Study sheet: French Revolution and Empire

📋 Course Outline

1. Ancien Régime Social Orders
2. Absolute Monarchy and Catholic Power
3. Enlightenment and Financial Crisis
4. Estates-General and National Sovereignty
5. Popular Revolt and End of Privileges
6. Constitutional Monarchy and Reforms
7. Church Schism and Political Division
8. Republican Radicalization and War

📅 Key Dates

1. 12 May 1778Louis XVI dismissed Finance Minister Turgot after pressure from the nobility over his proposed liberal economic reforms and tax on the nobility.
2. 5 May 1789The Estates-General met at Versailles for the first time since 1614 to discuss taxation and reform.
3. 17 June 1789The Commoners declared themselves the National Constituent Assembly, claiming superior legitimacy as representatives of the nation.
4. 20 June 1789Deputies took the Tennis Court Oath, promising not to disperse until France had a constitution.
5. 14 July 1789Parisians captured the Bastille after seizing weapons at the Invalides, destroying a symbol of absolute power.
6. 4 August 1789The Assembly decreed the abolition of feudalism, including feudal privileges, church tithes, venality of office, regional privileges, and fiscal privileges.
7. 5 October 1789Women marched to Versailles and forced the king and his family to move to Paris in the Women's March.
8. November 1789The National Assembly nationalized Church property by placing it at the disposition of the nation.
9. 13 February 1790The Assembly ordered the closure of monasteries and the departure of their inhabitants.
10. 3 September 1791The Constitution established France's first written constitution and created a constitutional monarchy with limited royal power.

📖 1. Ancien Régime Social Orders

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Three Estates : French society under the Ancien Régime was organized into three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the Third Estate.

★ Must-know

• The Second Estate, composed of the nobility, represented about 1.5% of the population and was exempt from the corvée royale, the gabelle, and most importantly the taille.

• The Third Estate represented about 98% of the population and included the bourgeoisie, urban wage laborers, and rural peasants.

Further detail

• The First Estate comprised about 130,000 members, or 0.5% of the population in 1789, owned 10% of the land, and paid no direct taxes.

• Peasants paid taxes, feudal dues, and tithes while facing poverty, food shortages, and dependence on poorly paid labor.

💡 Memory Hook

Privileges for the First and Second Estates contrasted with taxation and labor imposed on the Third Estate

📖 2. Absolute Monarchy and Catholic Power

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Absolutism : A system of government in which the sovereign held power by divine right and was not subject to constitutional limits.

★ Must-know

• The Concordat of Bologna gave the king several rights:

  • appoint bishops and abbots
  • regulate church policy
  • limit papal authority in France
  • alter monastic orders

• Catholicism was the official religion of France, and the Gallican Church recognized the pope while preserving considerable autonomy for the French monarch.

Further detail

• The king was considered the nation and was believed to possess a physical body that could die and a spiritual body transmitted to his successors.

• The Church owned 6% of the land, collected a tithe worth one tenth of agricultural production, and was exempt from direct taxation on its earnings.

💡 Memory Hook

The king stands between a crown and a church, ruling by divine authority

📖 3. Enlightenment and Financial Crisis

★ Must-know

• The Enlightenment criticized: absolute monarchy, the concentration of legislative, executive, and judicial powers, religious intolerance, the privilege-based society of the Ancien Régime

• The crisis was intensified by:

  • war involvement
  • royal spending
  • poor harvests
  • cold winters in 1788–1789
  • the 1785 drought
  • cattle disease
  • rising bread prices

Further detail

• The American Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution of 1787 strengthened opposition to absolute monarchy and encouraged democratic ideas in France.

💡 Memory Hook

War spending and economic hardship → bankruptcy, unrest, and demands for reform

📖 4. Estates-General and National Sovereignty

★ Must-know

• The Third Estate represented 97% of the population but could be outvoted by the clergy and nobility because voting was organized by estate rather than by head.

Further detail

• The cahiers de doléances were approximately 30,000 lists of grievances compiled by local delegates for presentation to the king.

💡 Memory Hook

Estates-General → National Assembly → Tennis Court Oath → national sovereignty

📖 5. Popular Revolt and End of Privileges

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Great Fear : A wave of rural panic in summer 1789 during which peasants attacked tax collectors, landlords, and seigneurial archives.

💡 Memory Hook

Bastille → Great Fear → abolition of feudalism

📖 6. Constitutional Monarchy and Reforms

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen : Adopted between 20 and 26 August 1789, it proclaimed equal opportunity, freedom of speech, popular sovereignty, and representative government.

★ Must-know

📌 The 1791 constitution granted voting rights to active male citizens over 25 who paid at least three livres in taxes, producing about 4.3 million voters through censitary suffrage.

Further detail

• The reorganization included:
  • 83 departments
  • unified weights and measures
  • civil marriage

💡 Memory Hook

Constitutional promises of liberty and equality contrasted with censitary voting and exclusions

📖 7. Church Schism and Political Division

★ Must-know

• The Civil Constitution of the Clergy: redrew dioceses according to state administrative divisions, paid clergy salaries through the state, made priests and bishops elective

• On 27 November 1790, the Assembly required clergy to swear a public oath of loyalty to the Constitution or lose their salary and position.

Further detail

• More than 50% of parish clergy swore loyalty to the Constitution, producing a schism between the Constitutional Church and clergy loyal to Rome.

💡 Memory Hook

Constitutional priests swore loyalty to the Revolution, whereas refractory priests remained loyal to Rome

📖 8. Republican Radicalization and War

★ Must-know

• On 21 June 1791, Louis XVI fled toward Montmédy but was recognized at Sainte-Menehould, arrested at Varennes, and placed under surveillance.

• On 20 April 1792, the Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia to defend the Revolution and spread its ideals.

• On 10 August 1792, insurgents and Sans-Culottes attacked the Tuileries, arrested the king, and ended the French monarchy.

• On 22 September 1792, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and established the French Republic.

Further detail

• The Declaration of Pillnitz of 17 August 1791 called on European monarchs to liberate Louis XVI and restore Bourbon authority in France.

• The French revolutionary song La Marseillaise was written by Rouget de Lisle to mobilize French forces during the war.

💡 Memory Hook

Varennes → foreign war → Tuileries attack → Republic

📊 Synthesis Tables

Political Regimes Before and During the Revolution

Regime	Source of sovereignty	Political structure	Exclusions
Absolute monarchy	Divine right of the king	King holds power without constitutional limits	Most subjects lack political representation
Constitutional monarchy	Nation of citizens	King shares power with an elected Assembly	Women, poorest men, and colonial slaves excluded
French Republic	Nation and citizens	Monarchy abolished by the Convention	Established after radicalization in 1792