FRENCH REVOLUTION

The French Revolution was a period of

major social upheaval that began in 1787
and ended in 1799. It sought to completely
change the relationship between the rulers
and those they governed and to redefine
the nature of political power. It proceeded
in a back-and-forth process between
revolutionary and reactionary forces.
 CAUSES OF FRENCH REVOLUTION
Political Cause
 During the eighteen the Century France was the centre of autocratic monarchy. The

French Monarchs had unlimited power and they declared themselves as the

“Representative of God”.
 Louis XIV was the exponent of this view. The French Monarchs engaged themselves in

luxurious and extravagance at the royal court of Versailles. They enjoyed unlimited

power. By the Letter de Catchet, they arrested any person at any time and imprisoned

them. They paid no attention towards their subjects.

 Louis XV fought the Seven Years War against England which brought nothing for France.

France became bankrupt due to over expenditure in wars and luxury.

 Social Cause
 French Society was divided into three classes— the
Clergy, Nobles and Common People.
 The first two classes did not pay any tax to the
monarch.
  The higher clergy lived in the midst of scandalous
luxury and extravagance. On the other hand, the lower
clergy served the people in true sense of the term and
they lived a very miserable life.
 The Third Estate formed a heterogeneous class. The
farmers, cobblers, sweepers and other lower classes
belonged to this class. The condition of the farmers was
very miserable.
 Meeting of the Estates General

 In 1789, in a desperate attempt to address France’s

economic crisis, Louis XVI assembled the Estates-
General, a national assembly that represented the
three “estates” of the French people–the nobles,
the clergy, and the commons.
 The Estates-General had not been assembled since
1614
 The Third Estate, which had the most
representatives, declared itself the National
Assembly and took an oath to force a new
constitution on the king
 STORMING OF BASTILE
 Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops
storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal
fortress and prison that had come to symbolize
the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This
dramatic action signaled the beginning of the 
French Revolution, a decade of political turmoil
and terror in which King Louis XVI was
overthrown and tens of thousands of people,
including the king and his wife 
Marie Antoinette, were executed.
EFFECTS OF FRENCH REVOLUTION
 Revolutionary France then proceeded to go through
many different governments, many of which were
despotic and dictatorial. After the revolution and the
Napoleonic wars.
 Feudalism was destroyed
 All privileged classes were abolished.
 Capitalism became the new economic system.
 Slavery was abolished in all French colonies.
 In 1792, all non-propertied classes (workers, peasants,
artisans) were given equal political rights.
 Social equality and Socialism became popular ideas.