The French Revolution

​Let Them Eat Cake

• I can identify the causes and results of the French Revolution

• I can explain the rise to Napoleon's power, the role of geography in his defeat, and the consequences of France's defeat for Europe

​

Learning Target

• First Estate

  • less than 1% of population

  • 10% of the land

  • Catholic clergy

  • $$$

• Second Estate

  • little more than 1% of population

  • Hereditary nobility

  • 30% of the land

  • Most of the government

• Third Estate ​

  • Everyone else

The 3 Estates

Multiple Choice

Where did MOST of the population fit in the French social estates?

• First

• Second

• Third

• Fourth

• Wanted to live life like Louis XIV

• Nation in debt from Louis XV

• Estates General

  • called the national legislature

  • Some 1st and 3rd Estates voiced concerns

  • wanted National Assembly to draft a constitution

• Louis LOCKS out the 3rd Estate

​

Louis XVI

Multiple Choice

Would the people be happy with Louis XVI's actions?

• Yes

• No

Open Ended

Why not? (think Enlightenment)

• Met at a tennis court and promised not to stop until a Constitution is made

• Poor Parisians stormed the Bastille July 14th 1789

• National Assembly decides to write a Constitution

• The Declaration of the Rights of Man

• Louis XVI resisted

• Food shortages led to women marching on Versailles

• Constitutional Monarchy - 2 years

The 3rd Estate

"Let them eat Cake!"

• Wrong accredited to Marie Antionette in response to the women's march on the Palace of Versailles during the food shortage

• Actual line was "Let them eat brioche" written by Rousseau when Marie was a child

• Neighboring kings (Prussia and Austria) worried about the spread

• Empowered the revolution

• People called to get rid nobility and confiscate the clergy land

• 1792 - Louis XVI tries to escape to Austria with Marie Antionette

• Caught and sent to the guillotine for treason

​

Radical Revolution

• Decided to make France a republic

• Pushed a republic of virtue

  • Date from start of Republic instead of Birth of Christ

  • Churches became Temples of Reason

• Committee of Public Safety

  • guard against counter-revolutionaries

  • Maximilien Robespierre

    • Reign of Terror

    • 40,000 and 300,000

National Convention

Poll

Would you feel safe in the hands of the Committee of Public Safety?

• Yes

• No

Guillotine Fun Facts

• Named after someone who proposed a more humane execution method - Joseph Guillotine

• Public event that was a fun family outing

• Executioners were national celebrities

• Popular toy in France

• Experiments were conducted on the heads

• Last Guillotine execution was 1977 in France

• 1996 - Georgia purposed to bring the Guillotine back as an option

• 1794 National Convention convicted Robespierre

• Created the Directory to restore order - failed

• Napoleon Bonaparte took over in a coup and undid all democratic republic aspects of the government

​

The Directory

• Popular general during the Revolution

• People voted him into his reign in 1799

• 1800 people approved to give Napoleon total power as the 1st Consul of the French Republic

• Good Things:

  • equality under the law

  • private property

  • national banks and schools

  • Napoleonic Law Codes

• Crowned himself Emperor in 1804

Napoleon

• Worked to expand his empire by invading other nations

• Goal: largest empire since Rome

• 1812 - invaded Russia

  • 600,000

  • Winter

  • 30,000

• Forced to Abdicate in 1814

• Exiled but came back in 1815

• Defeated at Waterloo

• Permanently exiled to St. Helen

​

Napoleon's Mistake