French Revolution 1

• French Revolution


  • Effective challenge to monarchial absolutism on behalf of popular sovereignty
  • Creation of a republican government in France
  • Diffusion of republican ideals in other European countries, incl. rights and duties of the citizens, the new role of the state, place of religion, nationalism
• French society


  • First Estate (Clergy)
  • Second Estate (Nobility)
  • Third Estate (Farmers & Bourgeoisie)
• First Estate (Clergy)


  • Less than 1% of the population but owned 10% of the land
  • Did not pay taxes; collected 10% tax from the people (harvest)
• Second Estate (Nobility)


  • 2% of the population and controlled the majority of the wealth
  • Exempt from paying taxes of any kind, and collected rent and customary dues from the peasantry
• Marry at age of 16 and 14, become rulers at age of 20 and 18


  Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette
• Third Estate (Farmers & Bourgeoisie)

  • Consisted of everyone not in the other two estates – farmers & bourgeoisie (middle-class) such as urban artisans
  • Bourgeoisie: Merchants, manufacturers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, and intellects
  • All had some wealth, but wealth did not mean pol. rights or privilege
  • The Peasantry: Consisted of approx. 21 million people and lived in utmost poverty
  • Collectively owned 30-40% of the available land, which was usually small plots. But most land was rented from the nobility
  • Paid taxes to the king, taxes to the church
• Revolution


  • A term used to describe an aggressive and sudden overthrow of a government, social or economic structure
  • Usually represents a complete turnaround from one way of doing things to another way
• Characteristics of a revolution

  • A dramatic shift in power where a society rejects and overthrows its government and institutions, along with ideas that have been used to justify them (e.g. absolutism, the churches)
  • Change in a revolution is total (not partial)
  • Violence is a common feature
  • Sometimes, property/wealth gets redistributed
• Major Causes of the French Revolution, 1789

  • Economics, 1780s, a financial crisis
  • Government spending (7 Years War? American War of Independence; ¾ of budget on army and paying debt)
• Meeting of the Estates General

  1. First meeting in nearly 200 years

  2. King Louis XVI assembled elected members of the three estates to discuss the problems

  3. Third estate objects because it is a 2:1 vote and because the vote goes in order (first 1st estate, then 2nd estate)

  4. No solutions (third estate proposes the other two to pay taxes, etc.)

  5. May 1789
• Tennis Court Oath


  1. In June, the third estates meets somewhere else and proclaims itself as the new government, called the National Assembly

  2. Idea: to end absolute monarchy and soon establish a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament

  3. Vote by head, not by status

  4. King's reaction?

  5. June 1789
• Abbe Sieyes
• Storming of the Bastille


  1. Inspired by the National Assembly and in fear of the king brining in soldiers to end the latest developments, commoners began to riot. Rising food prices, an additional factor.

  2. On July 14, 1789, angry citizens in support of the National Assembly stormed the Bastille in Paris where guns and gunpowder was stored. The people are arming themselves!

  3. Point: they show the king that he cannot get rid of the national assembly! The people (uneducated) support the revolution!
• Chaotic situation
• National Assembly


  1. On August 26, 1789, the National Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

  2. Nation is the sovereign; power rests with nation

  3. Everyone needs to adhere to rule of law

  4. Every person was a Frenchman and is born free and equal before the law

  5. All free men received the vote

  6. Focus on talent, skills, abilities

  7. French people embraced the document, while the king and some nobles did not.

  8. Eventually, the king is forced to sign it!

  9. Two years of constitutional monarchy follow.
• Reforms by the National Assembly

  • Abolish personal labor servitude owed to nobles
  • Renounced privileges of first and second estates
  • Guarantee of free worship and the abolition of the sale of offices
  • Abolition of seigneurial justice
  • Abolition of guilds (economic freedom!)
  • Civil marriage introduced; divorce allowed
  • Slavery abolished in France (soon in colonies as well!)
  • Church properties nationalized and auctioned
  • New relationship between subject and king forged; King of France becomes King of the French
  • Divine right of monarchy ends; monarchy constrained by other powers spelled out in a constitution, passed in 1791
  • Clergy needs to swear an oath to the state
  • Monarchical powers: e.g. steer foreign affairs, commander of army, but acts of war need approval by assembly
• French Revolution

  • Link to the Enlightenment: Starting point to observe and analyze things critically and then to come up with an explanation and solutions
  • Goal is to create better, peaceful, stable, prosperous life for everyone
  • Future-oriented; belief in progress