French Revolution Flashcards
Ancien Regime
The status quo, the way things had always been. Nobility + clergy at top, peasants + middle class at bottom
Revolution’s Causes
bad leaders financial crisis bad harvest ancien regime enlightenmen
1st, 2nd, 3rd estates
- Clergy
- Nobility
- Everyone else(middle class, peasants, working poor)
Deficit spending
spending more money than you make.
What the french government did with its unnecessary wars
Jacques Necker
Financial advisor hired by Louis XVI
he wanted to cut pensions, tax 1st+2nd estates
failed b/c the 1st and 2nd estates didn’t like him(duh)
Louis Calls Estates General
He wants them to work it out so he doesn’t have to figure it out himself, doesn’t take the blame
Estates General Voting
Originally each estate gets 1 vote(1st and 2nd can always win)
changed to be by head, and 3rd estate gets its members doubled.
Majority Group in Estates General
The 3rd Estate, but for a while didn’t have much power.
National Assembly forms
the 3 estates join, decide to make their own way to fix the country
The Tennis Court Oath
National Assembly meets in a tennis court b/c their normal hall is locked. They think Louis is trying to stop them.
They meet in an abandoned tennis court, vow to not disband until France has a constitution.
Cahier
a formal complaint brought to the Estates General. Were meant to try to address the problems that France was having.
Storming the Bastille
Intended Purpose: to get weapons for the revolution. However, there weren’t weapons in it.
Result: freed the prisoners, kickstarted the revolution.
National Guard
French civilian army. Led by Marquis de Lafayette.
Women March on Versilles
want better prices on bread, want the king to see what the people are going through
Where did the women take Louis and Marie?
Tuileries Palace in Paris
Jacobins
a popular radical 3rd estate club
followed Rousseau’s ideas
Subgroups: Girondists, Mountain
Sans-culottes
‘without long breeches’
shopkeepers, artisans
want more food, price regulation
hate inequality, but don’t want to remove property
supported the Jacobins b/c King Louis tried to escape
Cause of the Radical Phase
King Louis XVI trying to flee Paris
showed he had no faith in the new constitution, government
September Massacres
around 1200 prisoners killed, thought to be counterrevolutionaries
were actually normal prisoners
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Catholic church becomes part of the state
priests forced to marry, churches knocked down or turned into storehouses
Who disagreed w/ the Civil Constitution of the Clergy?
Europe, the Church
many people in france disliked it
Committee of Public Safety
Led by Robespierre.
Suspends Constitution of 1791, right to fair trial
tyrannical government
Reign of Terror: reasons for
King's attempted escape peasant rebellions religious, political division foreign wars economic crises, food shortage
Most affected class in the RoT? Least? Why?
The 3rd estate/peasants. Nobility, clergy. B/c they were complaining, protesting
Government Robespierre wanted?
Republic
Government after Robespierre is killed?
Thermadorian Reaction
constitution of 1795
2 house legislative, 5 man executive(The Directory)
Girondists, Sans-culottes come back
