Transcript The French Revolution - Townsend Harris High School

Age Of Revolutions 1750-1914
1. American Revolution 1776-1789
2. French Revolution and Napoleon 1789-1814
3. Reactionarism (1815-1848) and the Revolutions of
4.
1830 and 1848
Latin American Revolutions – Haiti, Mexico and
South America (early 1800s)
L.O. Students will analyze the
underlying social, political, and
economic causes of the French
Revolution
Do Now:
1. In your opinion, what role does social order
play in society?
2. In your opinion, What could cause the
economy of a powerful nation to fall apart
rapidly?
3. How could a nation attempt to rectify the
economic crisis it was enduring?
American Revolution-1776-1789
• Increased British “interference” in American colonies
•
•
•
•
including increased taxation leads to revolt by locals
Britain has difficulties fighting a war so far away from its
territories
Has a “2nd Part” in the War of 1812 which finally resolves
USA’s existence
Based on the principles of “The Enlightenment” a strong
government is established after 1789 with the signing of
the US Constitution. A “large % of people could vote
(compared to in England)
Regional (North vs South) differences exist and a strong
unified country is not established until after the Civil War
in mid-1800s.
The French Revolution
1789
What were the main causes of the
French Revolution?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
System of Government
Social Order
Economic crises
Enlightenment Ideas
Weak leadership
The American Revolution
System of Government
• France was an absolute monarchy
– Ruler has complete power over the
government and lives of the people they
govern
– Divine right of kings
King Louis XVI
Reigned 1774-1791
Queen Marie Antoinette
Social Order in France
Ancien Regime: old order, the
system of government in prerevolution France
Social Order of France
KING
FIRST ESTATE
1%
SECOND ESTATE
1%
THIRD ESTATE
98 %
The First Estate
• Clergy
Privileges:
- Collected tithes
- Paid no taxes
- Bishops -Were usually wealthy
appointed nobles
- Parish priests were usually poor
The Second Estate
• Titled nobility of French society
Privelages:
– Paid no taxes
– Top jobs in government, the army, the
courts and the Church
– Disliked losing positions to the rising
bourgeoisies
The Third Estate
• Consisted of everyone who was not clergy or
nobility
Largest class 98%
Vastly diverse
•
•
Bourgeoisie – middle class were top of
third estate
Included professionals such as ?
Bankers, merchants, lawyers & Dr.’s
Majority – rural peasants
Abbé Sieyès‘ (theorist of the
Revolution)
What is the Third Estate?
We must ask ourselves three questions.
1. What is the Third State?
Everything.
2. What has it been until now in the political order?
Nothing.
3. What does it want to be? Something....
• Estates General: is the legislative body
made up of representatives of the three
estates.
• Can only be summoned by the king
• Had not been called for 175 years
• Each estate had 1 vote
Another cause: Economic Crises
Severe economic crises
-France was deeply in debt
Deficit spending – occurs when a government
spends more than they take in
National Debt – interest huge
Causes: Economic Crises
• Lavish Spending by previous monarchs
– Louis XV (War of the Austrian Succession)
– Louis XIV
• Three major wars
• Chateau de Versailles
Causes: Economic Crises
Bad Harvests
Food prices soared
Brought widespread famine to peasants
Population growth
Lavish spending at court
Financing wars including
-The Seven Years War (France lost)
-The American Revolution
Economic Reform
Jacques Necker: financial advisor
• appointed by the king
– Reduce extravagant spending
– Tax the First and second Estates
– Dismissed
– King failed to institute reforms
– This angered the Third Estate
Jacques Necker
The American Revolution
Ideas of the philosophes
Rousseau
Montesquieu
Voltaire
Enlightenment Ideas
• Equality and justice for all
• Governments power comes from the
people
• People have natural rights to life, liberty
and property
• Separation of powers
• Checks and balances
The American Revolution
• Cost of financing the Americans
• Enlightenment ideas successfully
implemented
• Declaration of Independence
• Cahiers: notebooks used to list grievances
of the Three Estates
The French Monarchy:
1775 - 1793
Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI
Let Them Eat Cake! – out of touch
Y Marie Antoinette NEVER said that!
Y “Madame Deficit”
Y “The Austrian Whore”/ Necklace
Scandal?Summer Cottage scandal
Socio-Economic Data, 1789
The French Urban Poor
80
70
60
50
1787
1788
40
30
20
10
0
% of Income Spent on Bread
Financial Problems
in France, 1789
a Urban Commoner’s
Budget:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Food
Rent
Tithe
Taxes
Clothing
TOTAL
80%
25%
10%
35%
20%
170%
a King’s Budget:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Interest
Army
Versailles
Coronation
Loans
Admin.
TOTAL
50%
25%
25%
10%
25%
25%
160%
Ancien Regime Map, 1789
How can the King raise $?
• Needs to call the Estates General – to
raise funds and tax the nobles.
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.
Convening the Estates General
May, 1789
Last time it was called into session was 1614!
The 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.
The 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 – opposes the system
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
“The Third 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.
The Tennis Court Oath
Storming the Bastille, July 14, 1789
Y A rumor that the king was planning a military coup
against the National Assembly.
Y 18 died.
Y 73 wounded.
Y 7 guards
killed.
Y It held 7
prisoners
[5 ordinary
criminals & 2
madmen].
The 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. – Nobles are killed and most flee
France hoping to return when things calm down
The Path
of the
“Great
Fear”
Night Session of August 4, 1789
Y Before the night was over:
 The feudal regime in France had
been abolished.
 All Frenchmen were, at least in
principle, subject to the same laws
and the same taxes and eligible for
the same offices.
Equality & Meritocracy!
National Constituent Assembly
1789 - 1791
Liberté!
Egalité!
Fraternité!
August Decrees
August 4-11, 1789
(A renunciation of aristocratic privileges!)
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!!
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen – Enlightenment ideals put into law by the
National Assembly – First Republic of France established – King is a figurehead Monarchy
August 26,
1789
V Liberty!
V Property!
V Resistance to
oppression!
V Thomas Jefferson
was in Paris at this
time.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen
Posed New Dilemmas
1. Did women have equal rights with men?
NO
2. What about free blacks in the colonies?
NO
3. How could slavery be justified if all men
were born free? ??? They try
4. Did religious toleration of Protestants
and Jews include equal political rights?
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)
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!
The “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.
How to Finance the New Govt.?
1. Confiscate Church Lands (1790)
One of the most controversial decisions of the
entire revolutionary period.
2. Print Assignats
V
V
Issued by the National Constituent Assembly.
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.
The Civil Constitution
of the Clergy
July 12,
1790
Jurying
vs.
Non-Jurying
[refractory]
The oath of allegiance permanently
divided the Catholic population!
Clergy
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.
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!!
Pope Pius VI
[1775-1799]
Louis XVI “Accepts” the Constitution
& the National Assembly. 1791
The French Constitution of 1791:
A Bourgeois Government
V
The king got the “suspensive” veto [which
prevented the passage of laws for 4
years].


V
A permanent, elected, single chamber
National Assembly.

V
He could not pass laws.
His ministers were responsible for their
own actions.
Had the power to grant taxation.
An independent judiciary.
The 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!
Y June, 1791
The Royal Family Attempts
to Flee
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
Europe on the Eve of the
French Revolution – How will the rest of Europe react to what is happening in
France?
Sir Edmund Burke (1790):
Reflections on the Revolution in France
The conservative response
to the French Revolution –
Great Britain fearful it will
spread
The First Coalition &
The Brunswick Manifesto
(August 3, 1792)
Duke of Brunswick if the Royal Family is harmed,
Paris will be leveled!!
FRANCE
17921797
AUSTRIA
PRUSSIA
BRITAIN
SPAIN
PIEDMONT
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 – under General Napoleon’s leadership French army
becomes organized and effective