Political Revolutions

The French Revolution

Causes of the French Revolution

• “Never was any such event so inevitable yet so completely unforeseen.”

• Alexis de Tocqueville

Causes

• Social Tensions of the Ancien Regime (Old Order)• Conditions of French Society prior to 1789• Inequalities enshrined into law

• First Estate• Second Estate• Third Estate

Causes

• Economic Struggles• Rising prices throughout 18th century• Poor harvests in late 1780s

Causes

• The new political ideas of the Enlightenment

• Political powerlessness of the bourgeoisie

Causes

• Growth of a popular press• Marie Antoinette

• Weakness of the monarchy• Louis XV – “Après moi, le deluge.”• Louis XVI

Short-term Cause

• Virtual collapse of the government’s finances

• Calling of the Estates-general in 1789

First Stage

• Calling of Estates-general led to a series of problems and events that eventually spiraled out of control of the King• Rising expectations of various groups• Issue of voting procedures

• Third Estate to National Assembly (June 17th)

• Tennis Court Oath

First Stage

• Destruction of Royal Authority and Old Order• Parisian mob storms the Bastille (July 14,

1789)• Declaration of the Rights of Man and the

Citizen• Church land is seized

End of First Stage

• King flees in June of 1791 and is captured• European leaders fear direction of

revolution• War and invasion leads to radical stage

Second Stage

• Girondins v. Jacobins• Committee of Public Safety• Reign of Terror

• Guillotine and the execution of the King and his family

• Universal mobilization

Third Stage

• Radical nature of the second stage leads to a period of reaction

• Establishment of the Directory• Period of economic collapse, political

corruption and intrigue by Royalists• Ends with coup d'état by Napoleon