The French Revolution

Louis XVI

Louis XVI

• Bourbon family of kings

• Ascended in 1774, when he was 20 years old.

• Married Marie Antoinette, an Austrian princess

• Helped the 13 colonies of USA gain independence

Financial Situations Pre-Revolution

• Empty treasury

• Drained by long years of war

• Maintaining the Palace of Versailles was expensive

• War against Britain added 2 million livres to debt

• Had to pay 10% interest to lenders

• State had to increase taxes

Estates System

1. Clergy

2. Nobility

3. Third Estate

   • Big businessmen, merchants, lawyers, court officials, etc.

   • Peasants and Artisans

   • Small peasants, landless laborers, and servants

Peasants were 90% of the population, but only a small number owned the land they cultivated. About 60 percent of the land was owned by nobles, the Church, and other richer third-estate members. The members of the first two estates enjoyed certain privileges by birth.

Old Regime

The society and institutions of France before 1789

Taxation

• The first 2 estates were exempt from paying taxes to the state.

• The Church too extracted its share of taxes called tithes from the peasants

• The nobles extracted feudal dues from the peasants. Peasants were obliged to render services to the lord: to work in his house and fields, serve in the army, or build roads.

• All members of the third estate had to pay taxes to the state. These included a direct tax, called taille, and several indirect taxes levied on articles of everyday consumption like salt or tobacco.

• The burden of financing activities of the state through taxes was borne by the third estate alone.

Subsistence Crisis

• Population rose from 23M in 1715 to 28M in 1789

• Production couldn’t keep pace with demand, the price of bread increased rapidly

• Most workers were employed as laborers in workshops whose owner fixed their wages that did not keep pace with the rise in prices. So the gap between the poor and the rich widened.

• Things became worse whenever drought or hail reduced the harvest.

• This led to a subsistence crisis, something that occurred frequently in France during the Old Regime.

subsistence crisis

an extreme situation where basic means of livelihood are endangered

philosophers

1. John Locke
2. Jean Jacques Rousseau
3. Montesquieu

John Locke

- he wrote the two treaties ans government
- disapproved the idea of divine and absolute right of the monarch

Montesquieu

- he wrote 'the spirit of law'
- said that power should be separated between the legislature, executive and the judiciary.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

- he said that the govt should be a social contract between the people and their representatives

reasons for the empty treasury

- long years of war had drained the financial resources of France.
- France helped 13 american colonies gain independence under Louis XVI
- the cost of maintaining the immense palace of Versailles
- the money lenders started increasing the rate of interest.
- the wars added a billion more livres to the existing debt

thithes

a tax levied by the church (1/10th of the produce)

tailles

a direct tax

principles of middle class

- society should not have privilege by birth
- social position of a person should be based on one's merit
- freedom, equal laws and opportunities for all.

the way new taxes had to be imposed

the king had to call for an estate general meeting. here there were 600 members from the 3rd estate and 300 members from the nobles and the clergy each. each estate got 1 vote

the third estates demand

the third estate demanded that each person in the estate get 1 vote rather than each estate getting 1 vote

the tennis court oath

because Louis XVI denied the 3rd estates demand the 3rd estate walked out of the assembly. on 20 June they gathered in the tennis court in the grounds of Versailles and swore not to disperse until they had drafted a constitution for France which would limit the powers of the monarch.

Mirabeau and Abbe Sieyes

noble and clergy who supported the 3rd estate

Things the National Assembly did

-Abolished feudal system
-clergy was forced to give up its privileges
-the lands owned by the church was confiscated

the eye within the triangle radiating light

the all seeing eye stands for knowledge

sceptre

symbol of royal power

snake biting its tail to form a ring

symbol of eternity

broken chains

stands for the act of becoming free

Red Phrygian Cap

cap worn by a slave upon becoming free

laws issued by the convention

- meat and bread were rationed
- issued laws placing a maximum sealing on wages and prices
- peasants were forced to transport their grain to the cities and sell it to the government at fixed prices
- the use of expensive flour was forbidden
- instead of madame and monsieur, citoyenne , citoyen was to be used
- churches were shut down and their building s were made into barracks or offices

treason

betrayal of one's own country

the revolutionary govt introduce for women

- schooling was made compulsory for all girls
- marriage was made into a contract
- fathers could not force heir daughters into marriage against their will
- women could train for jobs and open shops and become artists
-divorce was made legal and could be applied by both men and women

most successful women's political club

the society of revolutionary and republican women

Napolean's defeat

at Waterloo in 1815

laws introduced by Napolean

- protection of private property
- uniform system of weights and measures
- reintroduced slavery

Women gained the right to vote

1946

Indians who responded to the french revolution

Tipu Sultan and Rammohan Roy

Marseillaise

French national anthem

Political Causes of the French Revolution

- wars with Britain
- despotic kings
- people didn't have any rights and freedom
- rise of new ideologies from the middle class

economic causes of the french revolution

- the empty treasury
- discriminatory tax system
- increased taxes
- food riot / storming of bastille

social causes of the french revolution

- discrimination and exploitation of the 3rd estate
- middle class and intelligentsia

Legacies of the French Revolution

- ideas of liberty and democratic rights: feudal system was abolished
- colonies started movement to create sovereign
nations
- Tipu sultan and Rammohan Roy were inspired