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
Flight to Varennes
- the king’s attempt to flee Paris and head North to rally supporters was disastrous
- he was returned back to paris
- forgiven by assembly but lost trust of Parisians
War between France, Austria and Prussia
- begun partly because French emigres had been urging Austrian and Prussian monarchies to aid Louis
- Louis and Assembly wanted war
- Austria+Prussia invaded France and french panicked
Division of National Assembly
- divided into political factions
- October 1791: an attempt to diffuse rivalries by dissolving national assembly and electing Legislative Assembly failed
Sans-Culottes
-by 1792, the working people now could be seen attending meetings of political clubs and discussing the reforms that were still needed
End of French Monarchy
- September 1792: National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy and proclaim France a republic
- pushed austrian/prussian army back across border
- Louis XVI put on trial for treason
Girondins
members of the National Convention (tended to be from the wealthier of the bourgeoisie) who were opposed to executing the king
Jacobins
members came from lower strata of and were adamant that he must die
-they prevailed and sent Louis to the guillonte
Anti-(National) Convention uprisings
- jacobins used revolt to purge Girondins from Convention
- June 1793: a Jacobin- led mob occupied the convention hall and refused to leave until Girondins resigned
- Girondins that refused to resign were arrested
Law of the Maximum
- purged Convention passes this
- capped the price of bread and drafted a new constitution that guaranteed universal man suffrage, universal education, and subsistence wages
Committee of Public Safety
- created in order to secure the egalitarian, democratic republic done by the new constitution by the National Convention
- Robespierre gained control within committee
Reign of Terror (September 1793- July 1794)
- under Robespierre’s leadership, committee instituted this
- argued that in times of revolution, terror was necessary
- tribunals created for anyone suspected of being an enemy of revolution
- arrested Danton (jacobin leader) and lost support of everyone
- he was executed by his own terror & ended radical phase of revolution
Directory
- executive functions of the government done by a five man board
- relied on the military to keep order and to protect it from sans-culottes and Royalists
Rise of Napoleon
- european coalitions going badly -> planned to overthrow directory
- November 9, 1799: successful coup and Napoleon governed as “first consul”
- 1804: proclaimed France an empire with himself as emperor
Neoclassicism
- dominant style of painters who chose subjects that conveyed messages of social sacrifice and political courage
- inspired by Ancient Greece and Rome
- Jacques Louis David (important painter)
