Chapter 3 Section 3: Radical Days of the Revolution
Focus Question: What events occurred during the radical phase of the French Revolution?
The Monarchy is Abolished
I. In 1793, the French revolution entered a radical phase and into the
bloodiest regimes in its history.
A. News of mounting deaths in the war with Prussia caused anger with the
King, who many thought was on the side of Prussia.
1. A mob of citizens stormed the royal palace in hopes of killing the king.
2. The king and his family fled to the Legislative Assembly barely
escaping.
B. A month later in what has been called the “September massacres,”
citizens attacked prisons that held nobles and priests and killed many of
them.
II. Radicals take control and execute the King.
A. Backed by the Paris crowds, the radicals took control of the Assembly.
1. They called for the election of a new legislative body called the National Convention.
B. Suffrage was given to all male citizens and the newly elected
legislature was full of radicals who seized nobles’ lands, abolished
titles of nobility and, erased all traces of the old order.
C. The Convention put Louis XVI on trial as a traitor to France.
1. The king is sentenced to death and later Marie Antoinette his wife is
sentenced to death.
(What occurred after the radicals took control of the Assembly? What is suffrage and do you think the women would be angry?)
III. Terror and Danger Grip France
A. Early 1793, the country is at war with much of Europe.
B. The convention creates a new committee.
C. The Convention, or legislative body, created the Committee of Public
Safety and gave its 12 members almost absolute power in response to
the threats from inside and outside the country.
1. Under the leader, Maximilien Robespierre, this Committee set out a
Reign of Terror which lasted from September 1793 to July 1794.
2. During this time, the Committee of Public Safety tried to crush all
opposition to the revolution in which suspected enemies of the state
were hastily tried and often put to death by guillotine.
(Why did the Convention give the Committee of Public Safety so much power? What did the Committee of Public Safety try to do? Who was the leader of the Committee of Public Safety?)
IV. The Revolution Enters Its Third Stage
A. Moderates took over after the Reign of Terror and the Convention
produced the third constitution since 1789.
1. Robespierre was arrested and put to death.
B. The Directory held power from 1795 to 1799.
1. It was weak and could not deal with the raise in bread prices and the
growing discontent.
C. In 1797, supporters of a constitutional monarchy won the majority of
the seats in the legislature.
D. Inflation and the resurgence of royalist feelings caused politicians to
rally around war hero Napoleon Bonaparte.
1. The politicians planned to use Napoleon to advance their own goals.
2. Napoleon outwitted them to become the ruler of France.
(Who won the majority of seats in the Legislature in 1797? Why did the politicians turn to Napoleon?)
V. Revolution Brings Change
A. By 1799, the 10-year-old French Revolution had dislodged the old
social order, overthrown the monarchy, and brought the Church under
state control.
B. Nationalism Spreads
1. Revolution and war gave the French people a strong sense of national identity.
2. The revolution brought loyalty to the nation, instead of to a monarch.
3. Nationalism, a strong feeling of pride in and devotion to one’s own
country, spread throughout France.
4. This new nationalism was celebrated with festivals, dances, and songs.
C. Revolutionaries pushed for various social reforms and religious
toleration.
1. State schools were set up to replace religious ones.
2. An organized system was set up to help the poor, old soldiers, and war
widows.
3. Slavery was abolished.
(What changes occurred in France because of the French Revolution? What did nationalism give to the people of France? How was nationalism celebrated?)