4. What were the causes of the
French Revolution?
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5. Causes of the French Revolution
The Enlightenment
Ideas:
Liberty
Equality
Reason
Progress
Philosophes:
Locke defended private property, limited sovereignty and fair
government
Voltaire attacked noble privileges and the Church’s authority
6. Causes (continued)
The American Revolution,
1775-1783:
showed the ideas of
Enlightenment in action
French soldiers (i.e.
Lafayette) who helped
came home inspired
Put Louis XVI in deep
debt
7. Causes (continued)
French Economy was failing
National debt: four billion
livres
50 percent of
government’s income
went to interest on debt
no central bank or paper
currency
Inefficient and uneven
taxation system (varied by
region and estate)
8. Causes (continued)
Feudal system
Estate System outdated
posed many difficulties to
rising middle class of Third
Estate
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Less well-off commoners
resented the inequality of the
three estates
9. Causes (continued)
Louis XVI
Good intentions
‘Enlightened’
Weak-willed
Indecisive
Marie-Antoinette allowed “to
dispense patronage amongst
friends”
11. Causes (continued)
Harvest failures in
1787-1788:
less food
higher prices
businesses failed
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12. Periodization of the French
Revolution
Moderate stage: 1789–1792
Radical stage: 1792–1794
The Directory: 1794–1799
Napoleon: 1799–1815
13. Outbreak of the Revolution
THE SPARK: Fiscal crisis forced Louis XVI to
call the Estates-General, summer, 1788 (first
time since 1614)
The three estates elected delegates:
First Estate represented about 100,000 clergymen
Second Estate represented about 400,000 noble men and
women
Third Estate represented about 24.5 million people
14. Outbreak (contd.)
Main disagreement: representation
Should the estates vote by estate or by
individual?
Third Estate argued that all delegates
should sit together and vote as individuals
Third Estate demanded as many delegates
as the First and Second Estates combined:
“Doubling the Third”
Louis opposed, then changed his
position
15. Who were the Third Estate
delegates?
Represented the
outlook of the elite
25 percent lawyers
43 percent
government officials
Strong sense of
common grievance
and common purpose
(cahiers de
doleances)
16. Outbreak (contd.)
May 5, 1789: Estates General
convened at Versailles
June 17, 1789: the delegates of
the Third Estate declared
themselves to be the National
Assembly
17. the Oath of the Tennis Court
(June 20, 1789)
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18. Outbreak (Contd.)
Public attention to the events in
Paris was high
Price of bread soared
Rumors circulated that Louis was
about to stage a coup d’état
Parisian workers (sans-culottes)
organized a militia of volunteers
19. Outbreak (Contd.)
July
14, 1789: the
Storming of the Bastille
Bastille was symbol of royal
authority
Its fall symbolized of the people’s
role in revolutionary change
20. The Storming the Bastille
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21. Outbreak (Contd.)
The Great Fear
Rumors that the king’s armies were
on their way
Peasants attacked and burned
manor houses
Destroyed manor records
22. The Great Fear
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23. Response
August 4, 1789: National Assembly voted to
abolish all noble and other privileges
Church tithe
the corvée
hunting privileges
tax exemptions and monopolies
Obliterated the remnants of feudalism
24. Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
Citizen (August 26, 1789; issued in Sept.)
25. The National Assembly and the
liberal revolution
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
and Citizen
Declared natural rights
Private property
Liberty, security, and resistance to
oppression
Declared freedom of speech, religious
toleration, and liberty of the press to be
inviolable
Equality before the law
26. The masses take the
initiative: October Days
Brought on by economic crisis
Parisian women marched to
Versailles (October 5) and
demanded to be heard
28. The masses take the
initiative: October Days
Women demanded Louis and his
family return to Paris
Women with the help of the
National Guard forced Louis
(and the National Assembly) to
move to Paris
29. Women and the revolution
o General participation in the
Revolution
o Took leading roles in mass actions
o Joined clubs, demonstrations, and debates
o Women as citizens
o Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of
the Rights of Women and the
Citizen (1791)
o Women should have the same rights as men
30. Religion and the revolution
The most divisive issue
National Assembly confiscated church
property (November 1789)
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790)
Bishops and clergy subject to the laws of
the state
Salaries to be paid from public treasury
Church reforms polarized France
Many resented the privileged position of
the church
Parish church an institution of great local
importance