Post on 13-Jan-2016
The French Revolution
Government Before the Revolution
• Old Regime
• Monarchy: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
Versailles Palace
• Three Classes– First Estate: Religious Leaders – Second Estate: Nobles– Third Estate: Peasants, Middle Class
The Three Estates
Why did the French Revolt
• King Louis XVI was a weak King
• French Government was bankrupt, because of aid to the Americans for their Revolution
• The Poor was heavily taxed
• The Nobles wanted the King’s Power
Leaders of the Revolution
• Marquis de Lafayette- French War hero, chief of the Paris police
• Georges Jacques Danton: Leader of the Civic Guard of Paris, and assistant prosecutor of the Paris Commune
• Charles Tallyrand: Agent General of the French clergy.
• Maximillian Robespierre: First Deputy of National Convention, Leader of the Committee of Public Safety, personally had thousands murdered for treason
• Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guilotin:
• elected to the National Assembly
• in 1789, helped invent the guillotine
Events of the Revolution
• May 1789: All Three Estates meet together
• June 20 1789: Tennis Court Oath: Promise to unite to create a Constitution
• July 14, 1789: Storming of the Bastille prison,
• August 1789: Declaration of the Rights of Man (French Declaration and Constitution)
The Meeting of the Estates General
The Tennis Court Oath
• October 1791: Assembly limits King’s Power• Spring 1792: Committee of Public Safety-
executed thousands for treason• January 1793: Louis XVI executed• 1795: Five Man Directory created• 1799: Napoleon Bonaparte takes control of
Directory• 1804: Napoleon declares himself Emperor of
France
Government after Revolution
• 1. Weak National Convention (French Congress)
• 2. Committee of Public Safety
12 member group which actually controlled France after 1793 until 1794
3. Five Man Directory created and an Assembly until Napoleon took control
• Napoleon Bonaparte: French General, Member of Five Man Directory, declared Emperor of France
Consequences of the Revolution
• Declaration of Rights of Man gives T. Jefferson ideas for the Bill of Rights
• The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of France
• The End of the French Monarchy