The French Revolution Flashcards
Causes for the French Revolution
1: The rising prices of grain as a result of many failed harvests caused people to be more hungry and poor. This led to many bread riots. The French people feared that they’ll keep living in poverty and be under control of the noble landowners, so they formed militias.
2: Enlightenment ideas such as Rousseau and Locke’s had an impact on politics and the creation of the public sphere helped spread these ideas.
3: national debt was rising due to Louis XIVs spending on wars. This led to the summoning of the Estates General in which the 3rd estate was kicked out.
What are the 3 Estates of France?
There are 3 Estates in France:
The 1st estate is the clergy
The 2nd estate is the nobles
The 3rd estate is everyone else.
The nobles and clergy barely had to pay any taxes and owned almost all the land.
What was the Estates General and what happened that sparked conflict?
The Estates General was a sort of parliament in France where the 3 estates had representatives that prepared a list of grievances or addressed demands of change that needed to happen in France. There was a consensus that royal absolutism should give way for a constitutional monarchy, but this led to quarrel over how it would vote and who would lead it. The vote was controlled by the clergy and nobility, and they voted no after some time.
People were angry and started demanding an estates general dominated by the third estate. The king then ordered that the third estate sits and votes separately from the other two. They had enough, and they were then locked out of a meeting. They voted then to call themselves the National Assembly. After the tennis court oath, the king finally allowed them to meet together, but then Louis XVI changed his mind and used soldiers to disband the Estates General. He used his “divine right”as an excuse, and the people wouldn’t have it.
Tennis Court Oath
The National Assembly swore that they wouldn’t stop meeting until a constitution is formed.
The Storming Of The Bastille
Several hundred people stormed the Bastille hoping to get gunpowder and weapons. The king ordered his troops to take the city back and they did. This caused many peasants to revolt from manorial rights and exploitation too, causing the Great Fear.
Declaration of the Rights of Man
After it subsided a little after some reforms were made, the National Assembly decreed that Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Those rights are life, property, security, and resistance to oppression. It also granted the General will, which all people could concur or select representatives.
Women’s March on Versailles
Because of the risen grain prices, unemployment, and no more church grants, 7 thousand women marched to Versailles to demand action. They stormed the palace looking for the royal family, but Lafayette inter ended and stopped them from killing the royal family. They now moved to Paris where they agreed to a constitutional monarchy.
Mary Wollstonecraft
Olympe de Gouges
1: British, Published Vindication on the Rights Of Women. She wanted men and women to have equal educational rights because she believe that women had a lot of intellectual potential. This would make women better wives, mothers, good citizens, and economically independent.
2: copies the Declaration of the Rights Of Man for women. She was influenced my Wollstonecrafts work.
Emergence of the Jacobin club
Louis XVI and Mary Antoinette tried to escape France, but failed after they were recognized. This caused the leaders of Prussia and Austria to declare that they would aid France if they needed aid. The National Assembly disbanded and free elections for the new Legislative Assembly. Many of its new delegates were from a political party called the Jacobin club.
War of the First Coalition
France declared war on Austria because France wanted to crush their “tyranny”. It went poorly for France because Prussia supported Austria. so they blamed Louis XVI and captured him.
The National Convention
The communist
Brunswick Manifesto
Prussia and Austria agreed that if the king and queen were killed, he would destroy Paris.
The Paris Commune and September Massacres
The Paris Commune was a municipal government set up in Paris that took power away from the Legislative Assembly. It led the September massacres where rumors about traitors caused a fear and many people were imprisoned and killed via national razor.
The National Convention
Sans-Culottes
Committee of Public Safety
All members were Republicans split into two factions: the Girondists and The Mountain. The Girondists were more peaceful p, and they wanted to try the king for traitorous actions but not execute home, The Mountain, led by Maximilen Robespierre, were more radical and won the vote to have him executed. They wanted to continue the war and did. The problem is that they were bitter political rivals, and they both wanted power.
The Mountain joined with the sans-culottes to give them bread because they wanted more support for getting rid of the Girondists. They joined with the sans-culottes to arrest 31 Girondists for treason, and The Mountain came out on top. The Sans-Culottes (meaning without breeches) were the laboring poor who demanded for bread.
Robespierre joined the Committee of Public Safety, which the National Convention gave power too to deal with emergencies. This triggered revolt in Lyons where they demanded a decentralized government. French forces were also driven back all the way to Paris. It wasn’t looking good.
The success of the Committee Of Public Safety
Robespierre, after suffering defeat, witnessed a new military victory. The Austrian Netherlands was once again under the control of France, and the First Coalition was falling apart. This created a sense of nationalism in France.
Robespierre also created a planned economy where he collaborated with the sans culottes to set the fair price of grain (thought France was in debt), and started rationing.
