FRENCH REVOLUTION1789 to 1799

The Three EstatesBefore the revolution, the French people were divided into three groups: i:The first estate: CLERGY ii:The second estate:NOBILITY iii:The third estate: the common

peopleLegally the first two estates enjoyed many

privileges, particularly exemption from most taxation.

The first estate, which made up about one percent of the total population, was divided into two groups: upper and lower. The upper clergy included archbishops, bishops, and abbots. Due to the power of Roman Catholic Church, these people were exempted from most taxes. These men of high status and privilege enjoyed luxurious life in their large palaces.

THE CLERGY

THE NOBILITYThe second estate was composed of 30,000

families who belonged to the nobility.Duke and Duchess, count and countess, and

marquis and marquess. Like the clergy, the nobility represented another privileged estate. They held the highest position in the church, the army, and the government. As well, they were exempt from paying taxes of any kind. They collected rent from the peasant population who lived on their lands. They also collected an extreme amount of customary dues, as well as dues on salt, cloth, bread and wine. Most of the nobility was descendents from the warriors, who held the king conquer France in the early days. They lived a life of lordly ease and luxury and enjoyed great privileges.

THIRD ESTATE

About 26 million citizens, the Third estate consisted the bourgeoisie, the peasantry, and the urban artisans. The bourgeoisie, which included merchants, manufacturers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, and intellectuals, were generally prosperous and often as wealthy as nobles. Third estate was dominated by the middle class. Blending of aristocratic and bourgeois classes by 1789.

CAUSES OF FRENCH REVOLUTIONSocial cause:• One of the main factors that led to the French

revolution was the unbalanced social structure of society during the Old regime.

Economic cause:• It was the main reason of the depletion of the treasury

of the king.Political cause:• King was a person of mediocre intelligenceImmediate cause:• Formation of the estate generalIntellectual cause:• Influence from the writers

ECONOMIC CAUSELouis XVI, who belonged to Bourbon family of kings,

became the ruler of France in 1774. By that time; long years of war, maintenance of the court of the immense palace of Versailles made the treasury empty. In addition to this; helping during the war to the thirteen American colonies to gain their independence from Britain by Louis XVI raised the debt of treasury to more than 2 billion livers. Lenders to the state also started charging 10 percent of interest on credit to the state; this further worsened the situation of the society. Thus, in order to maintain those expenses, state was forced to increase taxes which increased the anger among the members of the third estate.

On the whole, members belonging to third estate were oppressed class and had to bear all the burden of all types of taxes.

FRANCE IS BANKRUPT• The king, Louis XVI, lavished money on

himself and residences like Versailles• Queen Marie Antoinette was seen as a

wasteful spender.• Government found its funds depleted• As a result of wars including the funding of

the govt. spending more money than it takes in from tax revenues.

• Privileged classes would not submit to being taxed.

POLITICAL CAUSE Louis XVI, the king of France, was a person of mediocre

intelligence. He ruled with help of his empty headed wife Marie Antoinette, who appointed a number of her friends and relatives in higher posts and kept some of them at pension. These people neither did any work nor they contribute to the national treasury. instead took salary from the royal treasury.

Louis XVI wanted to increase his territory. And to do so, he had to be engaged in wars which meant that he needed a large army for that purpose. Appointing so many soldiers required money to pay salaries to them. It depleted the royal treasury. As a result, the king was forced to rise the taxes with the consent of the three estates . As the common people had to pay taxes , they become agitated against their monarch-Louis XVI.

MIDDLE CLASS In the eighteenth century, many persons who belonged to third

estate and earned their wealth through overseas trade and manufacturing goods, were termed as middle class. It was a new social group, which also comprised of court officials, lawyers and administrative officials. Peasants, labours, had been participating in revolts against increase in taxes and food scarcity for long time, but because of lack of means and concrete programmes they did not bring any change to the society. Thus bringing the change about the social and economic order in the society was left to the middle class. People of the middle class were also oppressed at that time, as they had to pay taxes and meet the demands of clergy and nobility.

People of Middle class were educated and believed that no privilege should be given by  birth.

IMMEDIATE CAUSECompelled by financial bankruptcy, the

French emperor called a meeting of Estates general in 1789. it generated much heat as the members as the members of third estate were determined to put forth their demand. However, the first two estates .i.e Clergy and Nobility refused to have a joint meeting with third estates. The members of the third estate walked out of Assembly.

INTELLUCTUAL CAUSE• The middle class favored a society based on freedom and equal

laws and opportunities for all.• Philosophers, such as John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau were

envisaging a society based on freedom, equal laws and opportunity for all. The freedom of thirteen colonies in USA from Britain based on such ideas; strengthened the thoughts of then philosophers who mainly belonged to middle class. The ideas of guarantee of individual rights became one of the important examples among the political thinkers and then philosophers of France.

• Refuting the doctrine of divine and absolute right of the monarch was the main idea of Locke which was made public in his Two Treaties of Government. Rousseau proposed the idea to form a government based on a social contract between people and their representatives. Montesquieu gave the idea of division of power within the government among the legislative, the executive and the judiciary in his The Spirit of the Laws.

• These ideas of then philosophers and political thinkers began to spread far and wide among people. People started discussions to bring the change in society as well as government based on those ideas. Such discussions began to take place in salons, coffee house, etc. Many books were published based on those new ideas. Some persons used to read those books and newspaper aloud among people at public places so that those who could not write or read could also become aware of them.

THE ESTATE GENERAL In order to pass the proposal to raise taxes Louis XVI

called an assembly of the Estates General. On 5 May 1789, 300 representatives from each of the first and second estate and 600 from the third estate, a total 1200 representatives, gathered in a splendid hall for the assembly. Representatives of first and second estates were seated in two rows while representatives of third estate had to stand at the back. Representatives of third estate were educated and more prosperous and they believed to represent the whole people of France. Peasants and labours were not allowed in that assembly; however about 40000 letters regarding their grievances were carried by representatives of third estate.

According to principle of the monarch each estate had one vote. Louis XVI wanted to apply the same practice this time also. But representatives of third estate did not agree on this, they wanted voting assembly as a whole and wanted each of the representatives to have only one vote. Louis XVI rejected this new proposal. As a result, all the representatives of the third estate walked out of the assembly in protest.

FORMATION OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

On 20th of the June, the third estate members, who walked out of the assembly in protest, gathered in an indoor tennis court in Versailles, where they declared them as National Assembly and took an oath not to disburse till the new drafting of a constitution of France under the leadership of Merabeau and Abbe Sieyes. Merabeau belonged to noble family and Abbe Sieyes was a priest to the church. Inspite of that they believed in the need of a privilege free society. There, they delivered powerful speeches regarding the need of new constitution and equal opportunity to all.

OUTBREAK OF REVOLUTION• That very year harvest was badly affected because of

severe winter. This increased the price of bread. Hoarding of supply by bakers made the situation more critical. One day after long hours in queues, anger broken into women and they stormed the bakery. At the same time troops moved to Paris to suppress the turmoil. In retaliation, crowd destroyed the Bastille.

• A rumor spread that an order had been given to troops to destroy the crops. Because of fear, peasants attacked the chateaux and looted the hoarded grains. Records of manorial dues were sat on fire. Many people were killed in this agitation. Many noblemen and clergy fled to neighbouring countries to save their life.

FRANCE BECOMES A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY

Faced with the power of his revolting subjects, Louis XVI finally accorded recognition to the National Assembly and accepted the principle that his powers from now on be checked by a constitution.

National Assembly completed the draft of the constitution in 1791. Its main object was to limit the powers of the monarch. Powers were spread among legislative, executive and judiciary instead of king. This made France a constitutional monarchy.

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE CITIZENSThere were two types of citizens according to

constitution :– active citizen and passive citizen.Persons who paid the tax at least equal to wages of 3

days of a labour were categorized as active citizens and who did not, were categorized as passive citizens. Only active citizens above the age of 25 had right to vote. Women were not given the right to vote.

Active citizens had to elect electors. Electors had to elect National Assembly and Judiciary from among them. National Assembly had control over king and group of ministers. But king still had the power of royal veto and the ability to select ministers.

Qualification for member of elector and National Assembly : – A person who belonged to bracket of highest taxpayers and above the age of 25 could be chosen as elector and member of National Assembly.

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF MAN AND CITIZEN

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

GAURANTEED PROPERTY RIGHTS

LIBERTY,EQUALITY,FRATERNITY

RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO CREATE

LAWS

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

FREEDOM OF PRESS

RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL

RIGHTS OF MAN AND CITIZEN

END OF SPECIAL PRIVILEGESAfter the draft of

constitution was completed, Church lands were seized, divided, and sold to peasants.

All feudal dues and tithes were eradicated.

All special privileges of the first and second estate were abolished.

LOUIS XVI AND MARIE ANTOINETTE

FORMATION OF JACOBINS CLUB The revolutionary wars brought losses and economic difficulties to the

people. While the men were away fighting at the front women were left to cope with the tasks of earning a living and looking after their families. Large sections of the population were convinced that the revolution had to be carried further as the constitution of 1791 gave political rights only to the richer section of society. Many political clubs started to discuss about government policies and they started planning of their own form of government.

Jacobins was the most successful club among them. It was named after the convent of St Jacob in Paris. Maximilian Robespierre emerged as the leader of Jacobins.

Jacobins comprised of women, small peasants, labours, artisans, such as shoemaker, pastry cooks, watch makers, etc. They started wearing long striped trousers so that they could look different from those who wore knee breaches (persons belonging to fashionable society). They also wore a red cap also which was the symbol of liberty. They began to be called ‘sans-culottes’ which means ‘those without knee breaches’. However, women were not allowed to do so.

FRANCE ABOLISHES MONARCHY AND BECOMES A REPUBLIC

In revolutionary France, the legislative assembly votes to abolish monarchy and establish the first Republic. The measure came one year after King Louis XVI reluctantly approved a new constitution that stripped him of much of his power. King Louis and his queen Marie Antoinette were imprisoned in August 1792, and in September the monarch was abolished. Soon after, evidence of Louis counterrevolutionary intrigues with foreign nations was discovered and he was put on trial for treason. In January 1793, Louis was convicted and condemned to death by a narrow majority. On January 21, he was executed publicly at the Place de la Concorde. His queen too met with the same fate shortly after.

REIGN of TERRORThe period from 1793 to 1794 is known as the Reign of Terror.

Maximilian Robespierre sentenced to death all those persons who he considered as enemies of the republic, whether they were ex-noble, clergy, and members of any political parties; including Jacobins. The execution were completed after trial by revolutionary tribunal. At that time Robespierre followed a policy of severe control and punishment.

Guillotine, a device, named after inventor Dr. Guillotin, was used to behead a person at that time. It consists of two poles and a blade. Guilty persons were beheaded using guillotine.

Government led by Robespierre issued many laws among which ceiling maximum wages and price and rationing were main. Foods, such as meat and bread were rationed. Peasants were forced to sell their grains on fixed price in cities. Citizens were forced to eat equality bread, white flour which was costlier was forbidden. Use of Citoyen and Citoyenne for men and women citizen started instead of the traditional Sir (Monsieur) and Madam (Madame). Churches were shut down and their buildings were converted into offices and barracks. Practice of equality was sought everywhere. Because of forcible implementation of laws, even supporters of Robespierre started the demand for change. Finally, Robespierre arrested and guillotined in July 1794. Reign of Terror ended with the end of Robespierre.

DIRECTORY RULES FRANCEAfter the fall of Jacobins a new constitution was introduced and power

was again seized by wealthier middle class. According to new constitution

• Non propertied section of the society had no right to vote.• Two elected legislative councils would run the government.• Two elected legislative councils would appoint an executive

committee of five members, called Directory which would finally run the government.

• Directory could be dismissed by the majority vote of councils.These new provisions were brought to prevent the concentration of

power in one-man executive; as happened in the reign of Jacobins.The clash between Directory and member of councils led to political

instability, which opened the door of military dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon Bonaparte became the emperor of France in 1804.

WOMEN AS REVOLUTONARIES

When National Assembly was busy at Versailles drafting a constitution, the rest of France seethed with turmoil. A severe winter had meant a bad harvest; the price of bread rose, often bakers exploited the situation and hoarded supplies. After spending hours in long queues at the bakery, crowds of angry women stormed into the shops.From the very beginning women were active participants in the events which brought about so many changes in French society. They hoped that their involvement would pressurize the revolutionary government to introduce measures to improve their lives. Most women of the third estate had to work for a living. Most women did not have access to education or job training. Daughters of nobles or wealthier persons of third estate could study in convent. After that they were married by their families even against their will. They sold flowers, fruits, vegetables and employed as servant in house hold. After work they had to cook and look after for their families. There wages were lower than those of men. In order to discuss and voice their interests women started their own political clubs and newspapers. About sixty women's clubs came up in different French cities. The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was the most famous of them. One of their main demands was that women enjoy the same political rights as men. Women were disappointed that the 1791 Constitution reduced them to passive citizens. They demanded the right to vote, to be elected to the Assembly and to hold political office. Only then, they felt, would their interests be represented in the new government.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERYIn the system of slavery, people were forced to work, treated as properties

and hence sold, bought and forced to work against their will. The trade of slave started in seventeenth century. French merchants bought slave mainly from Africa. The branded and shackled slave were then packed tightly into ships and after two to three month of voyages they were sold in the Caribbean to plantation owners. The extensive demand of sugar, coffee and indigo in European market was fulfilled by the exploitation of slaves as labours. Many port cities like Bordeaux and Nates got economic prosperity by the trade of slaves and many of the merchants were increasing their wealth by trade of slavery.

However, the slavery began to be criticized in France. But even National Assembly could not pass any law to end of slavery in the fear of repercussion from businessmen who were mainly in slave trade.

By coming in power, Jacobins abolished the system of slavery in the French colonies, which was one of the greatest social reforms in their reign. But Napoleon again introduced the slavery system. And finally slavery was abolished in French colonies in 1848.

LOUIS XVI MARIE ANTOINETTE

MAXIMILLIAN ROBESPIERRE

NAPOLEAN BONAPARTE

MADE BYMOUSOOFA NASRIN

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