French Revolution (1789-1799) Flashcards
Thermidorian government
- The Directory (Thermidorian) dependent on military to govern
- Napoleon established a coup d’état
Phases of Political Revolution
- a moderate phase (1789-1791)- bourgeoisie tried to create a limited constitutional monarchy
- radical phase (1791- 1794)- urban class seized control of Paris and tried to make a democratic republic
- an end phase (Thermidor) (1794-1799)- moderate bourgeois faction tried to restore order
Old Regime
- first estate: clergy
- second estate: nobility
- third estate: everyone else
Estates General
- Louis XVI was in a financial crisis
- tried to reform taxes, nobles refused
- forced to call together estates general (1780s)
- closest thing to a legislative assembly that existed
Cahiers
members representing each of the three estates were allowed to present a list of their own concerns and proposals to the Crown
National Assembly
third estate created assembly because Louis wasn’t making a decision in regards to representatives in estates general
Tennis Court Oath
- third estate was locked out of meeting hall
- they vowed they would not disband until a new constitution had been written for france
- Louis voted in favor and said they should ALL be part of the national assembly
Leading up to Bastille Day
- uncertainty created fear and mistrust
- nobles demanded Louis break up the new Assembly
- urban population believed the nobility and the king intended to remove the aessmbly by force
Bastille Day
- urban ppl believed bastille had guns and ammunition
- July 14: angry crowd marched
- governor ordered them to disperse, they refused, guard fired into the crowd
- crowd responded by storming the bastille
The Great Fear
- peasants were aware that nobles were weak
- raided the granaries to ensure they had affordable bread
- attacked the chateaus of nobles to burn debt records
August Decrees
assembly passed the august decrees in which most of the traditional privileges of the nobility and the clergy were renounced and abolished
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
- August 27, 1789: assembly adopted document
- espoused individual rights and liberties fro all citizens
March to Versailles
-October 1789, Parisian women marched fro bread and were joined by guards, a citizen militia, and together forced themselves into the palace and insisted louis accompany them back to Paris
March to Versailles (IMPORTANT THINGS)
- the crowds did not see Louis XVI as their enemy, they marched to retrieve him because they believed he would side with them and support Assembly
- the crowd of Paris had become a powerful political force
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
a piece of legislation that turned clergymen into employees of the government and turned Church property of the state