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The French Revolution ((July 1794) the National Convention reasserted its…
The French Revolution
- (July 1794) the National Convention reasserted its authority and executed Robespierre (the Thermidorian Reaction)
- the new government consisted of a bicameral legislature and an executive body of five men called the Directory
- the Directory was dominated by rich bourgeoisie (failed to deal with inflation, food shortages, and corruption)
- (1799) Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory (coup d'état) and seized power
- peasant suffering represents a major cause of the French Revolution.
- peasants lost ½ their incomes (paid feudal dues to nobles, tithe to the Church, royal taxes to king, and the taille on land)
- French nobles were exempted from paying taxes and successfully resisted all attempts to reform the tax system
- grain shortages led to sharp increases in the price of bread (major cause of discontent)
- the absolutist government created by Louis XIV and continued under Louis XV and XVI failed to solve France’s financial problems
- the cost of Seven Years’ War and American Revolution led to massive debt (consumed ½ the nation’s annual tax revenues
- Louis XVI (r. 1774-1792) and his Austrian wife Marie Antoinette were particularly unpopular and frivolous
- (1789) Louis XVI’s tax reforms forced the king to call an assembly of the Estates General (a meeting of France’s three estates)
- the first estate was the clergy (owned 20% of land and paid no taxes)
- second estate was the nobility (2-4% of population, owned 25% of land, paid no taxes
- the third estate equaled 95% of French population (diverse group of peasants, urban workers and the middle-class bourgeoisie)
- at the Estates General the first and second estates assumed each estate would receive one vote (thus imposing their will on third estate)
- led by Abbé Sieyès the third estate rejected this voting method and left the Estates General in protest
- third estate met at indoor tennis court (took oath to create a limited monarchy and declared itself the National Assembly)
- the Tennis Court Oath marked beginning of the French Revolution
- Louis XVI ordered troops to surround Paris as angry mobs protested rising price of bread
- (July 14, 1789) a mob stormed the Bastille (a royal fortress/prison) freeing prisoners and seizing supplies of gunpowder and weapons
- the fall of the Bastille an important symbolic act against royal power (Paris became epicenter of the revolution)
- (August 1789) National Assembly created the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (“all men remain free and equal in rights”)
- (Oct. 1789) 1000s of women marched to Versailles demanding cheaper bread and insisting the royal family move to Paris
- the king surrendered and agreed to share power with the Legislative Assembly
- (August 1791) Austria and Prussia demanded restoration of king in France (invaded France hoping to prevent revolution from spreading)
- despite Prussian threats to destroy Paris if royal family was harmed (Brunswick Manifesto) foreign forces were defeated
- (Sept. 1792) radicals called the sans-culottes took over Paris (executed 1000s of priests, nobles and others who supported monarchy)
- the “September Massacres” marked beginning of a second French Revolution dominated by radicals
- Jacobins (a radical faction in National Assembly led by Maximilien Robespierre) wanted to end monarchy and create a republic
- (1793) Jacobins demanded Louis XVI be executed as a tyrant and traitor (National Convention voted to execute the king)
- Britain, Spain, the Neth., and Sardinia joined Austria and Prussia to form the First Coalition to stop French Revolution
- the Convention created Committee of Public Safety to protect Revolution from foreign and domestic threats
- (1793-1794) led by Robespierre the Committee exercised dictatorial powers as it carried out a Reign of Terror
- hoping to create a “Republic of Virtue” Robespierre executed the queen, his chief rivals, and 1000s of enemies of the Revolution
- (1793) the Committee issued the levée en masse establishing compulsory military service for men from ages 18 to 40
- with motivated troops and talented young officers (Napoleon) the French defeated the First Coalition’s professional armies
- Committee of Public Safety successfully crushed internal dissent and defeated First Coalition but continued the Terror
- De-Christianization efforts increased (the adoption of Republican Calendar for example) but remained unpopular in rural France
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