The French Revolution

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The French Revolution
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• The Enlightenment- an 18th century intellectual
  movement based on the principles of reason and
  common sense that challenged the prevailing
  attitudes of religion and tradition.

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Important ideas

• Contractual government
• The General Will
• Limited royal power
• Checks and balances
• Social equality
• Humanitarianism

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Failure of the Enlightenment

• The use of pure reason did not take into account
  some inescapable elements of human behavior such
  as
• Emotions
• Desires
• Passions
• Appetites
• Willpower

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25 years of Chaos

• The French Revolution 1789-1799
• The Age of Napoleon 1799-1815

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A turning point in Western Civilization

• after the revolution had run its course... Europe
  was not the same place
• the stage was set for the modern political,
  social and economic systems that is the western
  world today...
• However, France seemed the least likely for such
  dramatic changes.

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Underlying causes of the Revolution

• The legacy of the Middle Ages
• The inequalities of the Old Regime --privileges
  of the 1st 2nd Estates
• the corruption inefficiency of government and
  justice
• The English American Revolutions
• The Enlightenment writers

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The Clergy
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1st Estate
2nd Estate
The Nobility
3rd Estate
Everyone else!
bourgeoisie
artisans
peasants and urban poor
The Old Regime
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The First Estate- 1 population 15 land

• The Upper Clergy / The Lower Clergy
• Paid no taxes- made a free gift
• Collected tithes from peasants
• Monopoly of religion-The Sunday pulpit
• Operated the French school system
• Censored books and plays
• Provided relief for the poor
• Kept birth, marriage and death records

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The Second Estate 2 - 30

• The Aristocracy or nobility, were exempt from
  taxes
• Nobles of the Sword Nobles of the Robe
• Collected feudal dues (banalities)
• Held highest positions in government, church
  army
• Liberals and Conservatives

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Third Estate 97 - 55

• Bourgeoisie educated and industrious, many paid
  taxes but had no voice in government and were
  denied top positions despite their talent.
• Artisans
• Peasants paid the bulk of the taxes
• Day laborers gardeners, handymen, deliverymen,
  thieves, beggars
• Estimate census 21,000,000 people

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Inherited debt
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Aid to the American colonists
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Life at Versailles Palace
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Pensions and gifts
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A limited tax base
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Marie Antoinette
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The fiscal crisis of Louis XVI 1786 3
billion livres in debtLouis plan to deal with
the debt problem
Assembly of Notables

• ask for permission to initiate a tax based on
  land ownership
• The response by the aristocracy(their hidden
  agenda)
• Louis had to call a meeting of the Estates-General

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The Estates-General

• Voting by Estates

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The Tennis Court Oath, June 20, 1789 Louis
ordered all three estates to meet together
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The Liberal Agenda...

• limit the despotic, inefficient monarchy
• institute a written constitution
• guarantee the rights of all citizens
• establish a national Parlement
• reform the administrative judicial systems
• reform the tax and financial system
• Insure a free, uncensored press
• standardize weights measures

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• Louis changed his minddecided to disrupt the
  assembly and sidetrack its goals
• 18,000 troops called to Paris and Versailles
• Jacques Necker dismissed
• Backlash in Paris

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• 7 prisoners, 30 Swiss Guard.no gunpowder!

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The Great Fear ...July 20th - August 4th

• delegates at the Assembly resumed their
  longwinded and inconclusive debates
• a rumor was started- nobles were paying gangs of
  brigands to steal destroy the crops of
  peasants.
• violent insurrections against landlords- burning
  their castles and destroying all records of
  feudal obligations(peasants in the countryside
  sent the delegates at the Assembly an
  unmistakable message)

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The Declaration of Rights of Man
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Reforms of the National Assembly

• a statement on human rights
• abolition of special privileges
• The Constitution of 1791
• Constitutional Monarchy
• Unicameral legislature
• 83 departments replaced provinces
• Reforms to aid business
• - standardized weights and measures
• - The metric system introduced
• - tolls were eliminated
• subordination of the church to the state

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Three factors leading to the violent phase of the
Revolution

• 1) the counterrevolution
• devout Catholics
• royalists
• 2) threat of foreign invasion
• 3) the sans-culottes

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The Sans-culottes

• Universal male suffrage
• Price controls on goods
• Wage guarantees for workers
• Graduated tax on wealth
• Punish food hoarders
• Create a classless society
• Forced the creation of a new government The
  Convention

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• The National Convention succeeded the Legislative
  (National) Assembly
• on September 21, 1792, its 745 members met for
  the first time
• the next day, they voted to abolish the monarchy
  and create a republic.
• King Louis was put on trial-The vote against him-
  360-361!

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Problems facing the Convention

• The country was threatened by foreign invasions
• Incited by the clergy, peasants were in open
  revolt
• Many leading cities refused to cooperate with the
  central government
• The Revolutionary Guard roamed the countryside
  searching for food-hoarders and enemies of the
  revolution.

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• The slogan of the Revolution
• Liberty, Equality Fraternity
• By April, 1793, France was at war with Austria,
  Prussia, Spain,
• Great Britain, Sardinia and
  Holland (known as the First Coalition)

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• Jacques Danton - popular and practical,
• began the levee en masse - he put the entire
  nation on a war footing
• 1st time in Europe that the total population was
  mobilized, defended by a citizen army.

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• Maximillian Robespierre The
  Incorruptible
• the most powerful member of the Committee of
  Public Safety
• supported by the sans-culottes-
• Goal - remove all opponents of the Revolution-
  Reign of Terror

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A Republic of Virtue

• Places streets renamed
• A new calendar
• A national anthem
• Festivals and parades
• titles of distinction were outlawed
• Dress and fashion reflected the working class
• Slavery abolished
• One man, one vote

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• The terror actually started with the execution of
  Louis in Jan, 1792
• Marie remained alive until October, 1793
• the use of the guillotine was not the work of
  bloodthirsty madmen, but an enlightened method of
  execution to save the Republic.

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• 16,000 were sent to the guillotine, including
  nobles, their wives, the clergy anyone else
  suspected of not supporting the Republic
• During the upheavals between 1789 and 1799, it is
  estimated than about 350,000 died

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• other opponents of the Terror feared for their
  lives and turned on Robespierre
• July 28, 1794, Robespierre himself was executed
• the radical phase of the revolution was over.

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The Thermidorian Reaction

• After Robespierres execution, the Jacobin
  government was dismantled
• leadership passed back to the property-owning
  bourgeoisie
• a new constitution, approved in 1795
  reestablished property qualifications for voting
  and holding public office and created a new
  government The Directory

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• The Directory relied on generals to enforce its
  will
• One these generals, Napoleon Bonaparte seized
  control of the government in November 1799

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Some final commentsthe meaning of the revolution

• Weakened the political influence of the
  aristocracy
• Government positions would be awarded based on
  merit
• Transformed the dynastic state into a modern
  state (liberal, secular rational)
• Realized the ideas of the philosophes
• Equality before the law
• Trial by jury
• Freedom of speech, press and religion

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• Any questions?