French+Revolution+Postcards

There were three stages to the French Revolution. You are in Paris, the capitol of France, the city of lights, where all the action is. You are from a small village several hours away. Your mother and father depend on your postcards to keep them up to date on the news of what is going on with the French government. You will write them three postcards, one for each stage. In each postcard you need to include the underlined words for that stage. Write your first postcard on stage one, the second on stage 2, and the third on stage 3. The postcard needs to be in your own words, you must date it and include how you feel about all of these changes. Are you a radical, moderate, or a conservative? Explain why you feel the way you do in each card.

On the front of the card draw as best you can, something that you wrote about on the other side so that your parents can see what is going on.

Stages of French Revolution handout you received in class:


 * Stage 1** French economy bankrupt, King Louis XVI calls meeting of the __Estates General__. King living luxuriously with wife, government is in __debt__ and cannot pay American war debt, bread prices for peasants soaring. King wants to __tax__ nobles so calls the Estates General to vote for paying more taxes. Members of the 2nd and 3rd estate walk out of meeting and create the __National Assembly__.


 * Stage 2** National Assembly takes the __Tennis court oath__ and writes the __Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen__- This is an attempt to limit the power of the king- the King is forced to sign it- but has no intention of following through. Instead he stations troops in Paris and National Assembly responds by stockpiling weapons and storming the prison called __Bastille__ for gunpowder- additionally, women get fed up with high bread prices and demand to speak to their king- they march on Versailles and force King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette to flee Paris at night in disguise. (Tell your parents about them fleeing and your thoughts about that.)


 * Stage 3** Divisions in the __National Assembly__ between the __Radicals, Moderates, and Conservatives__ create tension. __Robespierre__, a radical revolutionary emerges as leader of the National Assembly, he puts the King and Queen on trial and __executes__ them. He wants all remnants of the old regime banned and creates a secret police force called the __Committee on Public Safety__. This is known as the __Reign of Terror__ because he decides who is guilty or not, and many of the original revolutionaries are executed by the __guillotine__. He is eventually tried and executed and the Reign of Terror ends with his death. The National Assembly then appoints a directory of 5 upper middle class people to head the government, called an Oligarchy. Eventually a war hero emerges as leader of France- Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon's rule will be Stage 4)