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In the 1700s, France was considered the most advanced country of Europe. It had a large population and a prosperous foreign trade.
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In the 1700s, France was considered the most advanced country of Europe. It had a large population and a prosperous foreign trade. However, the appearance of success was deceiving. There was great unrest in France, caused by bad harvests, high prices, high taxes, and disturbing questions raised by the Enlightenment ideas of Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire. The French Revolution Begins
The Forces of Change There were three major factors that will influence change in France: • Social Inequalities • Enlightenment Ideas • Economic Conditions These factors will not only change the course of history in France, but of the world itself
The Old Regime Since the Middle Ages, a social and political system had existed in France: the Estates Estates - three social classes of France's Old Regime
First Estate: Catholic Clergy • 1% population • Owned 10% of land, paid few taxes, received tithes (taxes paid by the people and given to the church) • Second Estate: Wealthy Nobles • 2% population • Owned 20% of land • Held high posts in government and military; some lived at Versailles • Got money and crops (feudal dues) from peasants who farmed their lands French satire on inequality of taxation: caricature of over-taxed peasant carrying a nobleman and a cleric on his back. Engraving, 1789.
Third Estate: Everyone Else • 97% of people - peasants, urban workers, middle class (bourgeoisie) • Had few privileges, paid heavy taxes • Peasants lived in rural areas; owned 40% of land but were poor because of payments (tithes, feudal dues, land taxes, etc.) they had to make to other Estates
The Enlightenment ideas of Rousseau and Voltaire influenced some in Third Estate, especially the bourgeoisie (middle class). • People began questioning long-standing ideas about government and spoke of equality and liberty. • Inspiration came from the success of the American Revolution While in prison, Louis XVI saw the works of Rousseau and Voltaire, and said: “Those two men have destroyed France!”
Many in France shared the beliefs of Comte D’Antraigues (a friend of Rousseau) “The Third Estate is the People and the People is the foundation of the State; it is in fact the State itself; the other orders are merely political categories while by the immutable laws of nature the People is everything. Everything should be subordinated to it . . . . It is in the People that all national power resides and for the People that all states exist.”
High taxes and rising costs led to an economic crisis by 1780s • 1700s began with debts from the wars waged by Louis XIV (14th) • The opulent court of Louis XV (15th) increased this debt • King Louis XVI (16th) and his wife Marie Antoinette were known for their extravagance • Doubled the nation's debt! • Crop failures (1788-1789) caused bread shortages • Farmers could not pay taxes • Bread and basic foods became much more expensive (supply and demand)
Louis married his wife, Marie Antoinette, when he was 15 and she was 14! • Because Marie was a member of the royal family of Austria, (France's long-time enemy) she was hugely unpopular. • As queen, Marie spent so much money on gowns, jewels, and gifts that she became known as “Madame Deficit.”
A Weak Leader • Louis' poor decisions and lack of patience added to France's problems. • He spent his time hunting and tinkering with locks. • When he tried to tax the Second Estate, they forced him to call a meeting of the Estates-General • The Estates-General had not met for 175 years!
Problems with the Estates General • Third Estate had little power • Each Estate had one vote in total, so privileged Estates would always outvote the Third Estate. • Third Estate delegates called for a mass meeting of the three Estates, with each delegate voting as an individual (this would give the Third Estate the majority)
Abbé Sieyès, a clergy member who supported the Third Estate, argued: Therefore, what is the Third Estate? Everything; but an everything shackled and oppressed. What would it be without the privileged order? Everything, but an everything free and flourishing. Nothing can succeed without it, everything would be infinitely better without the others. Louis XVI refused the Third Estate's request for a mass meeting and insisted the estates meet separately according to the medieval rules.
June 17, 1789: the Third Estate delegates vote to set up a National Assembly, a new legislature to make reforms and draft a constitution, ending absolute monarchy and beginning representative government. This was the first deliberate act of revolution. June 20, 1789: Third Estate delegates, locked out of the meetings, broke into nearby a tennis court building and pledged to remain there until they had written a new constitution. This pledge is the Tennis Court Oath. Painting by Jacques-Louis David of the National Assembly making the Tennis Court Oath
Storming the Bastille Rumors fly in Paris that Louis wants to suppress National Assembly and that foreign troops are coming to massacre French citizens! July 14, 1789: Mob attacked and seized the Bastille (a Paris prison) to steal weapons needed to defend the National Assembly. The fall of the Bastille became a symbolic act of revolution, and is now a French national holiday known as Bastille Day!
Storming of the Bastille released a wave of violence in France called the Great Fear. • Rumors spread that nobles had hired people to kill peasants • Peasants broke into manor houses, destroying property and records • Some nobles were forced off their property Burning chateaux as the peasants riot in the countryside
October 1789: Women’s March on Versailles - Parisian women revolted over rising price of bread. Broke into the palace at Versailles and killed two guards. They demanded action and forced Louis to leave Versailles for Paris to be closer to his people. The first wave of the French Revolution had struck. To Versailles, to Versailles. Women of Paris march to Versailles to bring back Louis XVI.
