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The French Revolution
Chapter 19
• First Estate - Clergy
• Second Estate - Nobility
• Third Estate - Everyone else
- Traditionally the
peasantry, but by now had
come to include merchants
and other professionals
- 97% of population
Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate and the Second Estate on its back.
TAX EXEMPT
3%
Old/Ancien Regime
Problems before the Revolution
BANKRUPTCY!!
• Economic problems dating from Louis XIV were exacerbated by the Seven Years War and support of American Revolution
• By 1788, debt payments plus interest were about 56% of the national budget.
• Nobility/Clergy paid no taxes
50%
6%
25%
19%
Debt
Versailles
Military
Public Works
Budget Crisis
Problems before the Revolution
THE KING VS. THE PEOPLE
• The king was very out of touch with the common people.
• The peasants bore the burden of taxation for the French nation and many were suffering greatly.
Problems before the Revolution
• Parlements – French royal courts dominated by hereditary nobility
– Made it difficult to tax the wealthy
– Were abolished by Louis XV and reinstated by Louis XVI
– Enjoyed positive public opinion because they opposed the monarchy
Assembly of Notables
• In 1787, Louis called an “Assembly of Notables,” hoping to get representatives from the nobility and the Church to agree to be taxed.
The Estates General
• This body was the legislature of France.
• It was intended to be a lawmaking body to aid the king.
• It had not met since 1614, due to the monarchy’s increasing political control over the nobility.
Breakdown of Estates General
• The Estates-General had representatives from the First, Second, and Third Estates
• Each estate got one vote. Thus, the Third Estate always lost.
Voting Crisis
• Estates General called by Louis XVI in 1789 to propose solutions for the financial problems
• Disagreements over how the voting should go down
Traditionally, Each estate cast one vote as a group.
1 2 3The
ClergyThe
NobilityEveryone Else
1 2The Clergy The Nobility
AGREEMENT = VICTORY
What is the Third Estate?
Everything. What has it been until now in the political order?
Nothing. What does it ask to become?
Something.
Abbé Sieyes
Reform Proposals#1: “Doubling” the Third
1 2 3The
ClergyThe
NobilityEveryone Else
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Reform Proposals#2: Vote By Head
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Reform Proposals#2: Vote By Head
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In a single assembly, individual nobles and priests could vote with the Third Estate delegates.
Indecision“Doubling” the Third
Vote by Head
National Assembly
• JUNE 17, 1789: The Third Estate votes itself as the the National Assembly.
The National Assembly
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The National Assembly
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Join us!
The National Assembly
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Tennis Court Oath
•The National Assembly was locked out of their meeting room•They found an indoor tennis court in Versailles and met there•Pledged not to adjourn until they had adopted a constitution for France.
National Assembly
• Goal of the National Assembly was to create a Constitutional Monarchy modeled after the British form of government
• (Which they do, in 1790, and adopt the new tri-color flag)
National Assembly
• King Louis XVI – capitulates and orders the First and Second Estates to meet with the General Assembly
• The National Assembly renames itself the National Constituent Assembly and is composed of members of all three estates who shared goals of administrative, constitutional, and economic reform of the country
Storming of the Bastille
• July 14, 1789:
- The Bastille is stormed by the Parisians--1st
popular action in the revolution.
- Similar revolts occurred in many other cities throughout France
The Great Fear
• From July 14 – August 3rd: The Great Fear
- Peasants took out their anger on the nobility, burning towns and houses, slaughtering cattle, etc.
Decrees of August 4th
Abolished the “feudal system”• feudal dues• nobles’ hunting rights• tax exemptions
The Women’s March on Versailles
Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen
• New constitution drafted on August 27, 1789• Very similar to the Declaration of Independence in proclaiming liberty, freedom, and natural rights• Two most powerful ideas were civic equality and popular sovereignty• Women not included
The Representatives of the French people, organized in National Assembly, considering that ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public miseries and the corruption of governments, have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man...
INFLUENCERSof the
Declaration
Jean Jacques Rousseau
US Declaration of Independence
The British System of Gov.
Day 2
Focus Question
What were the ideological shifts seen throughout the Revolution?
The Political Reconstruction of France
• Constitution of 1791 - Legislative Assembly becomes main lawmaking body of France; monarch has limited powers (CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY)
• Only active citizens – those paying annual taxes – could vote
The Political Reconstruction of France
• Provinces and parlements replaced by departments – equally sized administrative units
The Economic Reconstruction of France
• Land belonging to the Roman Catholic Church is confiscated and sold creating:
– Further inflation
– Religious schism
– Civil war
• The assignats – government bonds from the sale of church property – used as currency, but used so often their value went down, raising inflation
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
• Transformed the Roman Catholic Church into a secular branch of the state – bishops and priests were to be elected by the people and paid by the state
• Soured relations between the church and the state
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
• Also forces priests to swear an oath of allegiance to the STATE
• Only 54% did –“Swearing Priests”
• The others were called Refractory Priests. Some faced violence and persecution, others were just banned from preaching in public
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
• Pope Pius VI condemns both the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
• Catholic Church became seen as an enemy of the revolution
• Some see this as a mistake on the part of the revolutionaries
Counterrevolutionary Activity
• Émigrés – aristocrats who left France for bordering countries
• King Louis XVI attempts to flee France, but is caught
• Declaration of Pillnitz – Emperor Leopold II of Austria and King Frederick William II of Prussiaannounce that if another European power joins them they will intervene in France to protect the monarchy
King & Queen try to flee
King Executed
• DECEMBER 1792:
- Trial of “Citizen Capet”
• JANUARY 21, 1793:
- The king was guillotined.
- Austria and Prussia
invade France
• By FEBRUARY, 1793, France was at war with every European nation.
Wars of the French Revolution
By 1793, France had declared war on…
• Great Britain
• Austria (HRE) & Prussia
• Russia
• Spain
• Italian state
• The Netherlands
And they would be for many years to come…
Reign of Terror
• 1793-1794
• There was a fear that the achievements of the revolution were in trouble
• Real and imagined enemies of revolution were arrested and executed (peasants, nobles, clergy, business people, and ex-revolutionary leaders)
“Sans Culottes”
• “Men without fancy pants”
• Working men of Paris, wanted a political voice
• Influential and supportive during Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
• Governing Bodies
National ConventionCommittee on Public Safety
Reign of Terror
• The Committee on Public Safety – carried out the duties of the executive branch in dictatorial fashion
• The Levee en masse – Military conscription
- Males 18-25, drafted about 1.5 million soldiers
Reign of Terror
• Main leaders/Figures
Robespierre Carnot
Maximilien de Robespierre
• Dominant figure of the National Assembly
• Had support of sans-culottes
• Called for an assault on all enemies of the Revolution
De-Christianization
• New calendar adopted, streets renamed
• Churches destroyed
• Some clergy executed
Festival of the Supreme Being (June 1794) –Robespierre’s civic religion
Revolutionary Tribunals
• Executions
– Marie Antoinette and royal family
– Girondist politicians
– Peasants opposed to the Revolution
– Members of sans-culottes
• Executions carried out by guillotine, shooting, and drowning
Marie Antoinette
The End of the Terror
• Robespierre turns on leaders both from the political left and right
• Law of 22 Prairial – tribunal could convict suspects without evidence against them
• Fearing he was turning into a dictator, Robespierre and 80 of his supporters are executed
Cartoon – Robespierre executing the executioner
The Thermidorian Reaction
• Influence of wealthy middle-class and professional people replaces sans-culottes
• Committee of Public Safety diminished
The Thermidorian Reaction
• Law of 22 Prairial repealed
• Many Jacobin leaders executed
• Traditional roles of men and women in addition to the church reestablished
Constitution of Year III
• Rejected both constitutional monarchy and democracy
• Established two houses of the legislature and an executive branch
• Political system based on rank and birth replaced by system of civic equality and social status
The Directory
• 1795 – 1799
• Dominated by upper middle class (bourgeoisie)
• Directory weak due to
– Suppression of sans-culottes
– The Two-Thirds law – favored people already in office
– Catholic royalist revival
– Wars