The French Revolution

1
The French Revolution

• Liberty, Equality, and Nation

2
Overview

• Stage I July 1789-August 1792
• Constitutional issues (peaceful)
• Stage II August 1792-July 1794
• Crisis and consolidation (violent)
• Stage III 1794-1799
• The Directory (Terror)
• Stage IV 1799-1815
• The Napoleonic Era (Wars)

3
The issue of causes

• This is a major historiographical question that
  has been long debated and will continue to be
• The Marxist interpretation, which was dominant in
  the 1960s and 70s, saw this as a class conflict,
  based mostly on economics and politics
• This is no longer the dominant view historians
  today tend to favour social causes

4
Ancien Régime society

• A society of estates, or orders
• Since 1600, many wealthy merchants and
  businessmen had purchased a noble title known
  as the nobility of the robe the older noble
  families were known as the nobility of the sword
• About 2/3 of the nobility in 1789 had only had
  noble status since 1600
• There was some ambiguity in the nobility itself
  and between nobles and wealthy non-nobles, who
  aspired to their class

5
Was there a middle class?

• There was no heterogeneous middle class and
  there were frictions between the wealthy members
  and the less wealthy members
• Many of these less wealthy, but educated and
  middling people, as well as poor nobles began to
  air their grievances in the public sphere of
  printed books and salons

6
The Economy

• An influential group of economists, known as the
  physiocrats, were arguing against mercantilist
  policies and high taxes on grain
• The peasants and urban labourers were hardest hit
  by economic problems
• Resentment grew about the nobles exemption from
  taxation

7
Louis XVI (1774-1792)

• Louis attempted some economic reforms but they
  failed because he was not as absolute as his
  predecessors had been
• Louis attempted to solve his financial troubles
  with more taxes which failed

8
Summoning of the Estates General

• Louis needed more money to finance his wars but
  the Assembly of Notables, made up of members of
  the nobility, would not approve new taxes without
  the approval of the Estates General
• The Estates General was an assembly of all three
  orders in society it had last met in 1614 its
  job was to present grievances to the king
• There was disagreement over whether the estates
  should vote as a body or as individuals

9
Abbé Emmanuel Sieyès (1748-1836)

• In a pamphlet entitled What is the Third Estate?
  (Jan. 1789), Sieyès argued that the Third Estate
  was the most important part of the country and
  thus should have double the votes of the other
  two order
• The king eventually agreed to this formula

10
Opening of the Estates General

• The meeting opened in May, 1789
• Very shortly after, the Third Estate left the
  proceeding, declaring itself a National Assembly.
  They were locked out of the Estates General after
  that, they went to an empty tennis court at
  Versailles and declared that they would not
  disband until a constitution for France had been
  drafted
• In essence, the National Assembly proclaims it
  self to be the highest sovereign power in France

11
The Tennis Court Oath, June, 1789Jacques Louis
David
12
The Revolution Begins Popular Revolts in 1789

• The Storming of the Bastille, July 14
• Led by the sans-culottes to get arms for the
  citizens militia
• The Great Fear, August
• In the countryside peasants attacked and burned
  manor houses
• The Womens March on Versailles
• In October 1789, Parisian women marched to
  Versailles to protest the high price of bread and
  food shortages

13
The National Assembly Reacts

• September 1789, the National assembly promulgates
  the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
• The Assembly moves to abolish all forms of
  privilege to the church and to the nobility (like
  tax exemptions, sale of offices)
• Confiscated church lands to help the economy
  priests become subjects of the state
• Guilds and trades are abolished economic
  enterprise is sanctioned

14
Radical Republicanism

• Summer of 1792 the Assembly becomes more
  radical
• Citizens become more politicized join political
  clubs to debate issues
• Lack of effective national leadership the king
  is a prisoner of the assembly
• International attention is focused on France,
  polarizing opinion about its goals

15
The Counterrevolution

• Many nobles flee France and seek refuge with
  other European nobles They encourage Austria and
  Prussia to restore the French nobility
• The National Assembly declares war on Austria and
  Prussia on 20 April, 1792 by August Paris is
  threatened
• In Britain, Edmund Burke write the quintessential
  conservative response to the French Revolution
  Reflections on the Revolution in France

16
The Jacobins

• Member of the Jacobin Club take leadership away
  from the moderate Girondins they claim that the
  Girondins only represent the wealthy commercial
  class and claim to represent the people
• In September 1792 members are elected to the
  National Convention, which rules until 1795
• Riots break out and there are many summary
  executions of enemies of the Revoltion
• The Convention makes an effort to reorganize
  finances and direct the army by 1794 they have
  not only repelled their invaders, but become
  invaders themselves

17
The Terror (Sept. 1793- July 1794)

• Advocates of Rousseaus general will, the
  Jacobins rule ruthlessly, giving more and more
  power to the Committee of Public Safety
• Maximilien Robspierre was responsible for
  enlarging the Terror and imposing a
  dictatorship in France and persecuting enemies
  of the state

18
The Directory

• Fuelled by the armys success, many people start
  to argue that the Committee of Public Safety and
  its practices are no longer necessary
• Five men chosen from the Convention to rule and
  to have executive powers
• The rule precariously until 1799, when a French
  general will capture the nations attention

19
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

• After a number of daring victories, he becomes a
  popular leader
• Very quickly he begins to codify the Revolution
  into laws
• He makes peace with Austria and England
• In 1804, he becomes Emperor Napoleon, sweeping
  away the vestiges of Republicanism

20
Napoleons Empire

• Napoleon makes stunning victories against Russia
  and Prussia in 1805 the Battle of Austerlitz
• His invasion of Spain goes badly in 1808 and
  things start to fall apart
• In 1812, his rag-tag army retreats from Russia
• Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Britain renew their
  attack
• He is finally defeated by the British in 1815 at
  the Battle of Waterloo
• The Bourbon monarchy is restored and Napoleon is
  exiled