Outline of events of the French Revolution

1. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Basic Timeline and Causes

2. CONTEXT
• Privilege the social system
• Financial trouble for the crown
• Support of American Revolution had caused strain
• ½ of annual budget to interest on national debt
• Suggestion to tax nobles unpopular
• Commoners paid the taxes
• Everyone wanted the king to listen to their grievances/side of the story
• The Enlightenment had created a literate populace with ideas about the social contract between
ruler and ruled
• Basically idea that the ruler owed the people something and the ruled owed the ruler something and that if
either broke the contract, they could be punished
Palace of Versailles

3. CONTEXT-THE GOVERNMENT
• Absolute monarchy—”L’etat c’est moi—I am the state”
• Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
• Austrian princess despite long-term hostilities with Austrians
(a recent Diplomatic Revolution led to the marriage)
• She was ridiculed for sexual impropriety (best way to smear a
female public figure)
• Called the “Austrian bitch”
• Accused of being a spy
• Later claims that she said “let them eat cake” in response to
the people having no bread show low public opinion of her
Marie
Antoinette
The farm
she had
built for
distraction
at
Versailles

4. CONTEXT-THE GOVERNMENT
• Louis XVI
• Legacy of absolute monarchy supported by
the Church
• Was not a terrible king, but was not a great
king and the time needed a great king

5. THE ESTATES GENERAL 1789
• Louis, desperate to resolve financial situation, calls Estates
General
• Sort of like English Parliament—representative body composed
of three estates—clergy, nobility, commons (1,2,3 estates
respectively)
• Hadn’t been called since 1614 so had some back issues to deal
with and there were questions of tradition
• 300 ppl in each estate, voted by estate (so three total votes on
any issue)
• This favored upper class as clergy often from the noble class
• 3rd estate (commoners) wanted vote by head and demanded more
reps to acknowledge they were bigger % of population
• Were given 600, so doubled, but issue of how they would vote left
open
Opening of Estates General in
Grand Salles de Menus Plaisirs @
Versailles–Helman and Monnet

6. ESTATES GENERAL GOES WRONG
• June 17, 1789 3rd Estate met with many clergy
members (1st estate) with intention to form a
Constitution Because their grievances weren’t
being heard
• June 20, 1789 the king’s guard locked them out of
the meeting hall and they went to the indoor
tennis court and took Tennis Court Oath, forming
the National Assembly, whose goal was to create a
constitution for France
David’s Tennis Court Oath
Drawing

7. REACTION
• King granted a limited constitution, too little,
too late
• Bread prices were rising, long bread lines,
hungry people
• People distrusted the royal family and felt
they were out of touch off in their palace
• Silly moves by the king (firing minister
responsible for getting bread to the city on
July 11), calling the army to Paris
• Led tostorming of the Bastille July 14, 1789 Anonymous—Taking of the Bastille

8. RESPONSE
• Nobles fled and became royalists
• Municipal governments across the country took charge
• In August the Great Fear spread across the country
• Aug 4 noblemen in the National Assembly renounced
privileges (urged by radicals)
• By the end of August adopted the Declaration of the Rights of
Man and the Citizen
• Influenced by Thomas Jefferson (in Paris) who worked with
Lafayette, who introduced it
• 1791 Olympe de Gouges wrote Declaration of the Rights of
Woman and the Female Citizen
• Was later beheaded for conduct unbefitting her sex during the Terror
• New constitution created active and passive citizens based on
wealth (active could vote)

9. AND THEN?
• Oct 5 1789 Women’s March to Versailles (bread shortages)
• King agreed to sign decrees of National Assembly and move his family to Paris
• Put under house arrest
• 1791 tried to flee, were caught and brought back in humiliation
• Constitution of 1791 barred National Assembly members from serving in new
Legislative Assembly (left moderates out and invited radicalization)

10. EUROPEAN REACTION
• Monarchs retreated from Enlightenment ideas back to absolutism
• Catherine the Great (Russia)
• King George III (England)
• Francis II (Austria)
• Frederick William II (Prussia)
• Some rebelled
• Poland (Koscuiszko)—resulted in division between Russia, Prussia, and
Austria
• Dutch—Batavian Republic formed
• Swiss—Helvetic Republic formed
• Irish—brutally suppressed and made part of Great Britain
• Intellectuals split
• Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France synonymous
with conservatism—change slow and rooted in tradition
Catherine the Great
George III

11. EUROPEAN REACTION II
• Declaration of Pillnitz, Aug 1791, by Austria and
Prussia—fate of Louis an object of interest
• April 1792 French invaded Austria—23 years of
war (huge folly)
• July 1792 Brunswick Manifesto, issued by
commander of Austrian and Prussian forces, said if
royal family unharmed, no harm to French people;
if royal family harmed, Paris would be burned to
the ground
• Incited the French people rather than securing the
royal family
Anonymous cartoon showing
French reaction to the
Brunswick Manifesto

12. THE SECOND REVOLUTION (1792)
• Radical Jacobins gain influence (idea of left and
right from the French Rev and where reps sat in
Legislative Assembly)
• War against Austria going poorly (wars cost money,
revolution began with financial problems)—
Brunswick Manifesto freaked everyone—all citizens
in Paris armed
• Aug 10, 1791 massacre of the Swiss Guards who
protected the king, radicals seized Paris and created
Paris Commune
• Imprisoned king and began purging moderates
• Created new governing body, National Convention
based on universal manhood suffrage
• Heroes like Lafayette in exile (moderates are gone)
Anonymous, Inside a Jacobin Club

13. RADICAL REVOLUTION
• By Sept 2, 1792 invading forces at Verdun, 200 miles east of Paris
• Revolutionary armies said need to “advance natural frontiers” and
spread cause of popular sovereignty to oppressed peoples of Europe
• Took Belgium and part of Germany near Rhine
• Declared war on England, Dutch Netherlands, and Spain
• Executing enemies of the Revolution at home
• Vigilante killing sprees in the prisons first week of September
• Sept 21, 1792 monarchy abolished and republic established
• Decided to try the king for acts of tyranny destroying the liberty of
the French people (33 charges)
Anonymous, “Examination of
Louis the Last”

14. EXECUTION OF THE KING
• More radical group than Jacobins,
Mountains, said no need to try the king—
he’d been tried by popular opinion
• Executed Louis XIV Jan 21, 1793
• Said “I die innocent. I pardon my enemies
and I hope that my blood will be useful to the
French”
Sieveking, Execution of Louis XVI

15. MOVE TO TERROR
• Committee of General Security looking for treason and subversion
across the country
• Those found guilty sent to guillotine
• April 1793 Committee of Public Safety formed
• Counterrevolution revolts across the country in reaction to too
radical revolution
• Vendée uprising—wanted return of the church (had been largely
secularized or put under govt. control)
• Committee responded by burning the countryside, killing
inhabitants
• Aug 23, 1793 permanent requisition of men for military service
• Universal mobilization
• New kind of warfare with massive losses
Berthault, Inside a Revolutionary
Committee during Reign of Terror

16. THE REIGN OF TERROR—SEPT 1793-JULY
1794
• Robespierre head of Committee of Public Safety—wanted
Republic of Virtue
• ½ million ppl arrested, 15,000+ guillotined
• Terror continued after crisis to keep Robespierre’s group in
power
• Oct 1793 Marie Antoinette, Olympe de Gouges executed
• 1794 Georges Danton, leader of the committee in mid 1793,
executed for indulgence towards enemies of the Revolution
and trying to moderate the Terror
• Part of expansion of Terror to quiet political discontent
• Went from 5/day in spring 1794 to 26/day by summer

17. THE REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE
• Symbolism key (very medieval idea)
• Statues of liberty everywhere
• Festivals to celebrate liberty
• Cults of Reason and the Supreme Being (Enlightenment
language)
• Red,white,blue the colors of France
• Liberte, equalite, fraternite
• Education by state for boys and girls (in theory)
• Equal inheritance for boys and girls
• Reason and equality would replace faith and privilege
• Revised the calendar, metric system of measurement

18. OPPOSITION TO THE TERROR
• Charlotte Corday assassinated Jean Paul Marat
• Vendée revolt fits here
Death of Marat, David
Caricature of Corday
Trial, Gillray (British)

19. WENT TOO FAR
• 1793 closed women’s clubs
• July 27, 1794 Robespierre
guillotined after calling for
new wave of purges
• Overall 40,000 killed by
Terror; 300,000 arrested

20. THE MODERATES ARE BACK—THE
DIRECTORY
• 1795 new constitution est. five directors The Directory
• Fear of dictatorial rule of Terror led to diluted power of
the directors ineffective
• Directory seen as weak and in 1799 undermined by Abbé
Sieyès, who engineered a crisis, called for resignation of
the directors. Sieyès and Napoleon were named head of
new temporary government
• Paved the way for Napoleon to take power
• Napoleon had made his name protecting the Directory in
1795
• Had since made his fame by “conquering” Italy, Austria,
Egypt
Sieyès by
David
Bouchot, 18
Brumaire Coup
d’etat