revolutionaries and monarchists
- Emigre’s were ordered to return to France
● Attack on tuileries palace 20 june 1792
- The king’s veto crisis - the King vetoes attempts to
create to create a militia in paris and to deport
priests
- Mob invades the palace armed with pikes and
pitchforks
- The king refuses to change his veto
- The incident ended without bloodshed but by
August the mob was back
● Insurrection of 10 August, 1792
- Paris Commune was formed in Paris, a competing
power structure in the city
- Members of the Paris Commune (many of who were
san-culottes) launched an attack on the Tuileries
palace over the invasion of France by Prussia and
Austria
- Bloodshed resulted and hundreds killed on both
sides
- The Paris Commune pressured the legislative
assembly to remove the monarchy and to introduce
universal male suffrage
- A second revolution had begun
- Monarchy = ended
● September massacre
- With berdun about to be overrun the san-culottes
invaded the main prison in paris
- Summary trials were conducted
- 1300 prisoners were slaughtered
- Marie Thérèse Louise of savoy, princesse de
Lamballe - one of 2 women killed in september
massacres
● Execution of Louis XVI
● Execution of Marie Antoinette
● The cult/festival of the supreme being
- Arguably biggest legacy of french revolution
- Got rid of religion in france mostly
- Favoured reason instead of religion
 - Robespierre argued that france needed religion to
unite - cult of supreme being
● Reign of terror 1793-94
- Anyone deemed anti-revolutionary by their speech,
association or actions could be arrested under the
law of suspects!!!
- More likely than not they were condemned to death
with guillotine with fair trial - summary executions
- Tens of thousands fell victim to the national razor
● Execution of Maximilien Robespierre
- Robespierre sought the execution of two central
figures in the government
- Herbert executed 24 march 1794 - for wanting to
decentralise the government
- Danton was executed 5 april 1794 - for growing
moderation
- Made himself the central figure at the festival of the
cult of the supreme being - whispers of him losing
his mind began
- Robespierre dame into dispute with the convention
- Robespierre delivered speech to convention accusing
unnamed deputies of plot
- With the threat of the guillotine robespierre is
accused of dictatorship and shouted down during
the speech
- Deputies voted in favour of his arrest

● Thermidorian reaction
- Robespierre death sparked a wave of responses
against the terror and radical revolution
- Power was removed from the committee of public
safety
- Social and economic policies were removed
including removal of price controls leading to
inflation of bread prices - by 1795 prices were 750%
of 1790 prices
- Sans-culottes lost influence and would be dispersed
by the national guard and the declaration of martial
law in paris
- The death of louis xvi dashed hopes of a restoration
of the monarchy in the short term
● The gilded youth and the white terror
- Gilded youth - sons of wealthy, recently released
prisoners and petty bure
- Wore expensive clothing and fancy hairstyles
- They were the antithesis of the sans culottes
- Patrolled streets, dispersed meetings by
revolutionaries and took revenge on those
responsible for the terror
 - Intimidated people on the streets e.g. they would
force people to join in dances on the streets
● Rise of napoleon bonaparte
- After a series of successes in austria and egypt
napoleon rose to commander of the armies
- The directory lead france to bankruptcy
- Napoleon took france in a military coup
- He became first consul form 1799-1804
- In 1804 he became the emperor of france until his
battle of waterloo against the british in 1815
- 19th century hitler
● Bourbon restoration
- 1815 - the french monarchy is restored
- Louis XVIII took the throne - louis vxi younger
brother

Government evolution ● Absolute monarchy

● The national assembly
● The national constituent assembly
● The legislative assembly
● The national convention
● The directory