- Causes of the French Revolution:
- Ideas, assumptions, beliefs, philosophies of the
18th C.
- The American revolution
- Recent events in France
1. Class differences.
2. Louis 16th (weasel)
3. Disputes among the three estates à meeting of the first Estates General since 1614.
a. Why? Taxes!
b. Tennis Court Oath
- Long term problems in France:
1. France is different than Europe
in terms of economy, administration and social systems.
2. Agrarian emphasis, dependence on economically unstable
population for food.
- Start of the Revolution 1789
- Rumors.
- Poverty, lack of food
- Image of Versailles
- July 14,
1789: Bastille day
- August 1789 E.G. finalizes Declaration of the
Rights of Man
- October 1789 royal family
taken prisoner.
1. Problems with Marie Antoinette: Major Scandal over
diamond necklace
à Jeanne de la Motte, Louis de Rohan
2. Impact of public opinion and the press.
- Jacobins, Reign of Terror, Robespierre
- The Terror/Republic of Virtue: 1791-94
- 1791 National Assembly issues Constitution
- 1791 Revolutionary Govt
declares war on the rest of Europe
- Changes under the Committee for Public Safety
- 1793 (21 January) Louis 16 executed
- 1793-94, 40,000 executed: 8% nobility, 14%
middle classes, 6% clergy, 72% lower
- Things spiral out of control.
- 1794, Robespierre plots against both right and
the left, executing sans-culottes leaders.
- Thermidorian Reaction:
- 28 July
1794, Robespierre
executed by members of the Convention.
- Convention restructures the gov't,
backlash against Jacobins
- Severs ties with sans-culottes.
- But civil unrest continues as another food
shortage hits.
- One of those who settles
the crowds: Napoleon Boneparte.
- Settlement of wars with Europe includes Treaty of Basel in 1795.
- Keep an eye on Napoleon.