French Revolution

Effects of the Enlightenment
• Ideas on

government inspire
calls for Democracy

• American

Revolution

• Rebellions in Latin

America

• Growing unrest in

France

French Society

French society was divided into 3 classes called
“Estates”:

First Estate
Catholic church
officials &Clergy

1st

2nd

3rd

2nd Estate

Nobility &
aristocracy

3rd Estate

1.

Bourgeoisie –
educated city
lawyers,
doctors,
businessmen

2.

Peasants &
farmers

The 1st Estate

• Only 1% of

population

• Own 10% of land

• Pay NO taxes

The 2nd Estate

• 3% of population

• Own 20% of the land

• Pay NO TAXES

• Control government

& live off collected
tax money

The 3rd Estate

• 95% of population

• Almost no say in

government

• Pay all the taxes

• Pay tithes to Church

King Louis XVI

Huge Debt from the Palace of
Versailles

• Absolute

Monarch but a
weak ruler

• Attempts

reforms but
many fail due
to nobility

Marie Antoinette

• Queen of

France

• BIG spender

• “Let them

eat cake”??

Abbé Sieyès

What is the Third Estate?
Everything. What has it
been in the political order?
Nothing. What does it
desire to be? Something!

• Member of the

Estates General

• Inspires 3rd Estate

to seek power

The Estates General

• Type of

representation

• Rarely meet

• 1 vote per Estate

• 3rd Estate ALWAYS

outvoted

The National Assembly

• 1st & 2nd Estates Locked out of the Estates

General, 3rd Estate signs
the Tennis Court Oath

• Creates a National

Assembly

• Issue the Declaration of

the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen

The Great Fear

• Peasants

riot
throughout France

• Nobles

homes
ransacked by the 3rd
Estate

The Storming of the Bastille

• Prison in Paris &

symbol of royal
authority
stormed

• Starts the

revolution – July
14, 1789

Women arm themselves and march on the Place of Versailles.

King Louie XVI and Mary Antoinette escape by carriage.
They were arrested in Varennes and returned to Paris.

Robespierre

• Begins the

Reign of Terror

• Mass

executions of
enemies of the
Revolution

• Thousands sent

to the guillotine

French Republic

• Declared by the new

National Convention

• Monarchy abolished

• All religious symbols

banned for a “Cult of
Reason”

Georges Danton

• Leads the

Committee of Public
Safety

• Designed to

suppress opposition
inside & outside
France

• Calls for the

execution of King
Louis