French Revolution

• The French flag shown was not the French flag until 1794
• The American Revolution is considered a pretty good thing, while the French Revolution is often seen as a bloody, anarchic mess
• The French Revolution exchanged an authoritarian regime for an authoritarian regime
• The ideas of the French Revolution changed human history far more than the American Revolution
• Ancien Régime


  The system of kings and nobles in France in the 18th century
• The Ancien Régime sucked for most French people because the nobles and clergy never paid taxes
• France was deeply in debt in 1789 due to funding the American Revolution
• King Louis XVI was spending half of his national budget to service the federal debt
• Hailstorms ruined a year's harvest, raising food prices and causing widespread hunger in France
• King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived in the Palace at Versailles
• Enlightenment thinkers like Kant were challenging the idea of religion
• The Estates General was a super parliament made up of representatives from the First Estate (nobles), Second Estate (clergy), and Third Estate (everyone else)
• The Third Estate representatives left the Estates General and became the National Assembly
• The Third Estate representatives swore the Tennis Court Oath, agreeing not to give up until a French constitution was established
• The Bastille Prison was stormed on July 14th, 1789
• On August 4th, the National Assembly abolished most of the Ancien Régime
• On August 26th, the National Assembly proclaimed the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen
• In October 1789, peasant women stormed the Palace of Versailles and demanded that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette move to Paris
• The National Assembly wanted to create a constitutional monarchy, while the Jacobins called for a republic
• The National Assembly killed 50 people in an attempt to reign in revolutionary fervor
• Leopold II, the Holy Roman Emperor and Marie Antoinette's brother, issued the Declaration of Pillnitz promising to restore the French monarchy
• The National Assembly voted to suspend the monarchy, have new elections, and create a new republican constitution
• King Louis XVI was found guilty and sentenced to death by guillotine
• The Terror saw the guillotining of 16,000 enemies of the revolution, including Marie Antoinette and Robespierre
• The Committee of Public Safety changed the measurements of time in France
• After the Terror, another new constitution was put into place giving more power to wealthy people
• Napoleon Bonaparte became the First Consul of France in 1799, establishing almost unlimited executive power
• When Napoleon became First Consul, he proclaimed "The revolution is established on the principals with which it began. It is over."
• After Napoleon fell, France restored the monarchy, with either a Bourbon or a Bonaparte as king
• The French Revolution was ultimately far more revolutionary than the American Revolution
• The French Revolution insisted on the universality of its ideals, with laws coming from citizens and applying equally to everyone
• Zhou Enlai: '"It's too soon to say" (on the effects of the French Revolution)'
• The French Revolution asked new questions about the nature of people's rights and the derivation of those rights
• In 1789, France - the strongest and most populous country on the continent - was in crisis
• Louis XVI


  Ruler of France in 1789
• Marie Antoinette


  Wife of Louis XVI, daughter of Maria Theresa of the Habsburg Empire, sister of Joseph II
• Marie Antoinette was a big spender who had trouble relating to the poor
• As bad harvests made the price of bread soar, more families couldn't afford to eat, or else were eating bread that was cut with up to 50% sawdust
• Brioche


  A different, fancier and more delicious kind of bread, not cake
• France as a whole was broke