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The French Revolution (1789-1799)

Causes of the French Revolution Coffers: the money

that an organization
As the 18th century drew to a close, France’s costly involvement in the
has in its bank
American Revolution, combined with extravagant spending by King Louis
accounts and
XVI, had left France on the brink of bankruptcy. Not only were the royal
available to spend.
coffers depleted, but several years of poor harvests, drought, cattle
disease and skyrocketing bread prices had kindled unrest among
Depleted: empty
peasants and the urban poor. Many expressed their desperation and
partially or entirely.
resentment toward a regime that imposed heavy taxes—yet failed to
provide any relief—by rioting, looting and striking. In the fall of 1786, Louis
Exempt: Special
XVI’s controller general, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, proposed a
permission to not do
financial reform package that included a universal land tax from which the
or pay something.
aristocratic classes would no longer be exempt.

What were the causes of peasant riots in late 18th century France?

Forestall: To prevent
Estates General something from
happening by acting
To garner support for these measures and forestall a growing first.
aristocratic revolt, the king summoned the Estates General (les états
généraux) – an assembly representing France’s clergy, nobility and Clergy: Religious
middle class – for the first time since 1614. The meeting was scheduled leaders
for May 5, 1789; in the meantime, delegates of the three estates from
each locality would compile lists of grievances (cahiers de doléances) to Aristocratic/Nobility:
present to the king. Belonging to a class of
people with high social
What was the purpose of the King calling Estates General? Which rank.
groups were represented at the Estates General?
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Rise of the Third Estate

Abolishment: to
France’s population, of course, had changed considerably since 1614.
completely do away
The non-aristocratic, middle-class members of the Third Estate now
with
represented 98 percent of the people but could still be outvoted by the
other two bodies. In the lead-up to the May 5 meeting, the Third Estate
Veto: an official power
began to mobilize support for equal representation and the abolishment
to refuse to accept or
of the noble veto—in other words, they wanted voting by head and not by
allow something.
status. While all of the orders shared a common desire for fiscal and
judicial reform as well as a more representative form of government, the
Fiscal: related to
nobles in particular were loath to give up the privileges they had long
public money or
enjoyed under the traditional system.
financial matters.

Which group made up the third estate? What demands did the third Judicial: involving the
estate have? courts/judges and the
law.

Tennis Court Oath

By the time the Estates General convened at Versailles, the highly public Vowing: To make a
debate over its voting process had erupted into open hostility between the determined promise or
three orders, eclipsing the original purpose of the meeting and the decision to do
authority of the man who had convened it — the king himself. On June 17, something.
with talks over procedure stalled, the Third Estate met alone and formally
adopted the title of National Assembly; three days later (June 20, 1789), Disperse: To break up
they met in a nearby indoor tennis court and took the so-called Tennis
Court Oath (serment du jeu de paume), vowing not to disperse until
constitutional reform had been achieved. Within a week, most of the
clerical deputies and 47 liberal nobles had joined them, and on June 27
Louis XVI grudgingly absorbed all three orders into the new National
Assembly.
What was the Tennis Court Oath?
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The Bastille
Coup: a sudden, and
On June 12, as the National Assembly (known as the National Constituent
usually violent,
Assembly during its work on a constitution) continued to meet at
overthrow of a
Versailles, fear and violence consumed the capital. Though enthusiastic
government by a small
about the recent breakdown of royal power, Parisians grew panicked as
group.
rumors of an impending military coup began to circulate. A popular
insurgency culminated on July 14, 1789 when rioters stormed the Bastille
fortress in an attempt to secure gunpowder and weapons; many consider
Agrarian: relating to
this event, now commemorated in France as a national holiday, as the
farmers or their way of
start of the French Revolution.
life.
The wave of revolutionary fervor and widespread hysteria quickly swept
Insurrection:
the entire country. Revolting against years of exploitation, peasants looted
revolting against an
and burned the homes of tax collectors, landlords and the aristocratic
established
elite. Known as the Great Fear (la Grande peur), the agrarian
government.
insurrection hastened the growing exodus of nobles from France and
inspired the National Constituent Assembly to abolish feudalism on
Hastened: To cause
August 4, 1789, signing what historian Georges Lefebvre later called the
to happen more
“death certificate of the old order.”
quickly.

Why was the storming of the Bastille significant? What effect did it have Exodus: a mass
in France? departure.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

On August 26, 1789, the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du
citoyen), a statement of democratic principles grounded in the
philosophical and political ideas of Enlightenment thinkers like
Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The document proclaimed the Assembly’s
commitment to replace the ancien régime with a system based on equal
opportunity, freedom of speech, popular sovereignty and representative
government.
Drafting a formal constitution proved much more of a challenge for the
National Constituent Assembly, which had the added burden of
functioning as a legislature during harsh economic times. For months, its
members wrestled with fundamental questions about the shape and
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expanse of France’s new political landscape. For instance, who would be

responsible for electing delegates? Would the clergy owe allegiance to
the Roman Catholic Church or the French government? Perhaps most
importantly, how much authority would the king, his public image further
weakened after a failed attempt to flee the country in June 1791, retain?

Adopted on September 3, 1791, France’s first written constitution echoed

the more moderate voices in the Assembly, establishing a constitutional
monarchy in which the king enjoyed royal veto power and the ability to
appoint ministers. This compromise did not sit well with influential radicals
like Maximilien de Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins and Georges
Danton, who began drumming up popular support for a more republican
form of government and for the trial of Louis XVI.

What rights were included in The Declaration of the Rights of Man and
the Citizen? What ideas influenced the creation of the document?

Émigrés: Someone
who has to leave their
country permanently,
French Revolution Turns Radical usually for political
In April 1792, the newly elected Legislative Assembly declared war on reasons.
Austria and Prussia, where it believed that French émigrés were building
counterrevolutionary alliances; it also hoped to spread its revolutionary Massacred: an acting
ideals across Europe through warfare. On the domestic front, meanwhile, of killing a number of
the political crisis took a radical turn when a group of insurgents led by the usually helpless or
extremist Jacobins attacked the royal residence in Paris and arrested the unresisting people.
king on August 10, 1792. The following month, amid a wave of violence in
which Parisian insurrectionists massacred hundreds of accused Treason: The crime of
counterrevolutionaries, the Legislative Assembly was replaced by the betraying one’s
National Convention, which proclaimed the abolition of the monarchy and country
the establishment of the French republic. On January 21, 1793, it sent
King Louis XVI, condemned to death for high treason and crimes against Guillotine: a machine
the state, to the guillotine; his wife Marie-Antoinette suffered the same for beheading by
fate nine months later (October 16, 1793). means of a heavy
blade that slides down
vertically.
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Reign of Terror
Turbulent: involving a
Following the king’s execution, war with various European powers and
lot of sudden change,
intense divisions within the National Convention brought the French
argument or violence.
Revolution to its most violent and turbulent phase. In June 1793, the
Jacobins seized control of the National Convention from the more
Eradication: The
moderate Girondins and instituted a series of radical measures, including
process of getting rid
the establishment of a new calendar and the eradication of Christianity.
of something
They also unleashed the bloody Reign of Terror (la Terreur), a 10-month
completely.
period in which suspected enemies of the revolution were guillotined by
the thousands. Many of the killings were carried out under orders from
Draconian:Extremely
Robespierre, who dominated the draconian Committee of Public Safety
severe.
until his own execution on July 28, 1794.

Who were the Jacobins? In what ways did they influence the French
Revolution?

Thermidorian Reaction
The death of Robespierre marked the beginning of the Thermidorian
Reaction, a moderate phase in which the French people revolted against Bicameral: Having
the Reign of Terror’s excesses. On August 22, 1795, the National two parts
Convention, composed largely of Girondins who had survived the Reign
of Terror, approved a new constitution that created France’s first Parliament: A group
bicameral legislature. Executive power would lie in the hands of a of elected politicians
five-member Directory (Directoire) appointed by parliament. Royalists that make the laws for
and Jacobins protested the new regime but were swiftly silenced by the a country.
army, now led by a young and successful general named Napoleon
Bonaparte.

French Revolution Ends: Napoleon’s Rise

The Directory’s four years in power were riddled with financial crises,
popular discontent, inefficiency and, above all, political corruption. By the
late 1790s, the directors relied almost entirely on the military to maintain
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their authority and had ceded much of their power to the generals in the
field. On November 9, 1799, as frustration with their leadership reached a Ceded: To allow
fever pitch, Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup d’état, abolishing the someone else to have
Directory and appointing himself France’s “first consul.” The event marked or to own something,
the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, usually because you
during which France would come to dominate much of continental are forced to.
Europe.

What was “The Directory” and why were they unsuccessful?

Source: https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/french-revolution
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Homework: Based on the reading, What do you believe were the 5 most significant (important)
events of the French Revolution. Be sure to add your reasoning when selecting your choices.

Event (Be sure to include the Reasoning: Why do you believe this event to be one of
date) the most important in the French Revolution?

Event # 1:

Event # 2

Event # 3

Event # 4

Event # 5