The French Revolution

Background of the French Revolution: McKay 697-701, Palmer 9.41

Today’s Agenda

• Test this Tuesday

• Background to French Revolution

July 14, 1789

Moderate Period• 1789-1792• “Age of

Montesquieu”• Constitutional

Monarchy– Liberal

moderates (nobles & bourgeoisie) in control

• National Assembly/Legislative Assembly

• Limited Change

• Limited enfranchise-ment

Restoration Period

• 1799-1804• “Age of

Voltaire”• Enlightened

Despotism• Consulate• Governmen

t centralized with enlightened ideals

• Old Order returns to power

Radical Period

• 1792-1794

• “Age of Rousseau”

• Republic

– Strong central government

– Radicals in control

• Convention

• Radical Revolutionary Change

• Total enfranchise- ment

• Terror

• Command economy

• Utopian/ idealized vision

Thermidorian Period• 1794-1799• “Age of Smith”• Oligarchy

– Moderates Bourgeoisie government

• Directory• Reactionary stage• Idealized visions

of Rev forgotten– Period of

decadence

• Free Market economy– High Inflation

• Reliance on Strong Man

Crane Brinton & The Anatomy of Revolution

The French Revolution

1787 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1799 1804

Assembly of Notables call for Estates

General

8th of Brumaire Napoleon

leads coup

-Concordat of 1801-Code

Napoleon-Napoleon

crowns himself

Emperor of France

-White Terror of Directory eliminates radicals

-Price controls eliminated

-Fructidorian Gov. suspends Con. Of 1795

-Louis XVI executed-Comm of

Public Safety begins Terror

-Marie A. executed-Cult of Reason

Robespierre executed on

9th of Thermidor

-September Massacres

-Year One of First Republic

Proclaimed

-Flight to Varennes

-Declaration of Pilnitz

-Estates General-Tennis Court Oath-National Assembly

-Bastille stormed-Great Fear

-Declaration of the Rights of M & C-March on Versailles

Civil Constitution

of Clergy

You should be able to:

• Describe characteristics of 5 causes of the French Revolution– Estate System– Enlightenment– Financial Crisis– Louis XVI– Economic Crisis

Old Regime France (1789)

• Population = 28 million

• Cultural leader of the world– French spoken in every court across Europe

(except England)– French manners copied across Europe

• Wealthiest nation in world

• Old Regime (Ancien Regime) was aristocratic and feudal

• France• Population of 25 million• Estates system was medieval

hierarchical system w/ rigid legal orders

– First estate = the clergy– Second estate = the nobility– Third estate = everyone else

• But no longer an economic or social reality

– Third Estate• wealthy business class to

poorest peasants• Most educated, most

economically important

The Setting

Estates System

Cause #1: The Estates System• Traditional Marxist historians

– believed that Revolution caused by class tensions

– Bourgeoisie of Third Estate v Nobles of the Second

– Third grew sick of bearing economic burden & denied the privilege of 2nd

– Bourgeoisie led 3rd Estate against others • Modern Scholarship dismisses this

– Nobles and Bourgeoisie had lots in common• Both owned Land, engaged in capitalism• Noble class was open to rich

– Nobles of robe purchased their title

• Both groups generally supported Parlements

– Peasants of France had it much better than Russian serfs

– Third Estate really only represented interests of the bourgeoisie

• First Estate– The Church– Owned 10-20% of land– Paid not taxes

• Second Estate– The Nobility– Owned 20-30% of land– Paid not taxes

• Estates General had not been called since 1614– French equivalent to Parliament

• Estate System no longer corresponded with the distribution of wealth & power in government

• Wealthy wanted more say in government• nobility was open to those who could afford it• 66% of nobility had acceded since 1600

– 50, 000 new nobles were created since 1700• talent of nobility was from 3rd Estate

Cause #1: Social Inequality

• 100 thousand members (1% of population)

• Owned 20 percent of the land (greatest single landowner)

• collected tithe– 10% of income

• Paid NO TAXES• Paid “voluntary gift” every 5

years• Politically influential

– but so was English Church

Cause #1: The Estates System First Estate: The Church

• About 400 thousand members (2 % of population)• Owned 25-35% of land• Retained Medieval Manorial Rights

– Banalities • Exclusive rights to hunt, fish, monopoly on bread baking,

pressing grapes, etc.– Eminent property

• fees paid to the noble for lands held by peasants (transfer fees, when land changed owners by sale or death)

• Retained Medieval Honorific Rights– Right to carry a sword, hunt game

• Monopolized higher offices in the military, government, and church• PAID NO TAX

– Exempt from direct tax (taille)– bourgeoisie greatly resented this (even thou they got out of

paying also)• Divided into:

– Nobles of the Sword (noblesse d’epee) more distinguished ancient

– Nobles of the Robe (noblesse de robe) purchased the title of administrative of judicial (robe)

Cause #1: The Estates System Second Estate: The Nobility

Cause #1: The Estates System The Third Estate

• Everyone else• 97% of population• Doctors, lawyers, merchants, peasants,

laborers, artisans,…• Paid 100% of tax = Taille (land tax)• Upper class bourgeois

• 2.3 million• 8% of population• Owned 20% of land• Wealthiest, most innovative,

enlightened part of population• Urban workers

– Sans Culottes (Without Knickers)– Usually pre-industrial skilled

craftsmen– Literate & radical

• Peasants– 80% of Population– Owned 40% of land

Cause 2: Critical Spirit of the Enlightenment• The Enlightenment

– writers created a culture that encouraged political and social criticism

• Natural rights• Historical progress• A language to communicate

dissatisfactions– philosophes did not cause the revolution

but they gave it a conceptual context and a theoretical language to describe dissatisfactions

– Created a climate of rising expectations • book production reached peak in 1788• many newspapers and periodicals• parlements- courts of record used

periodicals to voice their opinions against ministers of the monarchy

• theories of Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire circulated– Voltaire resented privilege– Locke favored private property– Mont- 3 branches would favor

parlements

Cause #2: Critical Spirit• Developed in salons, coffeehouses and spread to

the public sphere of political debate• Pamphleteers

– Stripped away the “sacred” image of the nobility and the church

– The Necklace Affair» 2,800-carat diamond necklace » con-woman - Comtesse de la Motte

posed as Queen & got Cardinal de Rohan to purchase it

» Boehmer Rohan sued for lack of payment

» Antoinette dubbed “Madame Deficit • Public airing of courtroom activity

– Corrupt noble against oppressed peasant became recurrent theme

• Public opinion became a force in the French Revolution (Reason, justice, rights)

Cause 3: Financial/Economic Crisis (1787-88)• France = wealthiest nation in world• Yet Gov. can not pay bills• 1788 Budget

– 6% Versailles– 25%- military– 50% for interest on debt (4 billion livres)– < 20% -Internal

improvements/administration• Louis XIV had repudiated some of his debt

(gov refused to pay)– Destroyed government’s credit– Debt held by aristocrats and bourgeoisie

• No central bank– No means of creating credit– No paper currency

• Everything paid in Gold Specie• Problems with taxation

– 1st & 2nd Estate exempt– Bourgeoisie evades taxes– Tax Farmer corrupt and inefficient

One of the cottages built in Marie Antoinette's private village

British had almost thesame distribution sowhat’s the big deal?

• 1788 poor harvest---– Had a Trickle Down Effect– 50% of family budget on

bread – caused a marked

reduction in purchase and therefore manufacturing of goods

• many peasants used domestic industry to supplement their incomes

• Paris overrun with unemployed– 50% (1787-1789)

• Many nobles had reasserted old seigniorial rights– Collected old feudal dues

to supplement income

Cause 3: Financial/Economic Crisis (1787-88)

Cause 4: Character of Louis XVI• King popular up to 1789• But weak towards his

wife/ advisers • Had the support of

bourgeoisie – Viewed monarch as

protector against special interest of 2nd

– Wanted liberty (economic)

• Wanted to rule well• Wanted most to be

“loved”• Indecisive• Had reputation of being

dominated by his wife– She had reputation of

being a harlot

Estates General (May 5, 1789)• Looming financial crisis paralyzed French

government• Assembly of Notables• A “Super Committee” of the most

powerful nobles• Convened to approve financial reforms of

Lomenie de Brienne• general tax on all landowners • confiscation of some church

properties• a provincial assembly that

represented all without regard to estate

• Notables said only Estates General could approve this

• Louis called for a meeting of the Estates General• A general meeting of representatives

from the three estates

• Each estate vote for delegates and draw up (list of grievances (Cahiers des doleances)

• First Estate cahiers des doleances • Show major grievance between common

parish priest and bishops• called for an end pluralism & for non nobles to

be able to become bishops• Second Estate cahiers– Quite liberal– Nearly 90% willing to give up tax exemption– Called for meritocracy– Constitutional monarchy– Freedom of speech and press– Due process of law• Third Estate Cahiers

• Cited injustice in taxation (taille, tithe)• Demanded fair voting system in the Estates-

General

Cahiers des Doleances

Third Estate delegate--businessmen (13%)--lawyers (25%)--Governmentofficeholders (43%)-----NO urban workers

or peasants

• How should the Estates “meet” – A one chamber or traditionally as

3 separate chambers• One chamber – third estate wins• Separate chambers – 1st & 2nd wins• September of 1788- Parlement of

Paris declared separate chambers• 3rd view Parlement’s decision as a

2nd Estate power grab– some members of 1st & 2nd joined

the Third in protest• Abbe Sieyes

– Articulated their grievances in simple pamphlet

– Unified and electrified 3rd EstateEmmanuel Joseph Sieyès

Estates GeneralHow to “Meet”

Abbé Sieyes: What is the Third Estate? • Short pamphlet which

articulated & captured essence of 3rd Estate grievances

• Turned 3rd against the Nobility

• Abbe Sieyes: What is the Third Estate?

– said the nobility is useless class

– Third Estate is the only necessary one

– Is the nation– Is sovereign

(Rousseau’s ideas enter Revolutionary thought)

Who then shall dare to say that the Third Estate has not within itself all that is necessary for the formation of a complete nation? It is the strong and robust man who has one arm still shackled. If the privileged order should be abolished, the nation would be nothing less, but something more. Therefore, what is the Third Estate? Everything; but an everything shackled and oppressed. What would it be without the privileged order? Everything, but an everything free and flourishing. Nothing can succeed without it, everything would be infinitely better without the others.

• What is the 3rd Estate? bolsterd 3rd Estate’s cause

• threw bourgeois into a revolutionary mood

• Refuse to meet separately at Estates General– deadlock lasts for 6

weeks – More 1st & 2nd

Estaters came over to the Third Estate chamber

• Declare themselves the National Assembly (June 17, 1789)

National Assembly Formed (June 17, 1789)

Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789)• Louis XVI tries to regain control • Declared that a royal meeting will

take place with estates• NA locked out of meeting hall on

June 20 at Versailles • Gather at nearby Tennis

(handball) court• Tennis Court Oath (June 20,

1789)– Swear oath not to disband

until they have a Constitution • Revolutionary – assumed

sovereignty without a legal claim • King orders 3 estates to separate

chambers and tardily presents his own program of reform

• Too late (NA refuse to budge)

Painting by Jacques-Louis David of the Tennis Court Oath. Neoclassic style emphasized historical events & classic values of stoics. Reactionary movement against frivolity of Rococo.

• Louis could– Suppress National Assembly

& Tennis Court Oath– Or Support it

• King and Nobility join forces– 18 thousand soldiers called

to dissolve National Assembly

• National Assembly viewed as only hope of reform by Parisians– Members of Third Estate

begins to stockpile weapons– But they need gunpowderWhere can they get it?

Cause 5: Economic Crisis (1788-89)