The French

Revolution
Rahul
RahulBaskey
Baskey
Roll
RollNo.
No. 21
21
Class
Class 9A
9A
 Absolutism
• Absolute monarchs
didn’t share power with
a counsel or parliament
• “Divine Right of Kings”

King James I of England

 The Seigneurial System
• Feudal method of land
ownership and
organization
• Peasant labor

Receiving a seigneurial grant

 Louis XIV
• Ruled from 1643–
1715
• Reduced the power
of the nobility
• Fought four wars
• Greatly increased
France’s national
debt
 The Seven Years’ War
Louis XV French
and
English
troops
fight at the
battle of
Fort St.
Philip on
the island
of Minorca

• Louis XV
• War fought in Europe, India, North America
• France ends up losing some of its colonial possessions
• Increases French national debt
 The Three Estates

• First Estate: clergy

• Second Estate:
nobility
• Third Estate: the rest
of society
• The Estates General

Cartoon depicting the three Estates

The Third Estate
• Taxation
• Crop
failures
 The Enlightenment

• New ideas
• about society and
government
• The social
contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
John Locke
 The American Revolution
• France supported the
colonists against Great
Britain
• Revolutionary ideals

Marquis de Lafayette
 Financial Crisis
• Jacques Necker
• Tax on property
• Calling of the Estates
General

Finance Minister Jacques Necker

 The Estates General
One vote per estate
Clergy and nobility
usually joined
together to outvote
the Third Estate
Met in Versailles in
May 1789
Voting controversy

A meeting of the Estates General

The National Assembly
• The Third Estate
took action and
established its own
government
• On June 17, 1789,
the National
Assembly was
formed
 Confrontation With the
King
• Louis XVI
ordered the
Third Estate
locked out of the
National
Assembly’s
meeting hall
• The Tennis
Court Oath
• The king
reverses his
position

Artist Jacques Louis David’s depiction of the Tennis Court

Oath
Storming of the Bastille
• Rioting in Paris
in early July
• Firing of Necker
• July 14th: a
mob storms and
takes the
Bastille
 The Great Fear
• Rebellion
spreads
• Peasants
destroy the
countryside
• End of feudal
privileges
 The Declaration of the
Rights of Man and Citizen
• Adopted by National
Assembly on August 27th
• Enlightenment ideals
• Outlined basic freedoms
held by all
• Asserted the sovereignty of
the people
• “Liberté, Egalité,
Fraternité”
 The March of Women
• Lower classes
still unsatisfied
• Thousands of
starving women
and peasants
march on
Versailles
• Louis forced to
return to Paris
 Civil Constitution of the
Clergy
• Financial crisis
• National
Assembly
confiscates and
sells off church
lands
• Church also
secularized,
reorganized
• Clergy oath of
Cartoon depicting the confiscation of Church lands
loyalty
 Flight of the King
• Émigrés
• Louis XVI and his
family attempted to
flee France
• They were arrested
at Varennes

The capture of Louis XVI at Varennes

 Reaction from Other
Countries
• Declaration of
Pillnitz
• Possible
foreign
Illustration
intervention
depicting
Prussian King
Frederick
William III,
Austrian
Emperor
Leopold II, and
the Comte
d’Artois, Louis
XVI’s brother
 New Constitution
• Constitutional
monarchy
• New Legislative
Assembly
• Sans-culottes

Painting depicting the 1791 constitution

War With Austria
• France
declares
war
• War of the
First
Coalition
• Levee en masse

Painting of the Battle of Valmy, 1792

The Radicals Take Over
• Paris mob
stormed
Tuileries
• Louis and
family seek
aid of
Legislative
Assembly
• Arrested
and
Paris crowds storm the Tuileries
deposed
 The National Convention
• First met on
September 21, 1792
• Revolutionary
Calendar
• Monarchy abolished;
France officially
becomes a republic
• Factions: Jacobins
vs. Girondins

A Jacobin club
 Leaders in the
National Convention
Georges Danton

Jean-Paul Marat
Robespierre
• Lawyer
• Radical Jacobin
• Most controversial figure of
the French Revolution
 The Guillotine
• Dr. Joseph Guillotin
• Intended as a more
humane method of
execution
• Thousands guillotined
during the French
Revolution
Execution of the King
• On January 17,
1793, Louis XVI
was convicted of
treason
• He went to the
guillotine four
days later on
January 21, 1793
 The Committee of Public
Safety
• Created to
cease an
internal
rebellion in
1793
• Given
dictatorial
power
• Ruled France
for nearly a A citizen petitions the Committee of Public Safety
year
The Reign of Terror
• July 1793–
July 1794
• Executions
• Death of
Robespierre

The execution of Marie Antoinette

 The Thermidorean
Reaction
• Robespierre overthrown
on 9 Thermidor
• Committee of Public
Safety dismantled
• Jacobin clubs disbanded
• New constitution adopted
in August 1795
• Executive branch known
as the Directory

9 Thermidor meeting of the National Convention

 The Directory
• Promoted middle
class interests
• Financial crisis
• Food shortages
• Riots in Paris
• Rise of Napoleon
Cartoon
depicting the
errors and
bad judgment
of the
Directory
 Napoleon Bonaparte
• Popularity rises after
victories over the Austrians
• Conflict with Britain
• 1799 Coup d’etat
• The Consulate
Napoleon Becomes
Emperor
1804: Napoleon crowns
himself emperor
 Legacies of the
French Revolution

• End of absolutism
• Power of nobles ended
• Peasants became
landowners
• Nationalism
• Enlightenment ideals
Thank You
By- Rahul Baskey 9A