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The Early French Revolution,
1789-91APEURO Lecture 5A
Mrs. Kray (some slides taken from Susan Pojer)
Significance of the Revolution
French Revolution stands at the crossroads of this course.
Generally considered the model for all revolutions
Gave us our modern ideologies and our political geography of “left” and “right.”
Unlike the American Revolution, which today is considered an accomplished and successful fact, the French public still debates the significance and meaning of this defining event in their nation’s existence.
It was the best of times,It was the worst of times,It was the age of wisdom,It was the age of foolishness,It was the epoch of belief,It was the epoch of incredulity . . .
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Social Causes of the Revolution
Inequalities of the Old Regime
Social inequality was the most fundamental cause of the revolution but it would be a mistake to portray the revolution as merely a class struggle
First Estate
Second Estate
Third Estate
Structure of the
Old Regime
A Closer Look at the Three Estates
First Estate (Clergy)Less than 1% of the population but controlled 10% of the land; collected tithes
Second Estate (Nobility)Only 2% of the population but controlled 25% of the land; entitled to certain privileges (no taxes, hunting, special courts, special clothing); reasserted authority under Louis XV; dominated military and government positions
Third Estate (Everybody Else)Vast majority of French population fell into this category (bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie, and peasants); resented privileges of the First and Second Estate
More on the Third Estate
Not a monolithic group
Bourgeoisieo Wealthy merchantso Increased in numbers
& economic power in the 17th & 18th c. b/c of commerce
o Owned 25% of the land resented & envied the privileges of the aristocracy
Petty bourgeoisieo Artisans, shopkeepers,
small business ownerso Upset about rising prices
for goods & stagnant wages
o Become the sans-culottes
Peasantso Over 80% of France’s
population; many were small landowners
o Wanted to be free of the feudal system – lost ½ their income to taxes
o Also concerned about rising bread prices
Political Causes of the Revolution
Resurgent Nobility vs. Absolute Monarch
Goals of the Nobilityo Limit Bourbon
pretensions to absolutismo Wanted to evolve French
monarchy into a constitutional monarchy like Britain’s
o Asserted the powers of the parlements to check to king’s ability to tax and legislate arbitrarily• Parlement of Paris assumed
the right to approve or disapprove the king’s decrees
Noble Power in 18th c.o Louis XIV “The Sun King”
(1643-1715) -- noble power i
o Louis XV (1715-1774) -- noble power h• Not interested in day-to-day
operations of running a country
• Near end of his reign Louis got tough and dissolved the Parlement of Paris
o Louis XVI (1774-1793) -- noble power h• as a gesture of good will, he
reinstated Parlement of Paris
Weak French Monarchs: Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette, 1775-1793
Louis was a weak and indecisive king and his wife was particularly unpopular and seen as frivolous
“Let Them Eat Cake!”
Marie Antoinette and her husband always seemed out of touch with the needs of their people.
Marie Antoinette was incredibly unpopularo “Madame Deficit”o “The Austrian Whore”o The Affair of the Necklace
Antoinette’s
peasant’s cottage
The necklace
cost 1,600,000
million livres ($100
million today)
The Influence of the Enlightenment
Did not cause the French Revolution but it provided a language (reason, natural rights, historical progress) the Third Estate could now use to describe their dissatisfactions with the obstacles that stymied their professional or economic ambitions
Lettres de Cache The French king could
warrant imprisonment or death in a signed letter under his seal
A carte-blanche warrant
Cardinal Fleury issued 80,000 during the reign of Louis XV
Enlightenment principles of equality and justice spoke against this practiceo Outlawed in 1790
Louis XVI
Economic Causes of the Revolution
Government Debt 1714-1789 French commerce
expanded tenfold but wealth remained unevenly distributed
No extensive credit networko Never successfully created system
of “public debt”
Inefficient and regressive tax system
Monarchy faced massive debts from numerous warso Funded the American Revolution
Louis XVI did not pursue a consistent strategyo Turgot, Necker, Calonne, Brienne
1785 French treasury was bankrupt!!!
Path to BankruptcyAnne Robert Jacques Turgot, 1771-1776
Physiocrato Attacked government
monopolies, slashed spending, advocated free trade
Mercilessly attacked privilegeo Proposed converting the corvee
labor service into a cash payment and eliminating numerous government positions and pensions
o Wanted to adopt a single direct tax on land
These proposals sparked widespread opposition
Path to Bankruptcy
Jacques Necker, 1776-1781
Swiss Protestant banker
Published complete accounting of the state budget – compte renduo Revealed incredible waste
Felt privilege estates must be taxedo Nobles convinced Louis to fire
him
Became a well-respected symbol of reform
Path to Bankruptcy
Charles de Calonne, 1781-1787 Wanted to replace taille with a
general tax on ALL landownerso Realized Parlement of Paris would
never agree to reformso Sought ways to get around Paris
parlement
1787 - Handpicked “assembly of notables” to approve new taxeso But the plan backfiredo They demanded concessionso Deadlock ensued
Calonne’s reputation plummeted
Path to Bankruptcy
Archbishop Brienne, 1787-1788
Convinced Louis XVI to play hardball and intimidate or subdue the parlements
His policies fomented organized opposition to the monarchy
1788 -- France on the verge of bankruptcy, Louis has no choice, he must call the Estates General into session
Crop Failures, 1787-1789
In 1787 French Urban Poor spent 50% of their income on bread In 1788 they spent 80% of their income on bread
• Urban Commoner’s Budget:• Food 80%• Rent 25%• Tithe 10%• Taxes 35%• Clothing
20%• TOTAL 170%
• King’s Budget• Interest
50%• Army 25%• Versailles 25%• Coronation 10%• Loans 25%• Administration
25%• TOTAL 160%
The French Revolution,
Liberal Phase, 1789-1792
Calling the Estates-General
French people believed real reform/change was possible when the Estates-General was called, why?o First time the Estates-General
has been called in more than 100 yrs.• Last national election was in
1614o cahiers de doleances
• Louis asked all French people to write down their grievances in notebooks (cahiers) to present to the Estates-General
• Main complaints: demands for tax equality, abolition of feudalism
Convening of the Estates-General,May 1789
The issue of voting dominated the early part of the Estates-General
The Issue of VotingTraditional Voting Pattern:
Voting By Estate Suggested Voting Pattern:
Voting By Head
1
1
1
(Clergy) 1st Estate
(Nobles) 2nd Estate
Commonersof the 3rd
Estate(98% of the population)
300
300
648 Commoners
of the 3rd Estate
(Clergy) 1st Estate
(Nobles) 2nd Estate
The traditional voting pattern allowed the 1st and 2nd Estate to impose their will on the 3rd Estate
Abbe Sieyes, 1748-1836“What is the Third Estate”
Member of the 1st Estate who sided with members of the third estate on new voting pattern
Wrote influential essay “What is the Third Estate”o What is the Third Estate…
EVERYTHINGo What has it been here-to-fore in
the political order…NOTHINGo What does it demand…to
become SOMETHING therein!!!
“The Third Estate Awakens”June 17, 1789
Led by Abbe Sieyes, the third estate rejected the traditional voting method and demanded that all three estates meet together
When the king refused, the third estate declared itself the true National Assembly of France
The Tennis Court OathJune 20, 1789
Locked out of their official meeting place after their declaration, the third estate broke into a nearby building and swore an oath
not to disband until they had written a new constitution for France
Storming the BastilleJuly 14, 1789
Unsure what to do next, Louis began raising an army o This mercenary army of Swiss
guards marched toward Paris
Angry mobs in Paris, already protesting the soaring price of bread, stormed the Bastilleo Bastille was a royal fortress &
prison o The mob freed a handful of
prisoners and seized the Bastille’s supply of gunpowder and weapons
Important symbolic act against royal despotism
Louis was forced to recognize the National Assemblyo ordered the other two estates to
sit with them
The Great FearJune-August, 1789
Rumors spread that the aristocracy were sending hired brigands to attack peasants and pillage their land
Peasant decided to strike firsto Thousands of nobles
attacked and murdered
Great Fear was clearly peasants directing their anger at the feudal system
The August DecreesAugust 4-7, 1789
National Assembly abolished feudal regime in Franceo Outlawed feudal privileges, tithes, noble
hunting rights, labor serve, and serfdomo All Frenchmen were, at least in principle,
subject to the same laws and the same taxes and eligible for the same offices
Safeguarding private propertyo Feudal dues were not renounced outright
(would have threatened principle of private property)
o Peasants would compensate their landlords through a series of direct payments for obligations from which they had supposedly been freed.
o Therefore, the National Assembly made revolutionary gestures but remained essentially moderate.
The Tricolor
The WHITE of the Bourbons + the
RED & BLUE of Paris
Liberte!Egalit
e!Fraternite!
Citizen!
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen August 26, 1789
Proclaimed all men were “born and remain free and equal in rights.”o These natural rights included
the rights to “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression”
Provided for freedom of religion, freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom of speech and the press, and the right to petition the government
The Declaration of the Rights of Man Leaves
Many Questions Unanswered Did women have equal rights with men?
What about free blacks in the colonies?
How could slavery be justified if all men were born free?
Did religious toleration of Protestants and Jews include equal political rights?
The Rights of Women Women gained increased rights to
inherit property and to divorce
The rights of citizenship were not extended to womeno Women DID NOT gain the right to vote or
hold political office
Olympe de Gouge’s The Declaration and the Rights of Woman and Citizen, 1791
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Womeno Argued women are not naturally inferior to
meno Appearance of inferiority is created by a
lack of education
Olympe de Gouge,
1745-1793
Women’s March to VersaillesOctober 1789
Sometimes referred to as the October Days Thousands of women marched to Versailles demanding cheap
bread and forced the king and his family back to Paris. The king and his family were imprisoned in the Tuileries
Early National Assembly Reforms
Restructuring the New Governmento 1789: France divided into 83 departments governed by elected
officialso Abolished internal tariffs and guilds
Financing the New Governmento 1790: Church lands confiscated
• One of the most controversial decisions of the revolutiono Printed Assignats
• Interest-bearing notes which had the church lands as security (it’s a bond)
• Whoever acquired them were entitled to certain privileges in the purchase of church land – plan was to retire the notes when land was sold
• They began circulating as paper currency• Government printed more which caused INFLATION (ultimately they lost
99% of their value)• Therefore, future governments paid off their creditors with cheap
money
National Assembly Reforms:
New Relations Between Church and State
Roman Catholic Church transformed into a branch of the stateo Government paid the
salaries of the clergy and maintained the Churches
o Parish priests elected by the district assemblies
o Bishops named by the department assemblies
o Pope had NO voice in the appointment of French clergy
Pope Pius VI
National Assembly Reforms:
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, Aug. 1790
Confiscated church lands; decreed bishops and priests would be elected by the people and paid by the state
Required the clergy to take a loyalty oath to support the new government more than 50% of the clergy refused to take the oath
Turned Catholics, particularly French peasants, against the revolutiono Act was condemned by Pope Pius VI
National Assembly Reforms:
The Constitution of 1791 Constitutional monarchy created
o The king got the “suspensive” veto (prevented passage of laws for 4 yrs)
o He could not pass lawso His ministers were responsible for their own actions
A permanent, elected, single chamber Legislative Assemblyo Had the power to grant taxationo An independent treasuryo GOAL: make sure that the country was not turned over to the mob
“Active” Citizen vs. “Passive” Citizen o Active citizen would paid taxes amounting to three days labor
could vote• Tended to be landholders
o 1/3 of adult males were denied the franchise and all women• Domestic servants were also excluded
Louis XVI “Accepting”the New Constitution
Part of the reason for keeping the king weak in this new constitutional monarchy was the revolutionaries distrust of Louis
If he wasn’t going
to be an active participant in the revolution did it make sense to grant him a great deal of power in the new government – the answer was no.
Louis’ “Flight to Varennes”June 1791
Helped by the Swedish Count Hans Axel von Fusen (Marie Antoinette’s lover)o Headed toward the Luxemborg border
The King was recognized and brought back to Tuileries
Embracing the Revolution:Revolutionary Symbols
cockade
Revolutionary Clock
Revolutionary Playing Cards
Embracing the Revolution:Planting the Liberty Tree
The Warnings of Sir Edmund BurkeReflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
Conservative Historian
Argued traditional institutions are necessary for a society to maintain stability
If change is necessary it must be done slowly
Argued French were changing their traditional political and social institutions so rapidly it would lead to chaos and violence
Predicted the French revolution would ultimately end in a military dictatorship