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Monday, April 8

Posted by 5th Amy on April 8, 2013 at 7:01pm

Cause of Revolution

  • There are four main causes of the French revolution

-Debt

-Taxation Issues

-Failure of Reform

-famine

Debt

  • The debt of the French government was around 8 to 12 billion livre (their currency)
  • Louis XVI spent a lot of money on very luxurious things, instead of being financially responsible
  • Also they still had war debts from the Seven Year’s War (with England) 1756-1763
  • Much of their debt was compiled because they weren’t exploring like their rival, England
  • France had not completely bought into Mercantilism either at this time like England had.

Taxation

  • France, at this time, was heavily involved in trading. (Good)
  • However to be a great trading country, you cannot have high tariffs. so you need to tax heavily on your people.
  • Masses of people of France, not too thrilled with this idea. Also nobles did not pay these taxes.

Failure of Reform

  • Some French “economics” stated that the nobles should be included in taxation
  • This plan backfired, as peasants had to pay even more than before
  • France continued to stick with their economic plan even though they were continuing to go deeper and deeper into debt.

Famine

  • Crop failure in the 1780’s didn’t help much either
  • Supply and demand occurs here with bread
  • Got to the point where peasants thought the crown had wished for them to die (conspiracy?)

 

Guillotine

  • The condemned person is secured at the bottom of the frame, with his or her neck held directly below the blade
  • However, it continued to be used long after the Revolution and remained France’s standard method of judicial execution until the abolition of capital punishment with the backing of President Francois Mitterrand in 1981. (a little more than 30 years ago)

Maria Antoinette

  • Born in Vienna, Austria
  • Married Louis the XVI
  • Became the Queen of France
  • Had two sons and two daughters
  • Very popular with the people at the beginning of her reign
  • At the end of her reign, very unpopular
  • Executed by the Guillotine

Napoleon

  • Military leader during the later stages of the Revolution
  • Became known as the Emperor of the French in 1804.
  • Known for
  • -Napoleonic Code
  • -Height
  • -Battle Tactics
  • Waterloo

 

French Revo: Continues

  • Fun Fact: During the French Revolution, George Washington became the first President of the U.S.A.
  • More beginnings:
    • Started in 1789 and lasted until 1799,
    • In 1700’s France and England were considered the most advanced countries in Europe and the world.
    • It had a large population and a great (good and bad) foreign trade.
    • However, much of the world did not know the extreme debt that France had occurred.

 

Old Regime

  • In the 1770’s the social and political system of France was called the Old Regime.
  • Under the Regime, there were 3 large social classes called estates.

First Estate

  • Made up of clergy of the Roman Catholic Church (priest, bishops, deacons, cardinals)
  • Had to pay 2 percent of their earnings to taxes
  • Owned 10 percent of the lands in France
  • Their jobs were to provide religion, education, and relief services to the poor.
  • Less than 1 percent of French population were in this estate.

Second Estate

  • This group was made up of rich nobles
  • They held the highest offices in the government in France
  • This estate paid 0 percent of income to taxes
  • Owned 20 percent of the lands in France
  • This estate had only 2 percent of the population of France.

Third Estate

  • Included everyone that wasn’t in the first two estates
  • Had no power to influence their government in France
  • Had to pay 50 percent of income/good to taxes
  • Resented the first two classes
  • Owned 70 percent of the lands in France and consisted of 97 percent of the population.

Enlightenment Ideals

  • Enlightenment is a complex with many influences, for this chapter we will focus on the influence from USA
  • The 3rd estate was becoming very tired of the Old Regime
  • They prompted the ideals of equality, liberty, and a democracy.

Weak Leader

  • Louis XVI (married to Marie Antoinette) was a very weak leader.
  • He was very indecisive and paid very little attention to his advisors
  • Marie didn’t help much either with constantly expression her opinion and the fact that she was from Austria
  • He finally wanted to tax the nobles, but they weren’t  happy there either so the Estates-General was called.

 

Estates General

  • An assembly of representatives from all three estates
  • Their goal was to approve the new tax
  • The meeting was held on May 5, 1789 in Versailles
  • It was the first time the assembly had met in 175 years.
  • In the past, the three estates would meet separately and there would only be 1 vote per estate.
  • This allowed for the first and the second estate to always beat the third
  • The king sided with the nobles again and they were outvoted.

 

Research – Individually one paragraph for Tennis Court Oath

1 paragraph for Storming of the Bostille. Due 11:59

 

Order of Events

  • July 14, 1789 Storming of the Bastille – see your research. Know that France lost their governor, secretary of state, and the “mayor” of Paris.
  • The Great Fear July 17,1789 – The peasantry revolt against feudalism and a number of urban disturbances and revolts. Many members of the aristocracy flee Paris to become emigres.
  • Emigrés – someone who has migrated out of an area voluntary….(Emigrant)é
  • August 26th 1789 –Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is adopted by the assembly. Is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human rights, defining the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the realm as universal.

Legislative Assembly

  • Late 1789
  • Emigrés are required to return back to Paris with the threat of death if they didn’t return.
  • King is still scared to return so he removes the idea that they have to come back
  • This allows for a new blood (3rd estate) to become part of the legislative assembly.

Women’s March on Versailles

  • Also known as The October March, The October Days, or simply The March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution.
  • The march began among women in the marketplace of Paris who, on the morning of October 5, 1789 were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of the bread.
  • The market women and their various allies rew into a mob of thousands and, encouraged by revolutionary agitators, they ransacked the city armory for weapons and marched to the Palace of Versailles.
  • The next day, the crowd compelled the king, his family, and most of the French Assembly to return with them to Paris.
  • These events effectively ended the independent authority of the king.

 

Research: August 10,1792 September Massacres (year was 1792)

Individually again.

One paragraph for each

Use same google doc

National Convention

  • Comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly of France and sat from September 20, 1792 to October 26, 1795.
  • It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic.
  • The republic ended in 1804 when Napoleon changed it to the First French Empire.

December 3 1792

  • Louis XVI is brought in front of the courts for trial
  • Robespierre, a leader in the French Revolution, utters the famous phrase that “Louis XVI must die so that the country can live.”

January 21, 1793

  • Citizen Louis Capet guillotined, formerly known as Louis XVI

June 24, 1793

  • Ratification of new constitution by national Convention, but not yet proclaimed. Slavery is abolished in France until 1802
  • 1802 is around the rise of power for Napoleon and he thinks that slavery is a good deal for France.

Reign of Terror

  • September 5 1793 – July 28 1794
  • Was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions
  • Mass executions of “enemies of the revolution”
  • The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands with 16,594 executed by guillotine (2,639 in Paris) and another 25,000 in summary executions across France. Summary execution- where there is no process, trial, or hearing and the accused is killed within a few hours. Methods consisted of guillotine, being pulled limb by limb by oxen, and decapitation by sword.

October 15, 1793

  • Queen Marie Antoinette is impeached and convicted for treachery against the country, and for incest with her child, the Dauphin and is condemned to be executed in the place de la Revolution.
  • The next day Marie Antoinette gets the guillotine.

Research what countries in Europe tried to defeat the French during the French Revolution?

 

1st Coalition

  • 1792-1797
  • Fought against revolting/revolutionizing France and many other European countries
  • Was the first major effort of multiple European monarchies to contain Revolutionary France.
  • France declared war on the Habsburg monarchy on Austria on April 20 1792, and the Kingdom of Prussia joined the Austrian side a few weeks later.

Countries involved: First coalition against France

  • Habsburg Monarchy
  • Holy Roman Empire
  • Prussia (until 1795)
  • Great Britain –set up monarchy in France and wanted to keep it.
  • French Royalists
  • Spain (until 1795)
  • Portugal
  • These countries liked the idea of a monarchy

Countries involved: Opposing side

  • French Republic
  • Spain (from 1796)
  • Batavian Republic (from 1795)
  • French satellite states
  • Polish Legions (from 1795)
  • These countries were against the monarchy.

 

First coalition

  • This war started off as France the aggressor, even though many people assumed differently.
  • At the beginning, France suffered some defeats by other countries and some issues with loyalist (internal issues)
  • Their response was to increase their size of their army
  • They made all man wages ages 18-25 “draftable” to fight in the war

France against coalition

  • However, the French were able to regroup and do much better fighting off the condition
  • A few countries quit fighting against France in 1795. (Prussia and Spain even switched sides, like USSR did in WWII.)
  • Finally in 1797, Great Britain was the only country still fighting against the France.
  • They quickly quit and France had prevailed.

Results of the war

  • French victory
  • Treaty of Campo Formio
  • Survival of the French Republic
  • French annexation of the Austrian Netherlands
  • Several French client republics established (sister countries)
  • Hostilities resume in 1798 with the formation of a second coalition against France.

Treaty of Campo Formio

  • With the Treaty of Campo Formio, the Holy Roman Empire ceded the Austrian Netherlands to France and Northern Italy was turned into several French “Sister Republics”

Research: write about second coalition against the French. Make sure you cover who is involved in the war, major battles, what occurred, results, why it started.

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