Analysis of the French Revolution 1750 -1914 Lesson

Analysis of the French Revolution 1750 -1914 Lesson 3

La Marseillaise Allons, enfants de la Patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrive! Contre nous de la tyrannie L’étendard sanglant est levé! L’étendard sanglant est levé. Entendez-vous dans les campagnes Mugir ces féroces soldats? Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras Egorger nos fils et nos compagnes: Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons! Marchons! Qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!

Causes of the Revolution • Class antagonisms – Disparity (98% Third Estate) – Voting in the Estates General – Tax Issues

Causes of the Revolution • Government Inefficiency: – National deficit – No responses to poverty – Increased tax pressure

Causes of the Revolution • Inept Ruler: – Louis XVI • horrible procrastinator • Moderately intelligent, easily influenced – Marie-Antoinette • Austrian, not French • Big spender, gambling debts

Causes of the Revolution • Intellectuals transfer loyalty: – Enlightenment influences on bourgeoisie – Tax issues – Reform of Estates General

Early Stages • Failure of Force: – Effects of troops vs. rioters/demonstrators – “Let them eat cake” – Lock-out of Third Estate – Storming the Bastille & Versailles

Early Stages • Political & Economic Upgrades – Bread riots – Redistribution of land – Abolishment of feudalism & nobility – The National Assembly & Legislative Assembly

Crisis Stage • Foreign Involvement – Why would other countries care? – April 1792, Austrian & Prussian armies march into France & on Paris

The King is Dead. . . • Riots & the Radicals • Jacobins--Radical political group led by Maximilian Robespierre • Jacobins try Louis XVI as a traitor & execute him on the guillotine in Jan. 1793

Radical Stage: The Reign of Terror • Robespierre: society of virtue & freedom came from the presence of terror • July 1793 -July 1794: Up to 3000 Parisians ( 40, 000 total) executed as “traitors to the revolution” • Terror ends when Robespierre is executed in July 1794 --Radicals lose power

Reactionary Stage: The Directory • Fear of Radicals • Directory’s actions – two-house legislature; greater stability – Napoleon Bonaparte named First Consul

France on the Eve of Napoleon • Instability, factions, distrust • Peasants still have little, but now aren’t afraid to resort to violence • Enemies on all sides--the rest of Europe is TERRIFIED by the French Revolution