Transcript THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION
OBJECTIVES
What caused this era of revolution?
What were the ideas and objectives of
men and women who rose up
violently to undo the established
system?
What were the gains and losses for
the privileged groups and ordinary
people in a generation of war and
upheaval?
THEMES
LIBERALISM AND
NATIONALISM
“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”
NAPOLEON
Paradox – “The God of War and
the Promoter of Peace”
FOUR STAGES OF THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION
THE MODERATE STAGE
(1789-1792)
THE RADICAL STAGE
(1792-1795)
THE REACTIONARY STAGE
(1795-1799)
THE NAPOLEONIC STAGE
(1799-1814)
Underlying Causes
SOCIAL
??
POLITICAL
??
RELIGIOUS
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INTELLECTUAL
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TECNOLOGICAL
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ECONOMIC
??
SOCIAL
French Estate System
SOCIAL - First Estate
Clergy  RCC leaders
130,000 total (0.5% of
population)
Own 10% of land
No mandatory tax
“Voluntary gift”
Taxed residents on
their land
Collected TITHE
SOCIAL – Second Estate
Nobility
400,000 total (1.5% of
population)
Own 25% of land
Taxed VERY minimally
Had “optional” taxes
Had manorial rights
Would tax residents on their
land
SOCIAL – Third Estate
EVERYONE ELSE
25 million total
(97% of population)
HEAVILY TAXED
3 Subgroups
BOURGEOISIE
Doctors, lawyers, etc.
WORKERS
Artisans, skilled laborers
PEASANTS
21 million people
SOCIAL – Third Estate
Problems in 3rd Estate
Bourgeoisie want:
Abolition to mercantilist restrictions
Fairer distribution of taxes
A GREATER VOICE IN GOVERNMENT
Peasants want:
Freedom from serfdom
Freedom from HIGH TAXES
Gabelle – salt tax
Taille – land tax
BOTH SEEK REVOLT
SOCIAL – Third Estate
Abbe Sieyes – 1789:
“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.”
SOCIAL
Unpopular Court Nobility
Tension between bourgeoisie and
nobility
Resentment of noble privileges
Nobles resistant to taxes
Population increase - 20-26
million 18th century
POLITICAL
Bourbon monarchs
Louis XIV, XV, & XVI
BIG SPENDERS
Increasingly ineffective
DEBT
Rule by divine right
Lettres de Cachet –
individuals could be
sentence without trial
POLITICAL
Louis XVI (r. 1774-1791)
Indecisive – vacillation
Estates General dismissed
for 175 years
Nobles want to limit
power
Marie Antoinette – 1770
political marriage
Young, frivolous
RELIGIOUS
James Gillray
(1793)
“The Zenith of
French Glory –The
Pinnacle of
Liberty, Religion,
Justice, Loyalty,
and all the
bugbears of
Unenlightened
Minds , Farewell!”
INTELLECTUAL
ENLIGHTENMENT
Montesquieu
Voltaire
Rousseau
Locke
Diderot
Printing Press
INTELLECTUAL
NEW INFLUENTIAL IDEAS
Liberty
Individual human rights
Freedom of speech, religion, press, etc.
Equality
Right to vote, run for office, participate in
government
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY
Only applied to MEN
“Liberté, égalité, fraternité”
TECHNOLGICAL
PRINTING PRESS
GUILLOTINE
Commoners – Hanged
Aristocracy – beheaded
“SYMBOL OF EQUALITY”
Joseph Guillotin (17381814)
Antoine Lewis (1723 –
1792)
Used from 1791-1981
ECONOMIC
Seven Years’ War (1756-1763)
Wars of Louis XIV
Versailles
American Revolution
UNLIMITED PERSONAL EXPENSES
ALL = GREAT
ECONOMIC
INEFFECTIVE TAX SYSTEM
Dismissal of several finance ministers
Problems with Parlement of Paris
Continually refused to register new
taxes
$$$ of bread ↑
Caused by poor harvests, ↑ in
populations, and harsh winters
ECONOMIC CAUSE
Jacques Turgot (1727-1781) –
controller general of finances – cut
gov’t spending – 20 months after he
was appointed 1774 he was dismissed
Jacques Necker (1732-1804) –
dismissed in 1781 and then recalled
in 1788
July 1788 – Louis XVI - to win
support for new taxes called into
session the Estates General