The French Revolution Unfolds

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The French Revolution Unfolds WH07_te_ch06_s02_MOD_s.fm Page 216 Monday, March 5, 2007 5:24WH07MOD_se_CH06_s02_s.fm PM Page 216 Thursday, January 25, 2007 4:17 PM Step-by-Step SECTION Instruction 2 Women march WITNESS HISTORY AUDIO to the palace. Parisian Women Storm Versailles Objectives On October 5, 1789, anger turned to action as thousands As you teach this section, keep students of women marched from Paris to Versailles. They wanted focused on the following objectives to help the king to stop ignoring their suffering. They also them answer the Section Focus Question wanted the queen. French women were particularly angry and master core content. 2 with the Austrian-born queen, Marie Antoinette. They 2 could not feed their children, yet she lived extravagantly. ■ Explain how the political crisis of 1789 The women yelled as they looked for her in the palace: led to popular revolts. Death to the Austrian! We’ll wring her neck! ■ Summarize the moderate reforms “ We’ll tear her heart out! enacted by the National Assembly in —mob of women at Versailles,” October 6, 1789 August 1789. Focus Question What political and social reforms did ■ Identify additional actions taken by the the National Assembly institute in the first stage of the National Assembly as it pressed French Revolution? onward. ■ Analyze why there was a mixed reac- tion around Europe to the events unfolding in France. The French Revolution Unfolds Objectives Excitement, wonder, and fear engulfed France as the revolution Prepare to Read • Explain how the political crisis of 1789 led to unfolded at home and spread abroad. Historians divide this revo- popular revolts. lutionary era into different phases. The moderate phase of the Build Background Knowledge L3 • Summarize the moderate reforms enacted by National Assembly (1789–1791) turned France into a constitu- Ask students to recall the problems that the National Assembly in August 1789. tional monarchy. A radical phase (1792–1794) of escalating vio- led to the start of the French Revolution • Identify additional actions taken by the National lence led to the end of the monarchy and a Reign of Terror. There and the formation of the National Assem- Assembly as it pressed onward. followed a period of reaction against extremism, known as the bly. Then have them predict what the • Analyze why there was a mixed reaction around Directory (1795–1799). Finally, the Age of Napoleon (1799–1815) National Assembly might do to try to Europe to the events unfolding in France. consolidated many revolutionary changes. In this section, you will solve some of those problems. read about the moderate phase of the French Revolution. Terms, People, and Places faction Set a Purpose L3 émigré Marquis de Lafayette sans-culotte Political Crisis Leads to Revolt ■ WITNESS HISTORY Read the selection Olympe de Gouges WITNESS HISTORY republic The political crisis of 1789 coincided with the worst famine in aloud or play the audio. Marie Antoinette Jacobins memory. Starving peasants roamed the countryside or flocked to AUDIO Witness History Audio CD, towns, where they swelled the ranks of the unemployed. As grain Parisian Women Storm Versailles prices soared, even people with jobs had to spend as much as 80 per- cent of their income on bread. Ask Who is “the Austrian” the mob is referring to? (The queen, Marie Reading Skill: Identify Supporting Details As Rumors Create the “Great Fear” In such desperate times, Antoinette) Why are the Parisian you read this section, prepare an outline like the rumors ran wild and set off what was later called the “Great Fear.” one shown below. Remember to use numbers for Tales of attacks on villages and towns spread panic. Other rumors women so angry with the king and supporting details. queen? (They believe the king and asserted that government troops were seizing peasant crops. queen are living in luxury and ignoring Inflamed by famine and fear, peasants unleashed their fury on I. Political crisis leads to revolt nobles who were trying to reimpose medieval dues. Defiant peas- the suffering of the French people.) A. The Great Fear 1. Inflamed by famine and rumors ants set fire to old manor records and stole grain from storehouses. ■ Focus Point out the Section Focus 2. The attacks died down after a period of time, but they clearly dem- Question and write it on the board. B. onstrated peasant anger with an unjust regime. Tell students to refer to this question as they read. (Answer appears with Section 2 Assessment answers.) Vocabulary Builder ■ Preview Have students preview the Section Objectives and the list of Use the information below and the following resources to teach the high-use word from this section. Terms, People, and Places. Teaching Resources, Unit 2, p. 25; Teaching Resources, Skills Handbook, p. 3 ■ Have students read this High-Use Word Definition and Sample Sentence section using the Paragraph Shrinking proclaim, p. 217 vt. to announce officially strategy (TE, p. T20). As they read, The mayor proclaimed a city-wide holiday on Monday to celebrate the event. have students fill in the graphic organizer outlining the section. Reading and Note Taking Study Guide, pp. 82–83 216 The French Revolution and Napoleon WH07_te_ch06_s02_MOD_s.fm Page 217 Monday, March 5, 2007 5:25 PM Paris Commune Comes to Power Paris, too, was in turmoil. As the capital and chief city of France, it was the revolutionary center. A variety Teach of factions, or dissenting groups of people, competed to gain power. Moderates looked to the Marquis de Lafayette, the aristocratic “hero of two worlds” who fought alongside George Washington in the American Political Crisis Leads Revolution. Lafayette headed the National Guard, a largely middle-class to Revolt L3 militia organized in response to the arrival of royal troops in Paris. The Guard was the first group to don the tricolor—a red, white, and Instruct blue badge that was eventually adopted as the national flag of France. ■ Introduce: Key Terms Ask students A more radical group, the Paris Commune, replaced the royalist gov- to find the key term factions (in blue) ernment of the city. It could mobilize whole neighborhoods for protests or in the text and explain its meaning. violent action to further the revolution. Newspapers and political clubs— Have students brainstorm the advan- many even more radical than the Commune—blossomed everywhere. tages and disadvantages of having Some demanded an end to the monarchy and spread scandalous stories about the royal family and members of the court. many different factions. ■ Teach Discuss the events that led to What caused French peasants to revolt French Reaction to the revolt in 1789. Ask What was the against nobles? American Revolution “Great Fear” and what did it lead to? (It referred to rumors of government The Marquis de Lafayette The National Assembly Acts (honored on ribbon at right) troops attacking villages and seizing Peasant uprisings and the storming of the Bastille stam- and Thomas Paine were peasant crops; it led peasants to attack peded the National Assembly into action. On August 4, in leading figures in both the nobles.) Why do you think peasants American and French a combative all-night meeting, nobles in the National believed the rumors? (Sample: revolutions. Lafayette, a Assembly voted to end their own privileges. They agreed French nobleman and because they were hungry, desperate, to give up their old manorial dues, exclusive hunting military commander, helped and already angry with nobles and the rights, special legal status, and exemption from taxes. the Americans defeat the royal family) British at Yorktown. He Special Privilege Ends “Feudalism is abolished,” admired the American ■ Quick Activity Refer students to the announced the proud and weary delegates at 2 A.M. As Declaration of Independence feature French Reaction to the Ameri- the president of the Assembly later observed, “We may and American democratic can Revolution. Remind them that the view this moment as the dawn of a new revolution, when ideals. With these in mind, Lafayette wrote the first draft of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Marquis de Lafayette played a key role all the burdens weighing on the people were abolished, Citizen. in the American Revolution. Have them and France was truly reborn.” Thomas Paine was a famous American patriot and work in groups and discuss how his Were nobles sacrificing much with their votes on the writer whose ideas in Common Sense had a great exposure to ideas from the American influence on the American Revolution. During the French night of August 4? Both contemporary observers and Revolution might have influenced his modern historians note that the nobles gave up nothing Revolution, Paine moved to France. There, he defended the ideals of the revolution and was elected to serve in the role and actions in the French Revolu- that they had not already lost. Nevertheless, in the revolutionary government. tion. Use the Numbered Heads strategy months ahead, the National Assembly turned the reforms of August 4 into law, meeting a key Enlightenment goal— Identify Central Issues How did the American (TE, p. T23) and have each group share Revolution influence the French Revolution? the equality of all male citizens before the law. their conclusions with the class. Declaration of the Rights of Man In late August, as Independent Practice a first step toward writing a constitution, the Assembly issued the Decla- ration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. The document was modeled To help students identify supporting in part on the American Declaration of Independence, written 13 years details, ask them to write an eyewitness earlier. All men, the French declaration announced, were “born and account of peasants attacking the home of remain free and equal in rights.” They enjoyed natural rights to “liberty, a nobleman.
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