Transcript French Revolution -

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
Some deep-seated causes of the
First French Revolution (1789-91)
Advocacy
of reform,
especially by
Enlightenment thinkers
Conflict
btw Crown
and nobility (longtime) over
Constitutional issues—
despotic king!
Encounters
btw the landowning nobility and the
peasantry increased
increased demand for
restrictions on noble
privileges
Ongoing
food shortages in
cities created a militant
citizenry vs. authorities
blamed for high P of bread
Immediate cause of the
First French Revolution
• Major economic crisis that bankrupted the
monarchy and deprived it of its authority.
• Crisis led to a revolt of nobles vs.
crownbrought down entire system of
absolutism.
• Only after this collapse did various groups
with grievances vs. the regime take the
initiative and established a new political
order filled the power void.
T he French Urban Poor
80
70
60
50
1787
1788
40
30
20
10
0
% of Income Spent on Bread
Beginning of the Revolution
• Financial crisis:
– Debt from Seven Years Wars
– Debt from helping American
Revolutionaries
• If Americans paid their debt, the French would
have been flush!
– 1787: Revenue = 475 million livres
Expenses = 600 million livres
Lettres de Cachet
Y The French king could warrant
imprisonment or death in a
signed letter under his seal.
Y A carte-blanche warrant.
Y Cardinal Fleury issued 80,000
during the reign of Louis XV!
Y Eliminated in 1790.
Ancien Regime Map, 1789
T he Suggested Voting Pattern:
Voting by Estates
1
Clergy
1st Estate
Aristocracy
1
2nd Estate
1
Commoners
3rd Estate
Louis XIV insisted that the ancient distinction of the
three orders be conserved in its entirety.
T he Number of Representatives
in the Estates General: Vote by Head!
Clergy
300
1st Estate
Aristocracy
300
2nd Estate
648
Commoners
3rd Estate
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes
1st What is the Third
Estate? Everything!
2nd What has it been
heretofore in the
political order?
Nothing!
3rd What does it demand?
To become something
therein!
Abbé Sieyès
1748-1836
Convening the Estates General
May, 1789
Last time it was called into session was 1614!
Estates-General
• Need to deal with taxes
• Some nobles OK with paying some
taxes
• E-G: Had not convened since 1614
• Regional Parlements (including the v.
powerful Parlement of Paris) said only
E-G had the power to approve new
taxes.
“T he T hird Estate Awakens”
Y The commoners finally presented their credentials
not as delegates of the Third Estate, but as
“representatives of the nation.”
Y They proclaimed themselves the “National
Assembly” of France when the voting controversy
is not resolved to their liking.
“T he Tennis Court Oath”
by Jacques Louis David
June 20, 1789
Europe on the Eve of the
French Revolution
Storming the Bastille, July 14, 1789
Y A rumor that the king was planning a military coup
against the National Assembly. 17,000 troops into
Paris
Y 18 died.
Y 73 wounded.
Y 7 guards
killed.
Y It held 7
prisoners
[5 ordinary
criminals & 2
madmen].
T he Great Fear: Peasant Revolt
(July 20, 1789)
Y Rumors that the feudal aristocracy [the aristos]
were sending hired brigands to attack peasants and
pillage their land.
T he Path
of the
“Great
Fear”
Between August 1789 and
September 1790
• National Assembly took THREE
Revolutionary Steps:
1. Elimination of noble and clerical privilege
2. Promulgated the Declaration of the Rights
of Man and Citizen
3. Complete Reorganization of the Church
National Assembly
1789 - 1791
Liberté!
Egalité!
Fraternité!
August Decrees
August 4-11, 1789
(A renunciation of aristocratic privileges!)
Eliminate noble and clerical
privilege
Abolished:
• feudal dues paid by peasants to lord
• private legal jurisdiction of noblemen
• The collection of tithes by the clergy
• Exclusive games rights of lords
• Noble titles
Results
• France not longer a society divided into various
groups with own privileges.
• Now, France has only citizens!
– Equal at law
– Social distinctions based on merit, not birth!
– No intermediary powers between King and
individual subject!
– All Frenchmen were, at least in principle, subject to
the same laws and the same taxes and eligible for
the same offices.
BUT . . . . .
Y Feudal dues were not renounced outright
[this had been too strong a threat to the
principle of private property!]
Y Peasants would compensate their landlords
through a series of direct payments for
obligations from which they had supposedly
been freed.
 Therefore, the National Assembly made
revolutionary gestures, but remained
essentially moderate.
Their Goal
Safeguard the right of private
property!!
T he Tricolor (1789)
The WHITE of the
Bourbons + the RED &
BLUE of Paris.
Citizen!
T he Tricolor is the Fashion!
T he “Liberty Cap”: Bonne Rouge
Revolutionary Symbols
Cockade
La Republic
Revolutionary
Clock
Liberté
T he Declaration of the Rights of
Man and of the Citizen
Revolutionary Step
#2!
August 26,
1789
V Liberty!
V Property!
V Resistance to
oppression!
March of the Women,
October 5-6, 1789
A spontaneous demonstration of Parisian
women for bread.
We want the baker, the baker’s wife
and the baker’s boy!
T he “October Days” (1789)
The king was thought to be surrounded by evil
advisors at Versailles so he was forced to move to
Paris and reside at the Tuileries Palace.
Planting the Tree of Liberty
1790
T hird Revolutionary Step: T he
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
July 12,
1790
Church is now a
department of the
state.
Q: How to Finance the New
Government?
A: Confiscate Church Lands (1790)
One of the most controversial decisions of the
entire revolutionary period.
2. Print Assignats
V Issued by the National Assembly.
V Interest-bearing notes which had the church lands as
security.
Depreciation of the Assignat
V Whoever acquired them were entitled to certain
privileges in the purchase of church land.
V The state would retire the notes as the land was
sold.
V They began circulating as paper currency.


Government printed more  INFLATION [they lost
99% of their value ultimately].
Therefore, future governments paid off their
creditors with cheap money.
New Relations Between
Church & State
V Government paid the salaries of the French clergy
and maintained the churches.
V The church was reorganized:



Parish priests  elected by the district assemblies.
Bishops  named by the
department assemblies (laymen).
The pope had NO voice in the
appointment of the French clergy.
V It transformed France’s
Roman Catholic Church
into a branch of the state!!
V Pope Pius condemned the
DRMC and also the CCC!
Pope Pius VI
[1775-1799]
Louis XVI “Accepts” the Constitution
& the National Assembly. 1791
Constitution of 1791
T he French Constitution of 1791:
A Bourgeois Government
V The king got the “suspensive” veto [which
prevented the passage of laws for 4
years].




He could not pass laws.
His ministers were responsible for their
own actions.
K directs Foreign Policy
K commands Armed Forces
V A permanent, elected, single chamber
Legislative Assembly.

Had the power to grant taxation.
V An independent judiciary.
T he French Constitution of 1791:
A Bourgeois Government
V “Active” Citizen [who pays taxes
amounting to 3 days labor] could vote vs.
“Passive” Citizen.
 1/3 of adult males were denied the
franchise.
 Domestic servants were also excluded.
V A newly elected LEGISLATIVE
ASSEMBLY.
GOAL  Make sure that the country
was not turned over to the mob!
83 Revolutionary Departments
February 26, 1790
New Constitution and other laws
• Formally abolished all hereditary legal privileges
• Law legislation granted Jews and Protestants full civil
rights and toleration
• Eliminated primogeniture
• Marriage now a civil contract
• Divorce, so husband and wife freely contracting
individuals
• No appeal to “ancient past” and the recovery of “lost
freedoms” (ala English Revs).
• Promoted a new view of French society as a nation
composed of = citizens possessing natural rights
Reactions to the FFR:Sir
Edmund Burke (1790):
Reflections on the Revolution in France
•The conservative response to the French
Revolution by Burke: horror at the way in
which abstract philosophy destroyed the
traditional social order of France.
•Prussian official called the FFR, “the first
practical triumph of philosophy … the hope
and consolation of so many of those ancient
ills under which mankind has suffered.”
•Catherine denounced the new Polish
Constitution of 1791, modeled on the French
one, as a product of French radicalism. She
shut down the presses, revived censorship,
turned against the philosophes and banned
Voltaire’s works!
Olympe de Gouges (1745-1793)
V Women played a vital
role in the Revolution.
V But, The Declaration
of the Rights of Man
did NOT extend the
rights and protections
of citizenship to
women.
Declaration of the
Rights of Woman
and of the Citizen
(1791)
T he Royal Family Attempts
to Flee
Y June, 1791
Y Helped by the Swedish Count Hans Axel
von Fusen [Marie Antoinette’s lover].
Y Headed toward the
Luxembourg
border.
Y The King was
recognized at
Varennes, near
the border
T he First Coalition &
T he Brunswick Manifesto
(August 3, 1792)
Duke of Brunswick if the Royal Family is harmed,
Paris will be leveled!!
FRANCE
17921797
AUSTRIA
PRUSSIA
This military crisis undermined the new
Legislative Assembly.
French Soldiers & the Tricolor:
Vive Le Patrie!
V The French armies
were ill-prepared for
the conflict.
V ½ of the officer corps
had emigrated.
V Many men disserted.
V New recruits were
enthusiastic, but
ill-trained.
V French troops often
broke ranks and fled
in disorder.
French Expansion: 1791-1799