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HI 112 Raffael Scheck Colby College

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Title: HI 112 Raffael Scheck Colby College


1
HI 112Raffael ScheckColby College
  • A Survey of Modern Europe
  • 2

2
The Origins of the French Revolution
3
Absolutism in Crisis
  • The impact of the American Revolution
  • No taxation without representation
  • Success government without kings and nobles is
    possible
  • Problems of the Enlightened Despots
  • Critique of their militarism
  • Contempt for the people (the voice of the people
    is the voice of the cattle)
  • Catherine II

4
The Crisis in France
  • Enlightened despotism was inconsistent and
    disappointing Louis XVI
  • Half-hearted repression (lettres de cachet) -
    easy target for enlightenment critique
  • Very dynamic, assertive society
  • Rich country with a bankrupt government

5
The Financial Crisis of France
  • Reasons
  • Wasteful court management
  • Foreign war
  • Antiquated trade structure
  • Narrow tax base (near exemption for the clergy
    and nobility)
  • Hence a new deal is unavoidable - but dangerous

6
Three Layers of Social Tensions
  1. Monarchy versus aristocracy
  2. Privileged wealth versus unprivileged wealth
  3. The poor versus the rich

7
1. Monarchy against Aristocracy
  • Aristocracy wants to go back to pre-absolutist
    times but justifies its demand in enlightenment
    terms (balance of power rational government
    social contract - but according to Locke, not
    Rousseau)
  • Aristocrats demand a parliament, the Estates
    General (not convened since 1614). Votes by
    estate. Therefore secure majority for clergy and
    aristocracy

8
2. Privileged Wealth versus Unprivileged Wealth
  • The Three Estates
  • The aristocracy enjoys privileges (tax exemption
    careers legal advantages)
  • The wealthy members of the Third Estate resent
    these privileges (businessmen, merchants,
    artisans, bankers)
  • An example the Noailles Affair

9
3. The Poor Versus the Rich
  • Commercial downturn and bad harvests 1787-89
  • Enlightenment ideas (Rousseau) among the lower
    classes "we, the people, deserve better than
    being poor, unrepresented, and exploited
  • New mindset instead of we want bread - we
    want the GOVERNMENT to provide bread!
  • Peasants resent feudal contracts and aristocratic
    arbitrariness
  • Hence as France is approaching a major crisis of
    government, many hungry, even starving people are
    waiting in the wings, particularly in the cities

10
The Start of the Revolution
  • Aristocratic rebellion, 1787-89. Demand for
    Estates General. Tax strike
  • Rebellion of the Third Estate wants doublement
    du tiers and voting by head, not by estate
  • Abbé Siéyès the third estate is the nation!
  • Louis XVI concedes the demands of the Third Estate

11
The French Revolution
12
1. Phase Toward a Constitutional Monarchy and
Abolition of Privilege
  • Third Estate with allies declares itself the
    National Assembly. Promise to write a
    constitution
  • Great Fear
  • Popular rebellion in Paris storm on the Bastille
    (July 1789) later abduction of the royal couple
    from Versailles to Paris
  • Constitution and Declaration of Rights of Man -
    1791

13
Balance Sheet for the 1st Phase
  • Establishment of a constitutional monarchy and
    declaration of rights of men, but not of women
  • Merit trumps privilege in careers, but voting is
    still restricted by income no democracy
  • Abolition of feudalism through the Great Fear
  • Centralization, rationalization, standardization
    of weights and measures
  • Problems
  • Louis XVI remains unwilling to work within the
    new constitutional framework (monsieur véto
    flight to Varennes)
  • Civil Constitution of the Clergy and confiscation
    of church lands (financial measure) splits the
    countryside and leads to massive unrest

14
2nd Phase Constitution of a Republic Civil and
Foreign War
  • Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria
  • As the war turns to the worse, the Assembly calls
    for a democratic constitution and universal
    manhood suffrage
  • Deposition of the king
  • Random massacres of aristocrats and priests
  • Decision to execute the king

15
Balance Sheet of the 2nd Phase
  • Commitment to democracy and a republic
  • Huge mobilization of revolutionary fanatics
  • Problems
  • Radicalism of Paris crowds is out of the step
    with much of the country at large. Declaration
    of the Republic is preceded by violence
  • Economic crisis inflation. Exacerbated by war
  • Church policy ignites civil war in the countryside

16
3rd Phase Reign of Terror and Mobilization of
the Nation
  • The assembly, renamed as Convention, sets up
    two emergency committees
  • These committees establish a dictatorship
    (Robespierre)
  • Democratic constitution, to be implemented after
    the war
  • Levée en masse
  • Cultural Revolution
  • Civil War (Vendée)

17
Balance Sheet of the 3rd Phase
  • Commitment to democracy, but at the same time
    terror in the name of the people
  • Cultural Revolution with absurdities of
    political correctness
  • Repression of counter-revolution and turn of the
    war in Frances favor
  • But the terror seems increasingly absurd and
    uncontrolled

18
4th Phase Thermidorian Reaction and Directorate
  • Attempt to stabilize the revolution against both
    the left and the right
  • Republic of property owners, ruled by 5 directors
  • Bi-cameral parliament with lower house elected
    along property suffrage lines
  • Export of the Revolution through foreign war
    Sister republics

19
Balance Sheet of the 4th Phase
  • Precarious stability, built on a thin political
    base
  • White terror against revolutionaries continued
    uprisings from the poor
  • Growing dependency on foreign war and victories -
    hence on the army and its most prestigeous
    generals
  • General Napoléon Bonaparte is invited to perform
    a coup détat (brumaire 1799)

20
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21
Napoleonic Europe
22
Napoleon in France
  • His recipe universal manhood suffrage but
    powerless parliament plebiscites (Bonapartism)
  • Concordat (1801)
  • First Consul for life (1802)
  • Code Napoléon (1804)
  • Emperor (1804)
  • Dependent on military glory. Increasing popular
    resentment at endless wars

23
Napoleon in Europe
  • Conqueror and military genius
  • Great victories in land battles (Austerlitz,
    1805), but loss of sea power (Trafalgar, 1805)
  • Continental System
  • From liberator to oppressor
  • Downfall (Spanish uprising, Russia)
  • Short comeback in 1815

24
Balance Sheet Napoleon
  • Conserves revolutionary ideas in France
  • But he also subverts the revolution (new
    nobility nepotism powerless parliament
    repression of women and workers)
  • Brings ideas of the Revolution to much of Europe
    (weights and measures rights of man
    nationalism)
  • Romantic hero
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