The French Revolution

Louis XVI

King of France (1774-1792). In 1789 he summoned the Estates-General, but he did not grant the reforms that were demanded by the Estates, particularly the Third Estate, and revolution soon followed. Louis and his queen, Marie Antoinette, were executed in 1

Parlement

French noble councils that regulated the legislation of the king, high courts of justice

Girondins

A political party that emerged in revolutionary France after the fall of the monarchy in 1792 when the Jacobins split into two factions. Named for the region in southwestern France where many of their leaders were from. They were members of the profession

Marie Antoinette

Queen of France, wife of Louis XVI, who was unpopular her extravagance and opposition to reform contributed to the overthrow of the monarchy. She was nicknamed Madame Deficit because of all the money she spent while the masses of French starved. She was g

First Estate

The first class of French society made up of the high clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. 1% of the French population at the time of the Revolution.

Second Estate

the French nobility, 2% of population, rich nobles, owned 20-25% of land, no taxes-hated enlightenment

Third Estate

97% of the population (the rest of France) They consisted of the bourgeoisie (the top-layer), the san-culottes and the peasants; they paid high taxes and had no special privileges

bourgeoisie

Comfortable members of the 3rd estate. Basically middle class, wanted the privileges of the nobility and upper clergy.

ancien regime

The old order before the Revolution in France

Jacques Necker

financial expert of Louis XVI, he advised Louis to reduce court spending, reform his government, abolish tariffs on internal trade, but the First and Second Estates got him fired, he was well liked by the Third Estate

Assembly of Notables

A group of nobles and aristocrats invited by the king of France to discuss reform of the government.

Estates General

France's traditional national assembly with representatives of the three estates, or classes, in French society: the clergy, nobility, and commoners. The calling of the Estates General in 1789 led to the French Revolution.

What is the Third Estate?

Pamphlet written by Abbe Sieyes in January 1789. It declared the nobility to be a useless caste that should be abolished. Only the Third Estate was necessary and was identical with the nation - should therefore be sovereign. Through these writings of Siey

National Assembly

A French congress established by representatives of the Third Estate and reform minded members of the First and Second Estate, on June 17, 1789, to enact laws and reforms in the name of the French people. They swore the Tennis Court Oath.

Tennis Court Oath

A pledge made by the members of France's National Assembly in 1789, in which they vowed to continue meeting until they had drawn up a new constitution

storming of the Bastille

Paris-July 14, 1789, the storming of this medieval fortress and prison known as the Bastille became the symbolic start of the French Revolution. Insurgents believe munitions were in the Bastille, but in fact it only contained only seven prisoners. The war

Great Fear

A wave of senseless panic that spread through the French countryside after the storming of the Bastille in 1789

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Statement of fundamental political rights adopted by the French National Assembly at the beginning of the French Revolution.

Olympe de Gouges

A proponent of democracy, she demanded the same rights for French women that French men were demanding for themselves. In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791), she challenged the practice of male authority and the notion of

The Rights of Woman

written by Olympe de Gouges during the French Revolution and it demanded equal rights for women

Women's march to Versailles

On October 5, 1789, rumors spread in Paris that the royals were hoarding all the grain. A hungry mob of 6,000 largely working-class women decided to march on the Palace of Versailles, taking with them pieces of cannon and other weaponry. They forced the r

Jean-Paul Marat

French revolutionary leader (born in Switzerland) who was a leader in overthrowing the Girondists and was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday (1743-1793)

Civil Constitution of the Clergy 1790

A body of legislation passed in July 1790 that redefined the relationship between the clergy and the state in France. It allowed for the confiscation of church property formerly used to support the clergy, replacing it with a guarantee of state salaries f

83 departments

france became a centralized national gov't based in Paris once the feudal institutions, parlements, estates, provincial law codes, and tarrif and tax bodies were replaced by them

assignats

Paper currency, the French churches were used as collateral -the first French paper currency issued by the General Assembly.

Flight to Varennes

In June of 1791 LXVI and his family attempted to escape and join the emigres who were agitating outside France to overthrow the revolution. King left a written message repudiating the revolution. He was spotted and arrested in Varennes in Lorraine in nort

Reflections on the Revolution in France

Written by Edmund Burke, the philosophical conservative, in England. He had previously adivsed SLOW adaptation of liberties for England and commenting on the revolution in France he predicted anarchy and dictatorship as result of too rapid advance of libe

Legislative Assembly

..., A French congress with the power to create laws and approve declarations of war, established by the Constitution of 1791

Jacobins

Radical republicans during the French Revolution. They were led by Maximilien Robespierre from 1793 to 1794. They were allied with and found their power base with the sans-culottes who demanded radical change.

Declaration of Pilnitz

the statment made by Austria and Prussia that they would attack France if anything happened to the King or Queen

Emigres

French nobility who fled country to escape the Revolution

storming of the Tuileries

August of 1792. Working class of Paris with support from provincial troops stormed the Tuilieries Palace, massacred the Swiss Guard and imprisoned the king and queen. Stimulated establishment of revoltionary commune which forced the calling of a Constitut

Georges-Jacques Danton

French revolutionary leader who stormed the Paris Bastille and who supported the execution of Louis XVI but was guillotined by Robespierre for his opposition to the Reign of Terror (1759-1794)

September Massacres

Louis's imprisonment was followed by the September massacres. Wild stories seized the city that imprisoned counter-revolutionary aristocrats/priests were plotting with the allied invaders. As a results, angry crowds invaded the prisons of Paris and summar

National Convention

A national meeting of delegates elected in primaries, caucuses, or state conventions who assemble once every four years to nominate candidates for president and vice president, ratify the party platform, elect officers, and adopt rules.

Equality, Liberty and Fraternity

Motto of the French Revolution: Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite

sans-culottes

In the French Revolution, a radical group made up of Parisian wage-earners, and small shopkeepers who wanted a greater voice in government, lower prices, and an end of food shortages. In order to be heard they supported the Jacobins and Robespierre.

Committee of Public Safety

Established and led by Robespierre, fixed bread prices and nationalized some businesses. Basically secret police and also controlled the war effort. Instigated the Reign of Terror in which 40K people were guillotined. 1792-1795.

Maximilien Robespierre

The incorruptable;" the leader of the bloodiest portion of the French Revolution. He set out to build a republic of virtue.

Law of Maximum

A planned economy to respond to economic problems like food shortages, maximum allowed prices fixed prices which poor can afford, rationing, nationalized workshops, equalizing of grain and bread, arms and munitions now produced, The fixing of prices on br

levee en masse

Law for the draft that obligated all French men between certain ages to enlist in the army during the French Revolution.

Reign of Terror

From 1793-94 during the French Revolution. 40K were executed for "disloyalty" including the king and queen. The Reign of Terror also consumed Danton, and its incorruptible leader Robespierre.

Law of Suspects

Allows anyone who is merely suspected of challenging the republic or the revolution can be arrested without trial. If that do go to trial. they can be executed for the most minor of things.

Cult of the Supreme Being

a religion based on deism devised by Maximilien Robespierre, intended to become the state religion after the French Revolution

Temple of Reason

new name for the Cathedral of Notre Dame during the Radical Phase of the Revolution

Thermidorian Reaction

A reaction to the violence of the Reign of Terror in 1794, resulting in the execution of Robespierre and the loosening of economic controls It is associated with the end of the Reign of Terror and reassertion of bourgeoisie power in the Directory.

The Directory

1785-1799. Five man group. Passed a new constitution in 1795 that was much more conservative. Corrupt and did not help the poor, but remained in power because of military strength. By 1797 it was a dictatorship.

Conspiracy of Equals

Led by "Gracchus" Babeuf an attempt to renew violent rebellion after the Thermidore reaction,-communistic in nature.

Coup d'Etat Brumaire

Coup necessary to overcome the opposition. Nov 9, 1799 the legislature was driven from its chambers and the Consulate was declared. Napoleon would be one of the new consuls.

Consulate Era

era after the directory with Napolean acting as head, took public vote of support that reaffirmed Napolean's right to lead

plebiscite

A direct vote in which a country's people have the opportunity to approve or reject a proposal

Storming of the Bastille

Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution.