The French Revolution: Background and Events

1. 1789 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

2. TheFrenchRevolution: Background • By 1789 Enlightenment ideashad gained force in France • Compared to other parts of Europe absolutismesp. strong in France, & the Church very conservative. [This helps explain why so many of the leading Philosophes came from France] • Corruption widespread, nobles & royalty in great luxury contrastingwith poverty of commoners • Harvest had been esp. bad the previous year &inflation was high. The price of bread (a basic foodstuff) had become exorbitant.

3. KING LOUIS XVI

4. “Let them eat cake!” • Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI & daughter of Austrian Emperor. Belief that when she heard the peasants were complaining they had no bread she said “let them eat cake,” is mostprobably false!

5. Pre-Revolutionary Financial Crisis • France was not a “poor” state but it faced a severe financial crisis due to excessive spending of the monarchy on luxury&, more impt., on wars. (¼of the French budget went to maintain the armed forces, ½ to pay for past debts of war) • The most privileged parts of society were traditionally exemptfrom much taxation, so the monarch could not gather sufficient revenue to meet expenditure • In return for beginning to pay more tax the nobility demanded the re-convening of the Estates General

6. The Estates General • The Estates General was a medieval assembly of different classes of Frenchmen. • With the rise of absolutism the monarch had stopped consulting this assembly & it had not met since 1614.

7. The Estates General (2) The First Estate, (the Clergy) The Second Estate, (the Nobility) The Third Estate, (the rest, commoners)

8. Overlap of 1st & 2nd Estates Leading members of the 1st Estate, were in practice often also members of the nobility

10. Population of France (1789)

11. Voting Demandsof the Third Estate • King eventually gave-in & agreed to gathering of Estates General in May 1789 • When it last met in 1614 the 3 Estates had equal no.s of representatives,but each voted as a bloc. So privileged / related 1st & 2nd Estates could always form amajority • But, since 1614 a wealthy bourgeois class emerged within Third Estate & they & others, influenced by Enlightenmentthinkers (e.g. Rousseau), believed they should have a greater share of power.

12. Voting Demandsof the Third Estate(2) Third Estate demanded they should have twice as many members as the other Estates because they represented a greater proportion of the population & that the 3 Estates should meet & vote together as a whole, meaning that they would have an equal no. of votes to those of the 1st & 2nd Estates & therefore greater power within the Assembly. First demand was accepted, second was not.

13. The Establishment of the National Assembly • On June 17th 1789 the members of 3rd Estate, (with support of some of clergy), declared themselves to be the new National Assembly, an assembly of / for the people (not for the Estates) • June 20th they swore the ‘Oath of the Tennis Court’ promising not to break-up until completing a new constitution for France • June 27th, with the people of France supportive of the National Assembly & rapidly turning against him, King Louis XVI finally submitted & recognized the National Assembly THE REVOLUTION HAD BEGUN! The Oath of the Tennis Court

14. The Fall of the Bastille • The Bastille was a fortress / prison in Paris • July 14th 1789 the Bastille stormed by people of Parislookingfor arms to protect themselves from any threat to the Revolution • Rioting spread to other parts of France too, including the countryside

15. The Declaration of theRights of Man & Citizen • August 26th 1789 the National Constituent Assembly (as the National Assembly now officially called) adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man & Citizen • Replaced legal privileges with legal equality • Stated law should be expression of the general will • Declared sovereignty rested in the nation • NOT, however,democratic (e.g. no reference to universal suffrage – instead distinction was to be made between “active” & “passive” citizens, with only the former, who paid a certain amount of tax, having the right to vote... if they were men!)

16. The Declaration of theRights of Man & Citizen (2) • “All men are born free & equal with inalienable rights to liberty, property & personal safety”.

17. The Plight & Flight of Louis XVI • 1790 position of the king worsened because: • Domestic impact of the émigrés who sought foreign support to lead a counter-revolution • The adoption of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy which broke-off the links between the Pope & the French Church & subordinated the Church to the French state • June 20th 1791 the royal family tried, unsuccessfully, to flee France in the ‘Flight to Varennes’

18. The National Assembly at Work • While the National Assembly defended the demands of the rising bourgeois & middle class sections of society for legal equality, representative government & liberalization of the economy, conditions for the lower classes were not made particularly attractive & worker’s organizations were actually forbidden

19. The End of Monarchy • 22nd Sept. 1792 new, more radical assembly called the Convention, formed under the pressures of the Sans-Culottes & anti-monarchical Jacobins, abolished the monarchy. France had become a republic. • Louis XVItried thenexecuted on 21st of Jan. 1793. (Marie Antoinette also soon after, & their son died in prison).

20. The Convention & theSansculottes • Sans-Culottes were small shopkeepers, artisans, wage-earners & some factory workers who felt cheated by the Revolution • Sans-Culottes wanted greater equality, more price controls & direct democracy • Sans-Culottes formed an alliance with the more radical Jacobins in the Convention, (but many Jacobins were unhappy with the idea of a controlled economy & preferred more “mild” representative government)

21. The Sans-culottes(= “without knee-breeches”) • Knee-breeches were type of trouser worn by both professionals / middle class men & nobles. Poorer men of Paris, however, wore longer, basic, trousers like sailors & poor laborers. Before the Revolution these trousers were symbol of poverty, now began to be worn with pride.

22. France at War with Europe • April 20th 1792 war declared against Austria, & later on Prussia,Britain, Netherlands, Spain. • Many Jacobins, (name of the club to which leading revolutionaries belonged), esp. Girondist faction, saw war as a means of increasing domestic support for Revolution (still threatened – not just by nobility, but also by more conservative / religious peasantry) • November 1792 revolutionaries offered “fraternity & assistance” to all peoples who wished to assert their liberty like the French

23. France at War with Europe (2) • The First Coalition of 1793 saw Austria, Prussia, Britain, & the Netherlands & Spain join together in war against revolutionary France • The war was not simply a war of old between kings fighting for territory, but a war that incorporated a strong ideological dimension. The Revolution & its principles were highly exportable & began to be seen as a serious threat to institutions of the other European monarchies

24. The Reign of Terror • ‘Reign of Terror’ began mid–1793. Under conditions whereby the public wasnow mobilized for war, thousands of innocent people suspected of being “enemies of theRevolution” were arbitrarily executed by the infamous “Madame guillotine”

25. The Committee of Public Safety • Convention established“Committee of Public Safety”in April 1793 to findinternal enemies.Over-zealous leader was Maximillien Robespierre • Ultimately Robespierre went too far. Targetted members of Convention who,feeling threatened by the very Committee they had established & by radical Sans-Culottes, now had Robespierre arrested on 9th day of revolutionary month of Thermidor. Robespierre himself was executed the following day.

26. The Thermidorian Reaction • By mid-1794 internal opposition to Revolution largely crushed & war with Europe now going well. Warended soon after with France’s main enemies except Britain (which didn’t have majorland army anyway). Middle classesno longer felt so dependent on support of radical Jacobins & Sans-Culottes. • This period was in effect a reaction to the radical extremes of the Second Revolution which had created instability & concerns over security esp. amongthe wealthier middle classes & professionals. • People involved in the “Terror”were now attacked themselves in what was known as the “White Terror” • Traditional values of family & religion again gained prominence; liberalization of economy was re-introduced as a government policy

27. The Thermidorian Reaction (2) • The democratic constitution of 1793 (not been put into effect because of war conditions) was replaced by ‘Constitution of the Year III’ which allowed for representative government through a bicameral legislature which selected a 5-man executive body known as the Directory, but property qualifications for voting were introduced, in effect blocking the participation of the poorer sections of society • Soldiers, however, given the right to vote & it was through support of the army, rather than wide popular backing that the Directory managed to stay in power

28. 3 Phases of the French Revolution