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The French Revolution

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22 views22 pages

The French Revolution

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6m5kqdt5zq
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CLASS - 9 (HISTORY)

Context

OLD REGIME GROWING MIDDLE CLASS


TO END PRIVILEGES
INTRODUCTION
THE OUTBREAK OF REVOLUTION
FRENCH REVOLUTION
SUMMARY
FRENCH DURING LATE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

THE STRUGGLE CRISIS TO SURVIVE


On the morning of 14 July 1789 the city of Paris was in a state of
alarm. The king had commanded troops to move into the city. Rumours
spread that he would soon order the army to open fire upon the citizens.
Some 7,000 men and women gathered in front of the town hall and
decided to form a peoplesí militia. They broke into a number of
government buildings in search of arms.
Finally, a group of several hundred people marched towards the eastern
part of the city and stormed the fortress-prison, the Bastille, where they
hoped to find hoarded ammunition. In the armed fight that followed,
the commander of the Bastille was killed and the prisoners released
though there were only seven of them. Yet the Bastille was hated by all,
because it stood for the despotic power of the king. The fortress was
demolished and its stone fragments were sold in the markets to all
those who wished to keep a souvenir of its destruction.
The days that followed saw more rioting both in Paris and the
countryside. Most people were protesting against the high price of bread.
Much later, when historians looked back upon this time, they saw it as
the beginning of a chain of events that ultimately led to the execution
of the king in France, though most people at the time did not anticipate
this outcome. How and why did this happen?
THE OLD REGIME (ANCIENT REGIME)
OLD REGIME – SOCIO-POLITICAL SYSTEM WHICH EXISTED IN MOST OF EUROPE
DURING THE 18TH CENTURY
COUNTRIES WERE RULED BY ABSOLUTISM – THE MONARCH HAD ABSOLUTE
CONTROL OVER THE GOVERNMENT
CLASSES OF PEOPLE – PRIVILEGED AND UNPRIVILEGED
UNPRIVILEGED PEOPLE – PAID TAXES AND TREATED BADLY
PRIVILEGED PEOPLE – DID NOT PAY TAXES AND TREATED WELL
GOVERNMENT UNDER THE OLD REGIME :
THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS

MONARCH RULED BY DIVINE RIGHT


GOD PUT THE WORLD IN MOTION
GOD PUT SOME PEOPLE IN POSITIONS OF POWER
POWER IS GIVEN BY GOD
NO ONE CAN QUESTION GOD
NO ONE CAN QUESTION SOMEONE PUT IN POWER BY GOD
QUESTIONING THE MONARCHY WAS BLASPHEMY BECAUSE
IT MEANT QUESTIONING GOD
1. French Society During the Late Eighteenth Century

In 1774, Louis XVI of the Bourbon


family of kings ascended the
throne of France. He was 20 years
old and married to the Austrian
princess Marie Antoinette.
UPON HIS ACCESSION THE NEW KING FOUND
AN EMPTY TREASURY. LONG YEARS OF WAR HAD DRAINED THE
FINANCIAL RESOURCES OF FRANCE.
Long years of war had drained the financial
resources of France. Added to this was the cost of maintaining an
extravagant court at the immense palace of Versailles.
Under Louis
XVI, France helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their
independence from the common enemy, Britain.
The war added more
than a billion livres to a debt that had already risen to more than
2billion livres. Lenders who gave the state credit, now began to
charge 10 per cent interest on loans.
So the French government was obliged
to spend an increasing percentage of its budget on interest payments
alone. To meet its regular expenses, such as the cost of maintaining
an army, the court, running government offices or universities, the
state was forced to increase taxes.
Society under the Old Regime

In France, people were divided into three estates


– First Estate (clergy)
• High-ranking members of the Church
• Privileged class
– Second Estate (nobility)
• Ruling class
• Feudal Privileged class
– Third Estate (ordinary people)
• Everyone else – from peasants in the countryside to wealthy bourgeoisie merchants in the
cities
• Unprivileged class
Tax – Tithes – a tax levied by church , comprising one-tenth of agriculture produce
Taille – tax to be paid directly to the state.
a no. of indirect taxes.
Philosophy of the French Revolution :
The Enlightenment ( Age of Reason )

Scientists during the Renaissance had discovered laws that govern the natural
world
Intellectuals – philosophers – began to ask if natural laws might also apply to
human beings
Particularly to human institutions such as governments
Philosophes were secular in thinking – they used reason and logic, rather than
faith, religion, and superstition, to answer important questions
Used reason and logic to determine how governments are formed
Tried to figure out what logical, rational principles work to tie people to their
governments
Questioned the divine right of kings
Philosophers who support

John locke – he wrote book “Two treatises of government“, Locke sought


to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch.

Jean Jacques Rousseau - he wrote book “the social contract”, proposing a


form of government based on a social contract between people and their
representatives.

In The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu proposed a division of power


within the government between the legislative, the executive and the
judiciary.
3rd estates demand, 40 k words

Asked for only moderate changes


general estates criteria of voting – 1 estate = 1 vote
This wants to reform 1 member = 1 vote
Monarch rejects this proposal, to 3rd estates step out from assembly and do
protest.
20 June, 1789 – 3rd estate gathered with representative in versailles indoor
tennis court, they claimed as they National Assembly.
National assembly means making laws of the nation & they decided to write
France’s constitution where monarch's power was reduced, they take oath
for making constitution.
Lead by two members

1)Mirabeau – born in noble family ( 2nd estate) he against the privileges of


1st & 2nd estates and his speeches was so powerful.

2)Abbe sieyes – born in priest family , he wrote book “ what is 3rd estate?”

So, 14 July 1789 Versailles palace broken by revolutionaries.


Rumour aroused that 2nd estate people send some people to ruin farming
land and this takes anger to farmers & they attack on nobbles homes , looted
important pages & burn.
Louis 16 surrender
REFORM, 4 August, 1789

No more privileges – 1st estate & 2nd estate


Power limited Louis 16
Land redistribution from church and distribute to farmers
Tithes (direct tax) ended

France make monarchy to constitutional monarchy

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