How 3 Estates, 1 Tennis Court, and 2 Phases of a Revolution
Created France
4.5 | The French Revolution
The French Feudal System
The Three Estates First Estate – No taxes,
owned 10% of the land, collected tithes (10% of 3rd estate’s income)
Second Estate – “struggling” after Richelieu and Louis
Third Estate
18th century French economy
Issues with Equality in Society
The third estate’s diversity
The Bourgeoisie’s desire
Status , privilege, political rights
What is the Third Estate?EverythingWhat has it been until now in the political order? What does it want to be?Nothing
Something
Abbé Emmanuel
Sieyès
The French Financial Crisis
Royal spending – Marie Antoinette
The American Revolution
Economic downturn Extreme poverty
Shoe makers cannot afford leather to make shoes
Tax collectors are “bloodsuckers of the nation who drink the tears of the unfortunate from goblets of gold”
The courts are “vampires pumping the last drop of blood” from the people
“20 million must live on half the wealth of France while the clergy… devour the other half”
Tensions Boil - 1788
France goes bankrupt Bankrolling American independence Mismanagement of funds Public outrage
Louis XVI calls the Estates General together to discuss the situation Each estate had a vote
The Estates-General 1789
Purpose and function Third estates wanted
“each head to count” Locked door
The Tennis Court Oath
The National Assembly
Support for the National Assembly
Grows Louis begins pulling armies from the
frontiers closer to Paris
The National Assembly sees this as an imminent threat
The Storming of the Bastille 14/7/1789
National Assembly at Versailles 800 Parisians panic about armies
Result
Aftermath
The National Assembly vs. Louis XVI
Phase One – Panic and Action The National Assembly (1789-1791)
The Declaration of the Rights of Man Liberty, property, security, and resistance to
oppression EVERY Frenchman could do anything
“according to virtue and talents” Taxes waged according to “ability to pay”
Parisian women march on Versailles The King returns to “cooperate”
New Constitution, New Government
National Assembly presses on Church controlled by state
Constitution passed 1791 Limited monarchy
Issues – Louis doesn’t like this France/Austria relationship Absolute monarchies and their view
Border patrols increase along French border
Stop the “French Plague”
Catherine the Great burns Volaire’s work Britain denounced the rebellion Fear of democracy Louis XVI tries to escape Prussia and Austria threaten to
intervene to protect French Monarchy Economic downturn, political upheaval,
and the Republic – 1792
Radicalism Grows
Division, and the Jacobins
1792 – France declares war on Austria, then Prussia, then Great Britain On and off fighting
until 1815
1793 – Louis XVI’s fate
The Reign of TerrorMaximilien Robespierre
For security’s sake
40,000 executions 16,000 by guillotine
Republic of Virtue
The Revolutionary Army
Swelled to over a million troops
Defended and expanded the Republic Victories over the
Monarchies
The “people’s” army
1794
Robespierre
Execution
End of the Terror
The Directory
A kind of Congress
Corrupt
Coup d’etat Napoleon Bonaparte