Unit 5: The Causes and Effects of the French Revolution

Thing - "The Death of Socrates" by David

David painted this because he wanted to Socrates' story. The older generation of Athens eventually pressed charges against him for corrupting the youth and was found guilty. His punishment was banished from Athens. He refused to accept that banishment because he was a model for his students and he taught them to stand up for what they believe. If he accepted the banishment, then he would be admitting that the truth isn't the way to live. He said give him another punishment, hence the death of Socrates. He is teaching them to challenge tradition. This teaches that we must be willing to sacrifice ourselves for the better of society.

People - Napoleon

He came from Corsica, not France. When he gets into the French Military Academy, he is bullied for his height, foreignness, and his status (since he is not from the aristocracy). Despite these setbacks, he was fantastic in every way in becoming a soldier and eventually becomes an officer in the French military. He recognized that he has natural leadership skills, a good communicator, and a profound belief that he knows the one thing that is going to help France. So he establishes himself as dictator then comes the Napoleonic Code, social equality, hiring based on qualifications, and the first free public education system in the world.

People - Louis XV

He decides that the aristocrats do not need to live with him. He wants paintings that look like him or are him. He inherits the economic problems of his grandfather Louis XIV. He is not nearly as powerful or smart as him grandfather, so ministers basically use him as a puppet and cause a lot of governmental delay. He wants to end the French economic problem, so he gets involved in the 7 Years War/The French and Indian War, losing more money in the process.

People - Thomas Hobbes

He doesn't believe that their power comes from God, but he supports having an absolute monarchy.He says that you need to have an absolute monarch because human nature is so undisciplined that humans would be in a constant state of chaos, confusion, and war. He has a low opinion of human nature. He claims that back in prehistoric times is that human beings got so fed up with having to defend themselves from one another is that when people settled down, they entered into a social contract with a strong individual by giving up their freedom in order to protect them from one another.

People - Louis XVI

He feels the same way about the king's role as his father, Louis XV. He inherits the loans from his father, and listens to his advisors who say that he should raise taxes on the lower and middle class. He wants to get back part of North America, so he supports the American Revolution. By the time it ends, he gets no land and is in even more debt. When he finally has to give the aristocracy taxes, he calls on the Estates General to vote on the matter. After the National Assembly is established, he is forced to make the monarchy a constitutional monarchy. He is caught trying to leave the country and is later executed along with his wife, Marie Antoinette, due to treason.

People - Diderot

He is famous for agreeing with Voltaire that the government and church are the greatest oppressors. He says that "people will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest". He was famous for believing that every human being has right to know what they want to know. They have a right to access knowledge. The Church controlled the access to knowledge before the printing press. His attempt to make that possible is to compile the first encyclopedia.

People - Robespierre

He is in charge of the government during the Reign of Terror (Phase 2). He started off as a good guy and an attorney, then loses it and turns incredibly violent. He mindlessly executes people without trials due to paranoia-fueled beliefs of treason. The only thing that is going to end this period is going to be the execution of him. When he is executed, the people don't know what to do anymore.

People - Fragonard

He is not an aristocrat despite painting "The Swing". He comes from the lower middle class. When an aristocratic man comes up to him and asks him to paint the swing, he accepts despite the boldness of the commission.

People - Voltaire

He likes the idea of natural rights. He agrees that the government should not being protecting the interests of a tiny minority of people, they should be protecting the interests of everyone. He wants people to have individual freedoms, such as freedom of writing what we think, religious freedom, saying what we think, having respect for other people's right, etc. He also really stresses the freedom to express our opinions. He goes on to express his opinion that the greatest sources of oppression throughout history have been the government (kings, etc.) and the Church. He envisions a society with no prisons, no priests, no political tyrants, etc.

People - Chardin

He painted "Grace at Table". He depicts that there is a time to play, modesty, discipline, gratitude, faith, love, and hard work. It shows that you have to work for your place.

People - John Locke

He reads Leviathan and there are certain things he agrees with, but there are also certain things he disagrees with. He says that you can have an absolute monarch, but the monarch has to fulfill responsibility to the people he rules. He agrees that people give the power for the leader to rule, but if the monarch does not protect their natural lives, liberty, and property, the people not only have the right, but an obligation, to get rid of that monarch and put in a new monarch. He has a much higher opinion of human beings than Hobbes did. He said human beings lived in peace and harmony in prehistoric times, but when leadership came in, they were robbed of their freedom. People should be able to select another monarch to rule them if the current one sucks.

People - Rousseau

He talks about the general will in his book called The General Will. The number of people voting determines the general will. He says what you need to do in societies is to have elections in order for people to be able to express their general will.

People - Charles Wright of Derby

He was from England, where the Industrial Revolution began. In the center of England, there are both coal mines and iron mines. This is where Wright grows up. By the time he is a little boy, he is fascinated that science is being applied to daily life. He is going to use his paintings as a way to raise the status of science and scientists at the same time he is trying to popularize science. He belonged to the Lunar Society. His aim is to make scientific figures look just as heroic as political and religious figures have in the past.

People - David

He was part of the revolutionary government during the revolution and votes for the execution of Louis XVI. When his friend, Robespierre is executed, he is terrified that he is going to be executed and goes into hiding. Once things are calm again, he goes back to teaching students at the Louvre. He painted many events that were happening at France at the time.

People - Montesquieu

His main writing is The Spirit of the Laws. He (along with Voltaire and Diderot) says that absolute monarchy is wrong. He says that the most important thing to recognize is that if you give a person all political power, they cannot help but become a tyrant. He says look at all the power a government has and then give a certain group certain tasks. This is called Separation of Powers. He also recognizes that just because you divide up the powers, you can still have tyrants. Each of those branches has to have little ways to control another branch that has or will have too much power. This is checks and balances.

Thing - Palace of Versailles

King Louis XIV moves the royal palace and all the aristocrats to this place. It serves as a home to them until Louis XV decides that it is okay if the aristocrats choose not to live here.

Thing - Napoleonic Code

Napoleon abolishes the old laws and replaces those laws with a simple, logical set of laws that every single person is going to be held to equally.

People - Louis XIV

The most powerful monarch in European history. He moved the aristocracy and royalty to the Palace at Versailles. He was smart and good at his job. He caused economic problems when fighting in the Thirty Years War and building the Palace at Versailles.

Thing - "Grace at Table" by Chardin

The painting shows kind of wealth isn't as in your face as the aristocrats because they valued how hard you worked, how you acted, and what your morals are. The painting is showing that there is a time to play, modesty, discipline, gratitude, faith, love, and hard work. It shows that you have to work for your place. There is a figural pyramid in the painting, giving a feeling of symmetry and balance.

Thing - Romanticism

This art period is going to express the idea that in order to access all the truth of the human experience, we have to pay attention to more than logic and reason. We need to pay attention to emotions, instinct, imagination, faith, anything we cannot logically explain (cruelty, insanity, incredible courage). In music, art, and literature, artists are creating works that logic can't explain. There is going to be a vast array of subjects in Romantic art. There is no single Romantic style. All the works look very different from one another. Some of themes in Romantic art are birth, death, extremes of joy and pain, hope, despair, insanity, power of nature.

Thing - Neoclassical Period

This is an art period around the French revolution that was used to try to raise the public's morals and the response to Rococo art and its immorality. It was mainly driven by the middle class and contains stories from the Classical Period.

Thing - Phase 1 of the French Revolution

This is known as the Moderate Phase. This is peaceful, calm, and very productive. During this phase, the Estates General is replaced with the National Assembly. The aristocrats begin having to pay taxes. They are going to make the king a constitutional monarch. They also declare their independence from tyranny. It ends when Louis XVI is trying to escape France and is caught. He is sent to jail, and since everyone is paranoid that he was trying to flee to get help to restore his power, people are going to demand to execute him and Marie.

Thing - "The Swing" by Fragonard

This is one of the most well known of the Rococo art pieces. It shows a girl swinging while her lover is hiding from her husband, trying to get a look up her dress/petticoat. It angers the lower/middle classes because the aristocrats didn't marry for love, they married for power and wealth. They are also going to be angry because the aristocrats do not work and seem frivolous, morally repugnant, worthless, self-absorbed people doing nothing but have it all.

Thing - Phase 4 of the French Revolution

This is phase is known as the Napoleonic Period. Napoleon establishes himself as dictator during this period because of his natural leadership skills, a good communicator, and a profound belief that he knows the one thing that is going to help France. He helped bring an end to governmental tyranny in the form of absolute monarchs. Democracy is going to be established. He also establishes social equality. The old traditional system of giving privileges to a tiny percent of the population is going to be forever abolished. We are going to see the growth of Nationalism. People are going to be offended when someone makes a critique against their country because they feel like their country deserves to do that because it's their country.

Thing - Constitutional Monarchy

This is when a king has to be held to laws of his people and obey the constitution.

Thing - Absolute Monarchy

This is when a king says he has a divine right given by God. If you disagree with the king, it will seem like you're disagreeing with God.

Thing - "A Philosopher Giving A Lecture at the Orrery" by Derby

This painting is glorifying scientists and science by making it a huge painting so that we can ask questions using reason and knowledge.

Thing - "The Oath of the Horatii" by David

This painting shows the story of the Horatii brothers vs. the Curiatii brothers. In the end, there is one Horatii brother left, but he finds his sister crying over her dead fiance who was a Curiatii. He kills her. This shows that sometimes we have to be willing to sacrifice even the people we love most for the sake of our country.

Thing - "Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi" by Kauffman

This painting tells the story of the Gracchus brothers and their mother, Cornelia. Despite being a Roman aristocrat, Cornelia sees her children as the "jewels" of her life, compared to other aristocrats who value literal jewels more. It is showing that your value comes from who you are, not how much you have. Her sons died trying to make society better, showing that you must be prepared to make sacrifices if you want a better future.

Thing - Rococo Period

This period of art shows aristocratic people doing aristocratic, playful things out in nature which is overgrown and untamed. We are going to see lots of pastels, lavenders, baby blue, light green, etc. Lots of gently curving lines, occasionally a diagonal. Not crowded compositions. Soft, even lighting. There's also a naughty factor, sexual innuendo-esque shows their carefree life and playing with their lovers.

Thing - Phase 3 of the French Revolution

This phase is the Directory Period. Nothing really remarkable happens, but nothing really bad happens. France was ruled by a five member community. They can't agree on anything, so nothing gets done. They accept bribes, gang up against each other, and are corrupt. They are called the Directory. The one good thing that is happening for France is out in the battlefields in Europe. France is warring with other countries during this period and having military success during this period.

Thing - Phase 2 of the French Revolution

This phase makes the French Revolution famous. This is the Violent Phase. R.O.T. (Reign of Terror). The person in charge of the government is Robespierre. He started off as a good guy and an attorney, then loses it and turns incredibly violent. During Phase 2, there are thousands of executions. Many of them are aristocrats, many of them are peasants. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed. The only thing that is going to end this period is going to be the execution of Robespierre. When Robespierre is executed, the people don't know what to do anymore. They are confused who is going to lead them and they do not want another single ruler.

Thing - Ancien Regime

This was the system that was France was under until the French Revolution. At the top: 1-5% of the population; this is the aristocracy. Beneath the Aristocracy: 15% of the population; they are the bourgeoisie. Beneath the Bourgeoisie: 80% of the population; they are the working poor.

Thing - The Louvre

Until King Louis XIV, this was the Royal Palace that the French kings lived in.

Thing - Estates General

When Louis calls on this ancient law making body, it hasn't met for 175 years. The clergy can elect 308 people, the aristocrats can elect 285 people, but they only make up 593 people. The lower and middle class can elect 621 people. The 3rd Estate is not allowed meet in the same room as the 1st and 2nd Estates. The Estates also make decisions by voting by Estate, not number of representatives.

People - Marie Antoinette

When she was an infant, she was betrothed to Louis XVI. She was originally from Austria. She was completely sheltered from the outside world. She had all of her lessons in French, but even when she went to France, she had a thick German accent. She is not going to be exposed to the real world, that is not her fault. They blame her for not having a child the first few months of her marriage. The people of France always have a negative view of her. They think she is spoiled, privileged, and ignorant.