Chapter 18

The French Revolution and

Napoleon 1789-1815

Section 2
The French Revolution Unfolds
pg. 578-583
 Political Crisis Leads to Revolt
Rumor Creates Great Fear
Political crisis coincided with the worst famine
in modern times
People were paying 80% of their income for
bread
Rumors led to the Great Fear
Tales that govt troops were attacking villages and
towns
Govt troops were seizing peasant crops
Peasants revolted against nobles by burning old
manor records and stealing from grain houses
 Political Crisis Leads to Revolt
Paris Commune Comes to Power
Paris was the center of the revolution
A variety of factions, or dissenting groups of
people competed to gain power
Marquis de Lafayette, who fought along side
with George Washington headed the National
Guard, a militia group organized in response to
government troops in Paris
First to don the tri-colored flag of red, white, and
blue
Paris Commune could mobilize neighborhoods
for protest or violent action to further the
revolution
 The National Assembly Acts
Special Privileges End
Feudalism is abolished announced a National
Assembly delegate on August 4th
National Assembly turned the reforms of
August 4th into law, the equality of all male
citizens
Declaration of the Rights of Man
1. This document modeled the American
Declaration of Independence
2. This announced that all men, born and
remain free and equal rights. They enjoyed
natural rights to liberty, property, security,
and resistance to oppression
 The National Assembly Acts
Declaration of the Rights of Man
1. All male citizens were equal before the law
and have equal right to hold public office
2. Freedom of religion and taxes to be levied
according to ability to pay
Olympe de Gouges a journalist demanded equal
rights for women in her Declaration of the
Rights of Women
Said both men and women should be equally
eligible for all public offices, positions, and jobs
Later in the revolution women would get resistance
for expressing their views and Gouges would be
imprisoned and executed
 The National Assembly Acts
Women March on Versailles
6000 women march 13 miles in the pouring
rain from Paris to Versailles shouting Bread
and demanded to see the king
Much of the crowds anger was toward Austrian
queen Marie Antoinette (sister of Joseph II)
She lived a great life of pleasure and extravagance
which angered the public
Was very good to the poor but her life
overshadowed her good deeds
Women wanted Louis XVI to return to Paris
and he agreed
The crowd cheered as the king wore the tri-colors
 The National Assemble Presses
Onward
The Church is Placed Under State Control
The National Assembly puts the French
Catholic Church under state control
Civil Constitutions of the Clergy in 1790
Bishops and priests became elected, salaried
officials
It ended papal authority and dissolved convents and
monasteries
Many bishops and priests refused to accept it
 The National Assembly Presses
Onward
The Constitution of 1791 Establishes a New
Government
The Constitution of 1791 set up a limited
monarchy in place of absolutism
A new Legislative Assembly had power to
make laws, collect taxes, and decide on issues
of war and peace
Lawmakers would be elected by tax-paying male
citizens 25 years or older
Replace provinces with departments and
abolished district courts
Ended church interference with govt
 The National Assembly Presses
Onward

Louis Escape Fails

Marie Antoinette and others had urged the king
to escape their humiliating situation
One night the king disguised himself as a
servant and the queen as a governess
The escape failed when someone recongized
the king from currency with his face on it
The king and queen were escorted back to Paris
and it showed Louis was a traitor to the
revolution
 Radicals Take Over
Rulers Fear the Spread of Revolution
European rulers increased boarder patrols to
stop the French Plague
Leading the way with stories were the emigres;
nobles, clergy, and others who fled France
Emigres reported attacks on their privileges,
their property, their religion, and their lives
Catherine the Great of Russia turned against the
revolution and burned Voltaires letters
Edmund Burke a British writer and statesman
who supported the American Revolution
denounced the revolutionaries in France
 Radicals Take Over
Threats Come From Abroad
The king of Prussia and emperor of Austria
issued the Declaration of Pilnitz
This document: the two monarchs threatened to
intervene to protect the French monarch
The declaration was a bluff but the revolutionaries
in France prepared for war
Radicals Fight for Power and Declare War
In 1791 the Legislative Assembly took office but
only lasted less than a year
Assignats, the revolutionary currency dropped in
value causing prices to rise causing shortages
 Radicals Take Over
Radicals Fight for Power and Declare War
Working class men and women call san-
culottes without breeches pushed the
revolution even more radical
They wore long trousers instead of the upper class
high knee breeches
They demanded a republic, or a government by
elected representative instead of a monarch
Jacobins were mostly middle-class lawyers and
intellectuals that used pamphleteers and
sympathetic newspapers to advance their
republican cause
 Radicals Take Over

The National Assembly Declares War on

Tyranny
The Legislative Assembly declared war on
Austria, Prussia, Britain, and other states that
favored a monarchy
The fighting began in 1792 and lasted until
1815