Crisis, Revolution, and the Terror (1774–1799)

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First Estate: clergy. Second Estate: nobility. Third Estate: everyone else (97% of the population) — they paid almost all the taxes while the first two Estates paid almost none.

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France was effectively bankrupt — over half of government spending went on debt repayment. Louis needed new taxes approved, but noble-controlled parlements had blocked every reform. The Estates-General (not met since 1614) was his last option.

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When Louis XVI locked the Third Estate out of their meeting hall, deputies moved to a nearby tennis court and swore not to disband until France had a written constitution. It was an act of open defiance against royal authority.

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It created a constitutional monarchy: Louis XVI kept the crown but lost absolute power; a Legislative Assembly held legislative power; 'active citizens' (property owners) could vote. The fatal weakness: Louis XVI's Flight to Varennes (June 1791) had already destroyed trust in him as a constitutional monarch.

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War with Austria (from April 1792) radicalized the Revolution; foreign armies advanced on Paris; the Jacobins gained power. On 10 August 1792, sans-culottes stormed the Tuileries palace, forcing the suspension then abolition of the monarchy. France became a republic on 21 September 1792.

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Maximilien Robespierre was a lawyer and Jacobin leader who dominated the Committee of Public Safety (1793–1794). He believed virtue required violence against the Revolution's enemies. He directed the Terror until his own arrest and execution on 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794).

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Approximately 17,000 people were officially executed; 10,000–25,000 more died in prison or without trial. The Committee of Public Safety justified it as a response to invasion, counter-revolution (e.g. the Vendée), and political opponents. The Law of Suspects (1793) allowed arrest on vague 'disloyalty' grounds.

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On 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794), members of the National Convention overthrew and arrested Robespierre. The Thermidorean reaction that followed dismantled the Terror, released political prisoners, reformed the Revolutionary Tribunal, and shifted France towards moderate republican government — ultimately creating the Directory.

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The levée en masse (August 1793) was the mass conscription of all French male citizens into the army — the first modern example of total national mobilisation for war. It created armies far larger than Europe had seen, helping France defeat the First Coalition and spreading revolutionary ideas across Europe.

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Political: abolished absolute monarchy, established popular sovereignty and a republican tradition. Social: ended feudalism and noble legal privilege; created legal equality. Economic: nationalised Church land (10% of France), abolished internal customs, created a single national market — but wars caused serious inflation.

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France declared war on Austria in April 1792 — revolutionaries wanted to spread revolution; European monarchies feared it would spread. Impact at home: intensified the Terror (invasion threat justified emergency powers), introduced the levée en masse (1793), caused economic strain, and raised the political status of military commanders like Napoleon Bonaparte.

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Ancien Régime: absolute monarchy, society by birth rank (Estates), Church privilege, feudal obligations. Republic by 1795: elected Legislative Assembly, legal equality, feudalism abolished, Church lands nationalised, meritocratic army promotion. But: republic was unstable — the Directory (1795–1799) was corrupt and weak, setting the scene for Napoleon.