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