The political spectrum
(TRADITIONAL)
The French Revolution
The Beginnings!
1789
Part 1
The Political Spectrum
(in reality)
Radical/
Extreme
• Liberal
The French Revolution
2.–Changes
Moderate
Liberal
Moderate
Conservative
3. New
Enlightened
forms of
government
begin with the
Estates
General 
National
Assembly
Moderate
4. Murder of
the King
1. Monarchy/
Louis XVI
Conservative!
Liberal!
Radical/ EXTREME
Radical/
Extreme
Conservative
5. Reign of
Terror/
Temples
of Reason
6. Napoleon
as Emperor
for Life
Radical
1
Phases of the Revolution
(Conservative phase)
Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI
CAUSES of the French
Revolution
Descriptions of Louis and Marie -Antoinette by
an American Ambassador in France.
On Louis…
“He is an honest man and wishes to do good,
but he has either no genius or education…“
On Marie-Antoinette…
“ Louis has a queen who controls his weak
mind. Her extravagance has been a major
cause of exhausting the government’s
finances.”
2
“Let them eat cake!”
• 1st Estate
– Clergy (2% of population)
– owned 10-15% of all the
land in France held tax-free
• 2nd Estate
– The Nobility (1% of
population)
– held highest positions in
Church, army, government.
– Owned about 30% of the
land
– Virtually no taxed
• 3rd Estate
– 97% of the Population
– Bourgeoisie (Rich middle
Class)
– Artisans (Urban poor)
– Peasants (Rural poor)
– Paid all taxes
– Suffered the most
Expensive Wars & New ideas
An Englishman’s experience with a
French peasants
I was joined by a poor woman who
complained of the times. Her husband
had only a morsel of land, one cow and a
poor horse. But they had to pay 20kg of
wheat and three chickens as feudal dues to
one lord, and 60kg of oats, one chicken
and five pence to another, along with very
heavy taxes to the king’s tax collectors:
“The taxes and feudal dues are crushing
us.” (Travels in France – Arthur Young,
1792)
Yearly Incomes Compared
Archbishop of Paris
Marquis de Mainvillette
Prince de Conti
A Paris parish priest
A typical village priest
A master carpenter
50,000 livres
20,000 livres
14,000 livres
10,000 livres
750 livres
200 livres
A Pamphlet, banned by the French Government in 1775
by Jean Jacques Rousseau
Man is born free. No man has any natural authority over
others; force does not give anyone that right. The power to
make laws belongs to the people and only the people.
3
Causes of the French Revolution!
What is the Third
Estate?

By
Abbé Sieyes
What is the Third
Estate?
 Everything.

What has it been
until now politically?

What does it desire
to be?
 Nothing
 Something!
1789 -- Phase 1 begins
Bread Riots
Paris – April 1789
4
BREAD AND THE WAGE EARNERS BUDGET*
JOB
Effective
Daily
Wage in
Sous**
Expenditure on Bread as
percentage of income
with bread priced at:
gs (Aug
1788)
14s (FebJuly 1789)
Laborer in
Reveillon
wallpaper
works
15
60
97
Builders
Laborer
18
50
80
Journeyman
mason
24
37
60
30
30
48
60
15
24
Journeyman
,
locksmith,
carpenter,
etc.
Sculptor,
goldsmith
*The price of the 4 pound loaf consumed daily by workingman
and his family as the main element in their diet
**Effective wage represents the daily wage adjusted for 121 days
of nonwork per calendar year for religious observation, etc.
Average Price of a Hectoliter (100 liters) of wheat in France
1730
9.5 francs
1750
14.5 francs
1770
19.8 francs
1789
21.0 francs
The Opening of the Estates
General May 1789
Hey folks, how
about some
more taxes???
Please?
Price of 100 kilograms of Wheat in Paris, 1770-1790
1770
25 francs
1775
20 francs
1780
17 francs
1785
19 francs
1789
29 francs
1790
27 francs
The Oath of the Tennis Court,
June 1789
Storming of the Bastille
July 14,1789
Nobles begin to flee the country - emigres
5
The National Constituent Assembly
Becomes the Government of France
July 1789
The Great Fear: July 20-August 5, 1789
burning
chateaux as the
peasants riot in
the countryside
--------------August 4,
1789 –
Feudalism,
noble
privilege, &
the Tithe were
abolished by
the National
Assembly
6