The Early French Revolution,

1789-91APEURO Lecture 5A

Mrs. Kray (some slides taken from Susan Pojer)

Significance of the Revolution

French Revolution stands at the crossroads of this course.

Generally considered the model for all revolutions

Gave us our modern ideologies and our political geography of “left” and “right.”

Unlike the American Revolution, which today is considered an accomplished and successful fact, the French public still debates the significance and meaning of this defining event in their nation’s existence.

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

Social Causes of the Revolution

Inequalities of the Old Regime

Social inequality was the most fundamental cause of the revolution but it would be a mistake to portray the revolution as merely a class struggle

First Estate

Second Estate

Third Estate

Structure of the

Old Regime

A Closer Look at the Three Estates

First Estate (Clergy)Less than 1% of the population but controlled 10% of the land; collected tithes

Second Estate (Nobility)Only 2% of the population but controlled 25% of the land; entitled to certain privileges (no taxes, hunting, special courts, special clothing); reasserted authority under Louis XV; dominated military and government positions

Third Estate (Everybody Else)Vast majority of French population fell into this category (bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie, and peasants); resented privileges of the First and Second Estate

More on the Third Estate

Not a monolithic group

Bourgeoisieo Wealthy merchantso Increased in numbers

& economic power in the 17th & 18th c. b/c of commerce

o Owned 25% of the land resented & envied the privileges of the aristocracy

Petty bourgeoisieo Artisans, shopkeepers,

small business ownerso Upset about rising prices

for goods & stagnant wages

o Become the sans-culottes

Peasantso Over 80% of France’s

population; many were small landowners

o Wanted to be free of the feudal system – lost ½ their income to taxes

o Also concerned about rising bread prices

Political Causes of the Revolution

Resurgent Nobility vs. Absolute Monarch

Goals of the Nobilityo Limit Bourbon

pretensions to absolutismo Wanted to evolve French

monarchy into a constitutional monarchy like Britain’s

o Asserted the powers of the parlements to check to king’s ability to tax and legislate arbitrarily• Parlement of Paris assumed

the right to approve or disapprove the king’s decrees

Noble Power in 18th c.o Louis XIV “The Sun King”

(1643-1715) -- noble power i

o Louis XV (1715-1774) -- noble power h• Not interested in day-to-day

operations of running a country

• Near end of his reign Louis got tough and dissolved the Parlement of Paris

o Louis XVI (1774-1793) -- noble power h• as a gesture of good will, he

reinstated Parlement of Paris

Weak French Monarchs: Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette, 1775-1793

Louis was a weak and indecisive king and his wife was particularly unpopular and seen as frivolous

“Let Them Eat Cake!”

Marie Antoinette and her husband always seemed out of touch with the needs of their people.

Marie Antoinette was incredibly unpopularo “Madame Deficit”o “The Austrian Whore”o The Affair of the Necklace

Antoinette’s

peasant’s cottage

The necklace

cost 1,600,000

million livres ($100

million today)

The Influence of the Enlightenment

Did not cause the French Revolution but it provided a language (reason, natural rights, historical progress) the Third Estate could now use to describe their dissatisfactions with the obstacles that stymied their professional or economic ambitions

Lettres de Cache The French king could

warrant imprisonment or death in a signed letter under his seal

A carte-blanche warrant

Cardinal Fleury issued 80,000 during the reign of Louis XV

Enlightenment principles of equality and justice spoke against this practiceo Outlawed in 1790

Louis XVI

Economic Causes of the Revolution

Government Debt 1714-1789 French commerce

expanded tenfold but wealth remained unevenly distributed

No extensive credit networko Never successfully created system

of “public debt”

Inefficient and regressive tax system

Monarchy faced massive debts from numerous warso Funded the American Revolution

Louis XVI did not pursue a consistent strategyo Turgot, Necker, Calonne, Brienne

1785 French treasury was bankrupt!!!

Path to BankruptcyAnne Robert Jacques Turgot, 1771-1776

Physiocrato Attacked government

monopolies, slashed spending, advocated free trade

Mercilessly attacked privilegeo Proposed converting the corvee

labor service into a cash payment and eliminating numerous government positions and pensions

o Wanted to adopt a single direct tax on land

These proposals sparked widespread opposition

Path to Bankruptcy

Jacques Necker, 1776-1781

Swiss Protestant banker

Published complete accounting of the state budget – compte renduo Revealed incredible waste

Felt privilege estates must be taxedo Nobles convinced Louis to fire

him

Became a well-respected symbol of reform

Path to Bankruptcy

Charles de Calonne, 1781-1787 Wanted to replace taille with a

general tax on ALL landownerso Realized Parlement of Paris would

never agree to reformso Sought ways to get around Paris

parlement

1787 - Handpicked “assembly of notables” to approve new taxeso But the plan backfiredo They demanded concessionso Deadlock ensued

Calonne’s reputation plummeted

Path to Bankruptcy

Archbishop Brienne, 1787-1788

Convinced Louis XVI to play hardball and intimidate or subdue the parlements

His policies fomented organized opposition to the monarchy

1788 -- France on the verge of bankruptcy, Louis has no choice, he must call the Estates General into session

Crop Failures, 1787-1789

In 1787 French Urban Poor spent 50% of their income on bread In 1788 they spent 80% of their income on bread

• Urban Commoner’s Budget:• Food 80%• Rent 25%• Tithe 10%• Taxes 35%• Clothing

20%• TOTAL 170%

• King’s Budget• Interest

50%• Army 25%• Versailles 25%• Coronation 10%• Loans 25%• Administration

25%• TOTAL 160%

The French Revolution,

Liberal Phase, 1789-1792

Calling the Estates-General

French people believed real reform/change was possible when the Estates-General was called, why?o First time the Estates-General

has been called in more than 100 yrs.• Last national election was in

1614o cahiers de doleances

• Louis asked all French people to write down their grievances in notebooks (cahiers) to present to the Estates-General

• Main complaints: demands for tax equality, abolition of feudalism

Convening of the Estates-General,May 1789

The issue of voting dominated the early part of the Estates-General

The Issue of VotingTraditional Voting Pattern:

Voting By Estate Suggested Voting Pattern:

Voting By Head

1

1

1

(Clergy) 1st Estate

(Nobles) 2nd Estate

Commonersof the 3rd

Estate(98% of the population)

300

300

648 Commoners

of the 3rd Estate

(Clergy) 1st Estate

(Nobles) 2nd Estate

The traditional voting pattern allowed the 1st and 2nd Estate to impose their will on the 3rd Estate

Abbe Sieyes, 1748-1836“What is the Third Estate”

Member of the 1st Estate who sided with members of the third estate on new voting pattern

Wrote influential essay “What is the Third Estate”o What is the Third Estate…

EVERYTHINGo What has it been here-to-fore in

the political order…NOTHINGo What does it demand…to

become SOMETHING therein!!!

“The Third Estate Awakens”June 17, 1789

Led by Abbe Sieyes, the third estate rejected the traditional voting method and demanded that all three estates meet together

When the king refused, the third estate declared itself the true National Assembly of France

The Tennis Court OathJune 20, 1789

Locked out of their official meeting place after their declaration, the third estate broke into a nearby building and swore an oath

not to disband until they had written a new constitution for France

Storming the BastilleJuly 14, 1789

Unsure what to do next, Louis began raising an army o This mercenary army of Swiss

guards marched toward Paris

Angry mobs in Paris, already protesting the soaring price of bread, stormed the Bastilleo Bastille was a royal fortress &

prison o The mob freed a handful of

prisoners and seized the Bastille’s supply of gunpowder and weapons

Important symbolic act against royal despotism

Louis was forced to recognize the National Assemblyo ordered the other two estates to

sit with them

The Great FearJune-August, 1789

Rumors spread that the aristocracy were sending hired brigands to attack peasants and pillage their land

Peasant decided to strike firsto Thousands of nobles

attacked and murdered

Great Fear was clearly peasants directing their anger at the feudal system

The August DecreesAugust 4-7, 1789

National Assembly abolished feudal regime in Franceo Outlawed feudal privileges, tithes, noble

hunting rights, labor serve, and serfdomo All Frenchmen were, at least in principle,

subject to the same laws and the same taxes and eligible for the same offices

Safeguarding private propertyo Feudal dues were not renounced outright

(would have threatened principle of private property)

o Peasants would compensate their landlords through a series of direct payments for obligations from which they had supposedly been freed.

o Therefore, the National Assembly made revolutionary gestures but remained essentially moderate.

The Tricolor

The WHITE of the Bourbons + the

RED & BLUE of Paris

Liberte!Egalit

e!Fraternite!

Citizen!

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen August 26, 1789

Proclaimed all men were “born and remain free and equal in rights.”o These natural rights included

the rights to “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression”

Provided for freedom of religion, freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom of speech and the press, and the right to petition the government

The Declaration of the Rights of Man Leaves

Many Questions Unanswered Did women have equal rights with men?

What about free blacks in the colonies?

How could slavery be justified if all men were born free?

Did religious toleration of Protestants and Jews include equal political rights?

The Rights of Women Women gained increased rights to

inherit property and to divorce

The rights of citizenship were not extended to womeno Women DID NOT gain the right to vote or

hold political office

Olympe de Gouge’s The Declaration and the Rights of Woman and Citizen, 1791

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Womeno Argued women are not naturally inferior to

meno Appearance of inferiority is created by a

lack of education

Olympe de Gouge,

1745-1793

Women’s March to VersaillesOctober 1789

Sometimes referred to as the October Days Thousands of women marched to Versailles demanding cheap

bread and forced the king and his family back to Paris. The king and his family were imprisoned in the Tuileries

Early National Assembly Reforms

Restructuring the New Governmento 1789: France divided into 83 departments governed by elected

officialso Abolished internal tariffs and guilds

Financing the New Governmento 1790: Church lands confiscated

• One of the most controversial decisions of the revolutiono Printed Assignats

• Interest-bearing notes which had the church lands as security (it’s a bond)

• Whoever acquired them were entitled to certain privileges in the purchase of church land – plan was to retire the notes when land was sold

• They began circulating as paper currency• Government printed more which caused INFLATION (ultimately they lost

99% of their value)• Therefore, future governments paid off their creditors with cheap

money

National Assembly Reforms:

New Relations Between Church and State

Roman Catholic Church transformed into a branch of the stateo Government paid the

salaries of the clergy and maintained the Churches

o Parish priests elected by the district assemblies

o Bishops named by the department assemblies

o Pope had NO voice in the appointment of French clergy

Pope Pius VI

National Assembly Reforms:

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, Aug. 1790

Confiscated church lands; decreed bishops and priests would be elected by the people and paid by the state

Required the clergy to take a loyalty oath to support the new government more than 50% of the clergy refused to take the oath

Turned Catholics, particularly French peasants, against the revolutiono Act was condemned by Pope Pius VI

National Assembly Reforms:

The Constitution of 1791 Constitutional monarchy created

o The king got the “suspensive” veto (prevented passage of laws for 4 yrs)

o He could not pass lawso His ministers were responsible for their own actions

A permanent, elected, single chamber Legislative Assemblyo Had the power to grant taxationo An independent treasuryo GOAL: make sure that the country was not turned over to the mob

“Active” Citizen vs. “Passive” Citizen o Active citizen would paid taxes amounting to three days labor

could vote• Tended to be landholders

o 1/3 of adult males were denied the franchise and all women• Domestic servants were also excluded

Louis XVI “Accepting”the New Constitution

Part of the reason for keeping the king weak in this new constitutional monarchy was the revolutionaries distrust of Louis

If he wasn’t going

to be an active participant in the revolution did it make sense to grant him a great deal of power in the new government – the answer was no.

Louis’ “Flight to Varennes”June 1791

Helped by the Swedish Count Hans Axel von Fusen (Marie Antoinette’s lover)o Headed toward the Luxemborg border

The King was recognized and brought back to Tuileries

Embracing the Revolution:Revolutionary Symbols

cockade

Revolutionary Clock

Revolutionary Playing Cards

Embracing the Revolution:Planting the Liberty Tree

The Warnings of Sir Edmund BurkeReflections on the Revolution in France, 1790

Conservative Historian

Argued traditional institutions are necessary for a society to maintain stability

If change is necessary it must be done slowly

Argued French were changing their traditional political and social institutions so rapidly it would lead to chaos and violence

Predicted the French revolution would ultimately end in a military dictatorship