French Revolution
Birth of the Revolution:
The King in Versailles
Review
• What problems did France face?
• Why were the French people upset?
• What did the French people think of L16 and
Marie Antoinette?
• What did they symbolize?
• What were the 3 estates?
Key Terms
• Ancien Regime
• Destruction of the Bastille
• Liberté, égalité,
• Declaration of the Rights
fraternité
• Jacques Necker
• Estates General
• National Assembly
• Tennis Court Oath
• Storming of the Bastille
of Man
• Declaration of the Rights
of Women
• Jean-Paul Marat
• The People’s Friend
• Women’s March on
Versailles
Clarification of French Terms
• Ancien Regime
o Literally translates to?
• “Ancient Regime”
o Term used to refer to the
old system of government
• Liberté, égalité, fraternité
o Literally translates to?
• Liberty, Equality, (and)
brotherhood.
o National motto of France
o Started during the FR
Jacques Necker
• As a gesture of good will, Louis Appoints
Necker as Finance Minister
• Popular with the People
o Was from the 3rd estate
o Pushed for fairer tax system
o Eased taxes on the poor
• Seeing all of the problems in France…
o Necker convinced L16 to call the Estates General
Estates General
• Meeting of the 3 Estates called by Louis XVI
• First Estates General in 175 years
o Significance?
• Met in Versailles in May of 1789
1 vote
1 vote
1 vote
Clergy
Nobles
Everyone
Else
National Assembly
*Forget* you guys!
I’m going…
to start my own
legislative body
• The 3rd estate was largely ignored
during the Estates-General
o Were outnumbered by votes
o 3rd Estate believed they represented the true
France
• Since they were ignored, they
started meeting on their own.
o Believed that they represented France
o Named themselves the “National
Assembly”
• They created their own
Parliamentary body and began
passing laws.
Tennis Court Oath
• Louis did not recognize their
right to act
o On June 20,1789, Louis locked
them out of the EstatesGeneral
• Members of the N.A. found
a nearby Tennis Court to use
instead.
o Members took an Oath to
continue to meet until they
have a constitution
Tennis Court Oath (Cont’d)
• Tennis Court Oath
o “never to separate, and to meet wherever
circumstances demand, until the constitution of the
kingdom is established and affirmed on solid
foundations”
• Significance?
o Revolutionary act
o Assertion that political authority derived from the
people and their representatives, rather than from the
monarch.
Storming of the Bastille
July 14th, 1789
• Louis XVI fired Jacques Necker
o News spread through Paris
o People were livid
• Why attack the Bastille?
o Symbol of Feudal system & Absolutism
o Gunpowder!
• Significance?
o
o
o
o
First action of Mob Violence in the FR
Armed the revolutionaries in Paris
Tennis Court Oath was just talk, this was action
People taking their destiny into their own hands
• a
Destruction of the Bastille
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (British) – 1789
What tho’ through many a groaning age
Was felt thy keen suspicious rage,
Yet Freedom rous’d by fierce Disdain
Has wildly broke thy triple chain,
And like the storm which Earth’s deep entrails hide,
At length has burst its way and spread the ruins wide.
I see, I see! glad Liberty succeed
With every patriot virtue in her train!
And mark yon peasant’s raptur’d eyes;
Secure he views his harvests rise;
No fetter vile the mind shall know,
And Eloquence shall fearless glow.
Yes! Liberty the soul of Life shall reign,
Shall throb in every pulse, shall flow thro’ every vein!
And still, as erst, let favour’d Britain be
First ever of the first and freest of the free!
Declaration of the Rights of Man
(Aug, 1789)
• Equivalent to the Declaration of
Independence
• Believed that the rights of man
are universal and equal
o Not based on “estate”
• Declared the natural right of
popular sovereignty
• **Ignored the Rights of Women
o Declaration of the Rights of
Women (1791)
• Olympe De Gouges
Jean-Paul Marat
• Angry dude
• Capitalized on the new Freedom
of the Press
o The People’s Friend
• Constantly called for heads to
roll
• Significance?
o Radical voice of the people
o Like certain political radio hosts
today
o Spread the word, and called
people to action
• People often answered
Women’s March on Versailles
Oct, 1789
• Parisian women enraged because:
1. Bread Prices (Long Term)
2. Rumors (Short Term)
• Royal Banquet & the tricolor
• Hoarding of Flour
o Guess who started the rumors
• Marched to Versailles
Women’s March on Versailles
• Demanded that Louis XVI &
Marie Antoinette moved to
Paris
o Louis capitulated
• Significance?
o Balance of power had
changed
o Commoners controlled king,
controlled the country
o Political strength of women
o L16 & Marie essentially
prisoners in Paris
• would never return to Versailles
Events
• Estates General
• Formation of the National Assembly
• Tennis Court Oath
• Storming of the Bastille
• Declaration of the Rights of Man
• Women’s March on Versailles