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Causes of the French Revolution 1789-1799

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Causes of the French Revolution 1789-1799

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On May 10th, 1774, Louis XVI (16th) was crowned King of France at age 20 along with his wife Marie Antoinette who was crowned at 18. During their reign, France was on the verge of destruction. The economy was at its lowest point due to government funding of the American Revolution, deficit spending, which is a government that is spending more funds than it had. The Unbalanced social structure was taking a toll on the people of France. An estimated 27 million commoners (3rd estate) citizens lived in France at the time. They were abused and mistreated, and they had to compensate 100 percent of the taxes to the Monarchy. As the population was increasing rapidly, the struggle to meet the food demand was difficult as an extreme winter storm destroyed most of the crops which lowered the food supply. The famine caused mass starvation across the country of France. While the citizens of France struggled to live a normal lifestyle during the harsh famine and riots began on the streets, the king and queen were having the time of their lives in the palace. Both King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette spent a large sum of money treating themselves and having lavish parties with mass amounts of food ready to feed their guests. While having been given the title of king and queen, they did nothing to help their people in need. The citizens of France needed to act fast as they couldn't live with a monarchy like this. The French were ultimately inspired by the fact of a revolution. Most of their inspiration came from the English and American revolutions, and documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta. Additionally, the idea of books and pamphlets by Enlightenment thinkers grew in mass popularity among the French. After many years of mistreatment, the people needed to revolt against their monarchy and change as a society which ultimately caused the French

Revolution.

Citations: Class Notes, https://www.britannica.com

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The Meeting of the Estates General  May 5th, 1789

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The Meeting of the Estates General  May 5th, 1789

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The Meeting of the Estates General is known as the start of the French Revolution. This meeting was assembled by King Louis XVI to speak about the economic and political issues that France was currently dealing with at the time and how to reconstruct the country after dealing with such a terrible famine. This meeting was held in Versailles and all three estates were in attendance, 300 elected from the clergy estate, 300 elected from the nobility estate, and 600 elected from the commoners. The voting worked as follows, each estate first takes part in discussion and consideration about a concern ,alone, to cast one vote as one estate, this implies that the third estate's vote can be defeated by the 1st and 2nd estates although they make up most of the country. The meeting ended with the commoners being unsatisfied with the end vote which brought in new and higher taxes to cover for the shortage, a rough total of 56 million dollars to be exact. Following this, the commoners decided to take care of the matter themselves which was the ultimate start of the French Revolution.

Citations: https://www.britannica.com

https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/key-dates/versailles-heart-french-revolution#the-context

https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/key-dates/versailles-heart-french-revolution#the-context

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After being locked out of the building of Versailles , the commanders found themselves in a nearby tennis court. They collectively decided to take part in an oath, which promised that as a 3rd Estate , they would not leave from the tennis court until a written constitution was published and established in France to end the absolute monarchy. They decided to call themselves the National Assembly since they were considered kicked out of the Regime and decided to become their own group out of the estates. The National Assembly stayed in the Tennis Court for a total of three days. Additionally, even some members from the 1st and 2nd estates joined forces with The National Assembly. King Louis XVI decided to send out an army of Swiss troops to surround Versailles to deal with the rebellion, however, he decided to make the National Assembly a part of the Estates. This oath was very symbolic to the 3rd Estate as the fight for a revolution was just about to begin.

Citations:

https://www.britannica.com

https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/key-dates/versailles-heart-french-revolution#from-the-bastille-to-versailles

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/third-estate-makes-tennis-court-oath

https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/tennis-court-oath/

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The Storming of Bastille was a very significant event following the French Revolution. Fears came to the National Assembly as news started to circulate that King Louis XVI was plotting to arrest their newly formed aggregation. This rumor led a massive mob to attack The Palace of Bastille, which was a state Prison in France that had stored various weapons and materials. The National Assembly intended to storm the palace and steal their cannons and gunpowder. Before the attack, it was a prison mostly for aristocratic prisoners, however, at the time of the attack it only contained seven prisoners imprisoned for different accounts. Protests and the mass mobs became more intense as Bernard-René Jordan de Launay a Bastille Military Governor sent out hardly any troops to deal with the violent protests, and they were outnumbered. The Bastille was destroyed by the National Assembly that day and the French army was not strong enough to stop it. This event illustrates the destruction of power and royal authority by the people of France. It became such an important date in the History and is still seen as an impactful episode today as it was the first battle for freedom and the start of a rebellion.

Citations:

https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/bastille-day

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/7/13/history-illustratedwhy-the-storming-of-the-bastille-still-matters#:~:text=The%20storming%20of%20the%20Bastille,liberty%2C%20equality%2C%20fraternity'.

https://www.britannica.com

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The Establishment of the French Republic and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789

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The Establishment of the French Republic and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789

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After the Storming of Bastille, the Nation Assembly became an independent government and decided to draft and create their own constitution to make France a constitutional monarchy. This document was called the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. It was made up of 17 articles that promised and declared that all men are born and created equal and deserve freedom and equal rights, liberty, property, safety, and resistance to oppression. Additionally, it stated every man is assumed innocent unless he pleads guilty to a crime, and no man should be judged for their opinions of religious beliefs except if man interferes with traditional Law and Order, and the permitting of free speech and say of any opinion, this also goes for the publishment of books and pieces of literature or any written establishment. However, not everyone agreed to the establishment of this document, as women were excluded from the declaration. Olympe de Gouges was an advocate for women's rights in France as she created her own declaration in favor of women's rights, but was later executed for the matter by the revolutionists.

Citations:

https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668069/#:~:text=APA%20citation%20style%3A-,France.,and%20Approved%20by%20the%20King%20.

https://www.elysee.fr/en/french-presidency/the-declaration-of-the-rights-of-man-and-of-the-citizen#:~:text=History-,The%20Declaration%20of%20the%20Rights%20of%20Man%20and%20of%20the,There%20were%20many%20proposals.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Declaration-of-the-Rights-of-Man-and-of-the-Citizen

French Revolution Textbook Pages

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The Establishment of the French Republic and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789

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After signing the Declaration of the Rights of Man, Louis XVI found it difficult to follow. With the many restrictions and the new constitutional monarchy, it became tough. That is when Marie Antoinette had the excellent idea to flee from the throne and their royal duties to Varennes, where they will be safe from any sudden want for execution or rebellion. This sudden vanishment is known as the Flight to Varennes. After the sudden disappearance, the people of France completely lost trust in Louis XVI and the Monarchy as a whole. The anger in them grew as they felt betrayal and hatred towards the monarchy. Soon after both Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were arrested for the matter. King Louis XVI was put on trial by the National Convention. He was charged with 33 crimes of treason which is a crime of being unloyal to one's country and failing to rule. The verdict? Guilty. The final decision ruled by the court was to sentence him to death. The death of King Louis XVI was done by a Guillotine, which is a device that takes a sharp blade and slams down on the neck of the victim which ends up beheading whoever is in it. A couple weeks later Marie Antoinette also met the same fate.

Citations:

https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/trial-execution-of-louis-xvi/

https://www.britannica.com/event

https://greyhistory.com/maps-of-the-flight-to-varennes/

https://www.worldhistory.org/Flight_to_Varennes/

https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/great-characters/marie-antoinette

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 Reign of Terror September 5th,  1793 to July 27th, 1794

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 Reign of Terror September 5th,  1793 to July 27th, 1794

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Revolution comes with violence as we have seen during the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. The Jacobin Club was a political group of extreme revolutionists who promoted violence and brutality to win against those in power and those who opposed the French Revolution. The Jacobin Club was formed by Maximilian Robespierre, who was executed for leading such a radical group. He was guillotined for the killings of thousands of people who were suspected to be enemies of the French Revolution. Guillotines were used for these reasons and were very popular killing mechanism for Robespierre. The Reign of Terror lasted a little less than a year, from September 5th, 1793, and ended on his death on July 27th, 1794.

Citations:

https://www.britannica.com

French Revolution Textbook Pages

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Reign of Terror September 5th,  1793 to July 27th, 1794

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As the Jacobin Cub came to an end after the death of Maximilian Robespierre and most of the members, the Reign of Terror finally came to an end. After this eventful period, the National Convention decided to meet again to discuss how to continue forward with the new government and revolution. They decided to create France's First Republic in 1792. The director of the new government will be none other than Napoleon Bonaparte, who was the chief of the French military at the time and led the army to many victories. The people decided to crown Napoleon as their leader in 1804. After being crowned, the era of the French Revolution finally came to an end and the Napoleon Era began.

Citations:

https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/napoleon

https://www.britannica.com

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/french-revolution#:~:text=On%209%20November%201799%2C%20as,start%20of%20the%20Napoleonic%20era.