Enlightenment and French Revolution

1
The French Revolution
2
Key Concept

• How did the Enlightenment evolve and affect
  society and government?
• The scientific revolution shattered long-held
  views about the universe.
• This encouraged Enlightenment thinkers to
  question society and government
• Locke (contract between government and governed)
• Montesquieu (checks and balances)
• Rousseau (individual freedom and civilization
  corrupts)
• Voltaire (freedom of thought and expression)
• Their beliefs in the natural rights of man
  inspired the American and French Revolutions.
• These ideas were RADICAL!

3
Key Concept

• Scientific
• revolution

New thinking encouraged
New thinking leads to revolutions in America and
France
4
Ingredients for Revolution

• 1688 Glorious/Bloodless Revolution in England
  removes James II
• William and Mary take over
• No more Catholic kings or queens
• No more absolute monarchy
• Parliament
• Bill of Rights
• Enlightenment ideas
• American Revolution (1776) and Constitution
  (1789)
• The Estates in France
• 1st Estate clergy wealthy/no taxes
  privileged
• 2nd Estate nobles wealthy/few taxes
  privileged
• 3rd Estate everybody else
• Bourgeoisie/middle class some wealth high
  taxes some rights
• Bankers
• Merchants
• Professionals
• Business owners
• Farmers and peasants

5
Ingredients for Revolution

• Monarchy Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
• Put country in debt
• Supporting American Revolution
• Personal luxuries
• Louis XVI
• Weak leader
• Couldnt control countrys spending
• Couldnt control wifes spending
• Needed more money taxes on the 2nd Estate
• 1789 2nd Estate forces Louis to call a meeting
  of Estates-General
• First such meeting in 175 years
• First two estates could out vote the 3rd
  Estate, even though the 3rd Estate had
  more people.
• Louis sides with 1st and 2nd Estates

6
The Fuse Is Lit!

• Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes gets 3rd Estate to declare
  themselves the National Assembly and become
  government of France
• National Assembly locked out of their meeting
  room by king
• Tennis Court Oath National Assembly breaks down
  door to tennis court and vows to stay until a
  constitution is created
• Some nobles and clergy join

7
The Revolution Goes Off!

• Rumors
• King to use military against National Assembly
• King to send troops to Paris to massacre French
  citizens
• Citizens arm themselves with whatever they can
• July 14, 1789 The Bastille prison is stormed by
  a mob looking for weapons
• Release prisoners
• Take some guards hostage and killed others

8
The Great Fear Spreads

• Rumor
• Nobles hiring outlaws to attack peasants
• Citizens break into houses of nobles
• Destroy legal papers (cant owe
  king or lord what cant
  be
  proved)
• Kill nobles
• Burn houses

9
The Great Fear Spreads

• October 1789 Women riot at
  Versailles over cost of bread
• Demands
• National Assembly provide bread
• King and queen return to Paris
• August 1789 Great Fear spreads to
  clergy and
  nobles, more of whom now
  (out of fear) support National
  Assembly
• National Assembly ends Estate
  system
• Commoners/peasants now equal to
  clergy and nobles

10
Statement of Revolutionary Ideals

• August 1789 National Assembly adopts Declaration
  of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
• Influenced by Enlightenment U.S. Declaration of
  Independence
• Men are born and remain
  free and equal in rights.
• Rights included
• Liberty
• Property
• Security
• Resistance to oppression
• Equal justice
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of religion
• Revolutionary leaders adopt
  Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
  as motto
  (fraternity brotherhood)

11
State-Controlled Church

• National Assembly goes after
  Catholic Church
• Takes lands
• Sale of church lands
  helps pay off French debt
• Declares clergy will be
  elected and paid as state
  officials
• French peasants (mostly
  Catholics) take offense
• Creates division in
  revolution

12
Royals Arrested

• June 1791 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette try to
  sneak out of country
• Arrested near Austrian border
• Attempted escape made revolutionaries even
  angrier at royalty

13
Divisions Develop

• 1791 National Assembly creates a new
  constitution
• Creates a limited constitutional monarchy
• Strips king of most authority
• Creates a Legislative Assembly
• King Louis XVI agrees (no choice!)
• Old problems still exist
• Food shortages
• Government debt
• Poverty
• Factions split revolutionaries
• Radicals/Left get rid of king,
  redo government
• Moderates/Center wanted some
  changes in government
• Conservatives/Right wanted to keep
  a limited monarchy with few
  changes in government

14
Divisions Develop

• Émigrés (the rich who fled France during the
  revolution) took actions to try to undo the
  revolution to get back their land
• Sans-culottes (the lower-class in Paris) wanted
  even more radical change
• They had no power in the assembly (but that
  didnt stop them!)

15
War and Execution

• Austria and Prussia fear revolution will spread.
• They pressure France to restore monarchy.
• 1792 France responds by declaring war.
• Prussian commander warns that he will destroy
  Paris if royal family is harmed.
• August 10, 1792 Parisians furious at threat.
• They storm the Tuileries (place where the royals
  were under arrest).
• Mobs massacre royal guard, takes royal family
  prisoners

16
War and Execution

• Rumor Kings supporters in Paris prisons are
  going to break out and retake Paris
• Mobs raid prisons, and murder over 1,000 nobles
• September Massacres
• Radicals force
• Legislative Assembly to set aside the 1791
  Constitution
• Creation of a new government, National Convention
• New government
• Abolishes monarchy
• Declares France a
  republic
• Adult males given
  right to vote

17
War and Execution

• National Convention, led by radical Jacobians put
  Louis XVI on trial and sentence him to death
• January 21, 1793 Louis beheaded by guillotine.
• War with Prussia continues.
• Prussia and Austria are joined by
• England
• Holland
• Spain
• National Convention
  takes extreme step of
  ordering a draft of men
  and women

18
Reign of Terror

• Many groups in France fighting for power
• Peasants loyal to Catholic Church and/or king
• Clergy resisting government control
• Rival leaders in different regions of France
• 1793 Maximilien Robespierre gains power
• Vowed to build a republic of virtue by erasing
  Frances past.
• Changed calendar
• Eliminated Sundays
• Closed churches
• Reign of Terror Robespierre leader of
  Committee of Public Safety and virtual
  dictator
• Goal protect revolution from its enemies
• Bogus arrests, trials
• Lots of torture and death
• Many enemies of the revolution personal
  enemies of Robespierre because
  of their challenges to his power
• Apprx. 40,000 killed
• 85 peasants or middle class, those
  who were supposed to benefit
  from the
  revolution

19
End of Terror

• 1794 Fearing for own safety, members of
  National Convention turn on Robespierre
• Demand his arrest and execution
• Reign of Terror ends on July 28, 1794
  with Robespierres execution
• Public opinion shifts
• Tired of terror
• Tired of inflation for necessities
• 1795 National Convention creates third
  government since 1789
• Gives more power to upper middle class
• Creates two-house legislature (like U.S.
  Congress)
• Created Directory five men acting as
  executive body (like U.S. president)
• Directory gives command of Frances armies
  to Napoleon Bonaparte

20
Review

• Ideas are powerful!
• The scientific revolution shattered long-held
  views about the universe.
• Enlightenment questioned society and government
• Locke (contract between government and governed)
• Montesquieu (checks and balances)
• Rousseau (individual freedom and civilization
  corrupts)
• Voltaire (freedom of thought and expression)
• Their radical beliefs in the natural rights of
  man inspired the American and French Revolutions.