WORLD HISTORY LESSON PLAN / 12
St. John Fisher School Main Campus
Camella Springville, Bacoor, Cavite
School Year 2012-2013
WORLD HISTORY
Third Year High School
The French Revolution and Napoleon (1789-1815)
Lesson 7
Unit 3: Revolutions that Shaped the Modern World
Pacing Recommendation: 5 sessions
Essential Question
What are some of the lessons we can learn from the French Revolution?
Objectives
è Describe the divisions of France’s old order.
è Explain the reasons for the French Revolution.
è Discuss the important events of the French Revolution.
è Understand how and why the radicals of the revolution abolished the monarchy.
è Explain the Reign of Terror.
è Analyze how the French Revolution changed the lives of the French people.
è Understand how Napoleon rose to power.
è Explain how Napoleon built an empire what challenges his empire faced.
è Analyze the events that led to Napoleon’s downfall.
è Outline how the Congress of Vienna tried to create a lasting peace.
Lesson Outline
§ The Causes of the French Revolution
§ From the National Assembly to the Directory
§ The French Empire under Napoleon
Needed Materials and Equipments
§ Lesson plan content
§ Progress record
Textbook Support
Radford, J.L. (1986). World History. Quezon City, Philippines: Phoenix Publishing House.
§ Lesson 20: The French Revolution (pp. 123-128)
Homework
Terms Bank
On your WH Lecture Notebook, write the definition of the following words and use them in a sentence.
St. John Fisher SchoolWORLD HISTORY LESSON PLAN / 12
1. ancien régime
2. estate
3. bourgeoisie
4. Louis XVI
5. Estates-General
6. Tennis Court Oath
7. Bastille
8. Marie Antoinette
9. émigré
10. sans-culotte
11. republic
12. Jacobins
13. suffrage
14. Robespierre
15. Reign of Terror
16. guillotine
17. Napoleon
18. Continental System
19. scorched-earth policy
20. Congress of Vienna
St. John Fisher SchoolWORLD HISTORY LESSON PLAN / 12
Recitation Help Discussion Questions
Copy the questions and write your answers on your WH Lecture Notebook. Answer the following questions in 3 sentences or less. You may find the answers on your WH textbook. This homework is optional; however these are also the sort of questions that can earn you big points (+2) in recitation. You ought to do this if you want to improve your knowledge and grade in World History.
1. What was the social structure of the old regime in France?
2. What actions did delegates of the Third Estate take when the Estates-General met in 1789?
3. What occurred after radicals took control of the French National Assembly?
4. Why did Robespierre think the Terror was necessary to achieve the goals of the Revolution?
5. What changes occurred in France because of the French Revolution?
6. How did Napoleon come to dominate most of Europe by 1812?
7. What challenges threatened Napoleon’s empire and what led to disaster in Russia?
8. Explain the chief goal and outcome of the Congress of Vienna?
Extra Credit Essay
Copy the questions and write your answers on a sheet of green pad paper. You only need to write one essay.
1. The French Revolution brought about waves of nationalism that spread throughout France. Under Napoleon, nationalism spurred French armies to success. The tricolor flag, the song La Marseillaise, and the words Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity all helped unite the French people in a cause to defend their nation. What spurred nationalism in the 1896 Philippine Revolution? Think about the symbols our ancestors used and their common goals.
2. In the French Revolution, the Third Estate revolted to topple the Old Regime. The Communists of China caused a similar upheaval when the peasants of the country united to end their oppression by the landed and moneyed class. Research the Chinese Civil War of 1945-1949. How does it compare to the French Revolution? Compare their causes, effects, and goals.
3. Research about the battles of Napoleon, from Marengo to Waterloo. Select at least 5 important battles. Summarize how Napoleon won or lost each battle. What strategies or tactics did Napoleon use? What strategies or tactics did his enemies use? What were the keys to military success then?
Previewing the Lesson
Build Background Knowledge
î Making it clear: A revolt and a revolution are similar in that they cause change and often involve violence. However, they don’t exactly mean the same.
î Developing a stand: What is the difference between a “revolt” and a “revolution”?
æ A revolt is an uprising or a rebellion.
æ A revolution is the overthrow of a government or a social system.
Introduction
î Finding parallels in life: What kind of revolution do you want to experience or take part in?
î Setting a tone. What does it mean to have a revolution? Do the changes you want require bloodshed or are they achievable through peaceful means?
Lesson Content and Discussion Questions
The Causes of the French Revolution
î By 1789, France was suffering a severe economic, social, and political crisis that would lead to a revolution.
æ Corrupt and inconsistent leadership
æ Resentment against the privileged classes
æ Spread of Enlightenment ideas
æ Huge government debt
æ Poor harvests and rising prices of bread
How was French society like before the French Revolution?
î In 1789, France, like the rest of Europe, clung to an outdated social system that emerged in the medieval ages.
æ Under the ancien régime or old order, everyone in France belonged to any of the three social classes or estates.
æ The First Estate was made up of the clergy, the Second Estate was made up of the nobility, and the Third Estate comprised the vast majority of the population.
î The First and Second Estates enjoyed great privileges.
æ The clergy was very rich.
à They owned 10% of the land, collected tithes, and paid no direct taxes to the state.
à High clergy (bishops and abbots) usually came from the nobility and lived well; lower clergy, however, were not much above the people they served.
à The clergy ran schools, hospitals, and orphanages, but Enlightenment thinkers targeted them because they were religiously intolerant and continued to meddle in politics.
æ The nobility hold top government jobs.
à In the past the nobility also held military power, but they were taken away by Richelieu and Louis XIV.
à The royalty held the high nobility in check by giving them top jobs in the army, the government, the courts, and by endorsing their Church posts. Courtiers in Paris and Versailles were plied endless amusements.
à The lesser nobility or country gentry suffered as their lands provided little income in a time of rising prices.
æ The most diverse class was the Third Estate or the bourgeoisie (middle class).
à The bourgeoisie included bankers, merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, professors, rural peasants, and urban workers. They were the largest class in France.
à Rural peasants formed the bulk of the bourgeoisie but the poorest were the urban workers, who were often unemployed or earned very little.
à The bourgeoisie resented the privileges of the First and Second Estates, especially with their freedom from taxation.
î France suffered from financial troubles primarily caused by the government’s deficit spending or spending more than it takes in.
æ Louis XIV, the Seven Years’ War, and France’s participation in the American Revolution dried the treasury.
æ The lavish court spent millions of francs in idle amusements.
æ The government resorted to borrowing money, increasing the national debt.
æ To resolve this problem, the government needed to raise taxes and reduce expenses. The First and Second Estates fiercely resisted any attempt to tax them.
î As the crisis deepened, the wealthy classes demanded that the king convene the Estates-General, the legislative body of France, to deliberate on the matter.
æ The First and Second Estates thought to use the Estates-General to protect their privileges.
æ The king was afraid to convene the Estates-General because the nobles might use it to assert their feudal rights, which would weaken absolute monarchy.
How did the French Revolution start?
î Louis XVI finally allowed the Estates-General to convene in Versailles in 1789.
æ The Estates were made to prepare cahiers or grievance notebooks.
à Many cahiers called for reforms such as fairer taxes, freedom of the press, and regular meetings of the Estates-General.
à The cahiers testified to the resentment of the Third Estate against the two other Estates.
æ The delegates to the Estates-General were deadlocked over the issue of voting.
à Traditionally, each Estate met and voted separately. This meant that the First and Second Estates would always outvote the Third.
à The Third Estate argued for reforms in voting; they wanted that all met as a single body and votes counted by head.
æ After weeks of stalemate, the bourgeoisie of the Third Estate declared themselves to be the National Assembly and the real representatives of the people of France.
à The National Assembly was barred from meeting again so they went to a nearby indoor tennis court and took there the famous Tennis Court Oath.
à The National Assembly swore “never to separate and to meet wherever the circumstances might require until we have established a sound and just constitution.”
æ Reform-minded clergy and nobles joined the Assembly and the king accepted it. But as royal troops gathered in Paris, rumors spread that the king planned to dissolve the Assembly.
î On 14 July 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, a medieval fortress used as a prison for political and other prisoners.
æ The people thought that royal troops were to occupy Paris; they went to the Bastille demanded that the Bastille yield its gunpowder and weapons.
æ The commander refused to open the Bastille and opened fire on the crowd. The crowd turned into an angry mob and stormed the prison. The Bastille fell but after many have died.
æ The people found no weapons but they freed the few prisoners they found there.
æ The Bastille was a symbol of absolute monarchy and tyranny in France. Its fall was a symbol not just of a short-lived riot but of an attempt by the people to end the regime.
æ Since 1880, Bastille Day is celebrated annually in France as its independence day.
Lesson Objectives
è Describe the divisions of France’s old order.
è Explain the reasons for the French Revolution.
è Discuss the important events of the French Revolution.
Check-Up, Comprehension & Critical Thinking Questions
1. Explain the words of Abbé Emmanuel Sieyès, a clergyman who joined the Third Estate in the Revolution: “What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. What does it want to be? Something.”
2. What was the social structure of the old regime in France?
3. What economic troubles did France face in 1789?
4. What issues arose when Louis XVI called the Estates-General in 1789?
5. What is the significance of the storming of the Bastille?
Historical Trivia and Curiosities
è Indecisive and easily influenced, Louis XVI was ill-prepared to lead France during turbulent times. When he was born he was fourth in line to the throne, but by 10 he was direct heir. Although the young prince tried to accustom himself to kingship, he was more drawn to the woods and making locks. He became king at age 20, he apparently said “I am the unhappiest of men.”
From National Assembly to the Directory
î Historians divide the French Revolution into 4 phases:
æ Moderate / National Assembly – 1789-1791
æ Radical / Reign of Terror – 1792-1794
æ Moderate / Directory – 1795-1799
æ Imperial / Napoleon – 1799-1815
What revolutionary acts did the National Assembly make?
î The political crisis in France leads to revolt among peasants and urban workers. Their revolt was called the Great Fear and inspired the National Assembly to grant peasants certain freedoms and benefits.
æ The French Revolution occurred after a great famine. Grain and bread were in short supply and many people were starving.
æ Peasants revolted against the government and their noble masters. Many stole grain from warehouses and set fire to old manor records.
æ In Paris, a radical group that argued for the end of monarchy came to power. It was eventually called the Paris Commune.
æ In the face of the storming of Bastille and the revolts of the peasants and urban workers, the National Assembly acted.
î On 2 A.M. of 4 August 1789, the members of the National Assembly declared that “feudalism is abolished.” The declaration met a key Enlightenment goal – to make everyone equal before the law.
î The National Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.
æ The Declaration insisted on Enlightenment ideas like “all men are born free and equal”, men had natural rights, and it is the government’s duty to protect these rights.
æ The Declaration proclaimed that all men were equal and had equal right to hold public office, that people had religious freedom and taxes were to be levied based on the ability to pay.
î The Church is placed under state control.
æ In 1790, the clergy became salaried employees of the state.
æ To pay off the debt, the government sequestered Church property and sold it, sparking a rift between the Roman Catholic Church and the peasants.
î The National Assembly gave all tax-paying men aged 25 above the right to vote for members of the Legislative Assembly.
î All the duchies and counties were dissolved and replaced by a centralized system of departments or provinces.
î The Constitution of 1791 reformed the government by making it a constitutional monarchy; the king loses power and the support of his people.
æ A demonstration by Parisian women forced the royal family to go back to Paris and deal with the food crisis.
æ The royal family was transferred from Versailles to Paris, where they would remain virtual prisoners.