French Revolution: Napoleon.

French Revolution.

-Louis XIV, bankrupted France with his foreign wars and his new palace, Versailles.

-Louis XVI financial minister was Turgot. A man of the enlightenment, Turgot tried to tax land [mostly owned by nobles] free tariffs and get rid of the corvee.

-Nobles and clergy were exempt from taxation and where against Turgot's plan to tax them. So they made Louis XVI get rid of Turgot and hire Necker, a Swiss banker

-Necker financially supported the American Rev. which made a bigger debt for France.

-King needed money so the nobles and clergy forced him to call the Estates General, a governing body from the middle ages, to help him get money

Estates General 3 Estates were:

1. Clergy- 1 % of pop. -10% of land

2. Nobility- 3% of pop. -20% of land

-2 kinds of nobility; 'nobility of sword'-ancient nobility &

'nobility of robe'-rich people who became nobles

Tinted etching of Louis XVI of France, 1792, with ...

Portrait of Louis XVI

Louis XVI who reigned from 1774 to 1792. Vergennes...

3. Bourgeoisie- Merchants, lawyers, peasants, artisans

3rd Estate demanded 3 things:

1. meeting in one room-so they wouldn't be ignored

2.Voting by individuals, not by estates-bc the clergy and

nobility were a minority but they always voted together

to veto Bourgeoisie

3.Double representation of 3rd Estate-since they represented

97% of the pop.

-cahiers were lists of complaints from the delegates sent to the King

-Louis XVI kicked the 3rd Estate out of the Estate General so they met on Tennis courts outside and formed a National Assembly; in response, Louis XVI called the army to Paris

-people of Paris stormed the Prison of Bastille on July 14 [Bastille Day in France today] to get ammunition and free prisoners

-san-coulutte is the name for the lower class people of Paris who are very radical

-peasants also rebelled in the countryside out of the Great Fear-that the nobility...