- The French revolution: liberty, equality, fraternity
Difficult times for the monarchy
Factors that triggered the revolution
The liberal ideas of the Enlightenment
Criticism of absolutism
Division of society into estates
The example of the United States
Some French people had fought on the side of the colonists in the American War of Independence
Inequality before the law
Noblemen and clerics did not pay direct taxes
The bourgeoisie and the peasantry did pay taxes
Economic crisis
After the Seven Years’ War, France lost Canada and possessions of India and Africa against Great Britain
Affected the Royal Treasury
Pay the huge debts it had taken on to finance the war
Court at Versailles did not reduce its spending on luxuries
Political unrest
Propaganda pamphlets criticising the Old Regime were printed and distributed
King and queen were openly criticised and discredited
Social inequalities
Population had grown a lot throughout the 18th century
Farming production could no longer meet the demand for food during poor harvests
Phases of the French revolution
The Estates-General
Representation was based on class or estates and not individuals
It proposed that the rich pay taxes
The third estate wanted it to be individual
The nobility and clergy rejected this so the Estates-General were dissolved
National Constituent Assembly
Parisians rose up
Constitution of 1791
Legislative Assembly
The Plain
Deputies who were in the majority and did not belong to any party
The Girondins
Second highest number of representatives
Moderates, federalists and supporters of the parliamentary monarchy
The Jacobins
Radical liberals, centralists and supporters of the Republic, minority
National Convention
Assembly assumed legislative and executive powers
Republic was proclaimed
‘The Terror’
‘White Terror’
The Directory
New Constitution
Instability
The Consulate
Most prestigious French general, Napoleon Bonaparte
Congress and a Senate with very few powers
