Comprehensive Notes on the French Revolution Part 1

Pre-Revolutionary Social and Financial Context in France

• General State of France: Internally regarded for centuries as the most prosperous, cultured, and beautiful nation in the world. It maintained an exquisite social culture where the king and upper classes enjoyed high living and fine dining.
• Social Inequality: The prosperity of the elite was built entirely off the labor of the hard-working, starving poor, who comprised approximately $80\%$ of the population.
• Geopolitical Failures: France attempted to increase its global power through war with Britain but ultimately lost. As a result, Britain expelled France from North America, leaving the French monarchy in severe financial debt.
• Economic Response: Despite having no money, the nobility refused to stop their lavish lifestyles. The prevailing logic was that the peasantry was created by God to perform all labor, while the nobility was created to reap the benefits. This social hierarchy had been accepted for centuries until the onset of the Enlightenment.
• The Age of Enlightenment: This period featured great philosophical thinkers across France and beyond who began to question the fairness of the monarchy and the birthrights of the nobility. Questions arose regarding why the poor should accept their status and why a king was necessary at all.

The Accession and Character of King Louis XVI

• Succession: In May $1774$, Prince Louis Capet became King Louis XVI following the death of his grandfather, Louis XV, from smallpox.
• Personal Attributes: Louis XVI was notoriously weak and lacked the wisdom required to rule a nation, especially one in crisis. He was easily manipulated by those around him.
• The American Revolution: In an attempt to get revenge on the British, Louis XVI financed the revolution of the American colonies. While the Americans secured independence, they did not immediately repay the massive loans, leaving France in even deeper financial ruin.
• Marie Antoinette: The Queen of France, the former Archduchess of Austria, became a target of public disdain. She was nicknamed "Madame Deficit" due to her lavish spending on luxury goods and fashion, famously including a hairstyle shaped like a boat.
• Marital Scandals: Public respect for the monarchy reached an all-time low due to a long-standing scandal regarding the couple's delay in producing an heir. Lewd pamphlets circulated in Paris depicting the Queen as promiscuous and the King as a "wuss" unable to fulfill his marital duties.

The System of Inequitable Taxation

• Taxation Strategy: The King and his aides decided the only solution to the debt crisis was to tax the poor further while the first two estates remained largely exempt.
• Types of Taxes Impacting the Third Estate:
  • Income and Head Taxes: Direct taxes on individuals and earnings.
  • Window Tax: A tax based on the number of windows a house possessed.
  • Church Tithe: A required payment to the local clergy, supposedly for the work of God, but often used for personal luxuries by priests.
  • The Salt Tax (Gabelle): A highly hated tax on salt. Private tax collectors enforced strict rules, including requiring children as young as $9$ years old to purchase a set amount of salt for the year. Salt usage for preserving meat or fish was also subject to specific taxation.
• Labor Tax (Corvée): Peasants were required to perform a certain number of days of unpaid labor for their local lord.
• Systemic Issues: Taxation rules were inconsistent across the nation, and the aggressive nature of private tax farmers frequently led to violence.

Natural Disasters and the Bread Crisis

• Environmental Factors: A series of harsh summers and winters ruined peasant harvests, leading to a total lack of food and money.
• Food Scarcity: While the upper classes held massive stocks of grain and wheat, the price of bread skyrocketed for the poor, leading to widespread starvation.
• Social Unrest: The starvation led to riots. Women took to the streets, bakeries were raided, and bakers suspected of hoarding bread were sometimes hanged.

The Estates General of 1789

• Background: Fearing total collapse, Louis XVI summoned the Estates General, a purely advisory body that had not been called for $175$ years.
• The Three Estates:
  • First Estate: The Clergy, consisting of approximately $130,000$ people. They received one vote.
  • Second Estate: The Nobility, consisting of approximately $350,000$ people. They received one vote.
  • Third Estate: Everyone else, consisting of $27,000,000$ people ($98\%$ of the population). They received one vote.
• Voting Inequity: Because the First and Second Estates shared interests, they consistently outvoted the Third Estate $2$ to $1$, successfully passing measures such as raising taxes on the Third Estate and blocking reforms that would affect the nobility.

The National Assembly and the Tennis Court Oath

• Formation: Realizing they would always be outvoted, the Third Estate declared themselves the National Assembly, the true government of France.
• The Tennis Court Oath: On June $20$, $1789$, after being locked out of their usual meeting hall by the King, the National Assembly met at a nearby indoor tennis court. They pledged not to disband until they had written a constitution and secured economic reform.
• Key Figures: The Assembly included intellectuals and lawyers such as Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton. Some members of the first two estates also joined them.
• The Jacobin Club: A radical political faction within the movement that eventually began calling for the complete removal of the King.

The Storming of the Bastille

• Escalation of Fear: The King moved military forces into position around Paris, leading to rumors that he intended to arrest or execute the National Assembly. This fear was worsened by the dismissal of the popular finance minister who supported reform.
• Formation of the National Guard: The National Assembly announced a "Bourgeois Militia" called the National Guard, and many French military members defected to join the revolution.
• July 14, 1789:
  • A crowd stormed the Hôtel les Invalides, a military hospital, securing a large number of rifles but finding no gunpowder.
  • The crowd moved to the Bastille, a prison fortress symbolizing royal tyranny, to demand gunpowder from Governor de Launay.
  • After de Launay refused to surrender, the crowd stormed the fortress and eventually killed him, parading his head through the city on a pike.
• Acceptance of Violence: The National Assembly chose to embrace the violence of the Bastille rather than denounce it, setting a precedent for the bloodshed that would follow.

Radical Journalism and the Declaration of the Rights of Man

• Jean-Paul Marat: A scientist with a skin condition that required him to remain in a bathtub. He published "The Friend of the People," a radical newspaper that incited violence by claiming the nobility planned to massacre the poor. He famously called for the execution of thousands.
• Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: In August $1789$, the National Assembly, with assistance from Thomas Jefferson, adopted this document. It guaranteed liberty and equal rights to all men, though it notably excluded women from these protections.

The Women's March on Versailles

• Date: October $5$, $1789$.
• Motivation: The king remained at the Palace of Versailles, located $20\,km$ southwest of Paris, separated from the starvation of the capital. Rumors of his detachment (exemplified by the phrase "let them eat cake") fueled anger.
• Events: A crowd of $7,000$ women marched to Versailles, a number that grew to tens of thousands. They demanded bread and an audience with the King.
• Outcome: The mob broke into the palace, killed members of the Royal Guard, and nearly killed the Queen. The King was forced to share power with the Revolutionary government and move back to Paris to live among the people.

Questions & Discussion

• Why does the nobility get to be rich?: During a segment highlighting the Enlightenment, a peasant questions why birthright determines wealth and why a king is necessary, marking the shift in public consciousness.
• The Estates General Voting: The Third Estate proposed a motion labeling the first two estates "poo-poo heads," which was outvoted $2$ to $1$, illustrating the futility of the existing voting system for the majority of the population.
• Response to the Bastille: When informed that Governor de Launay's head was on a pike, the King jokingly suggested the people were enamored with him as a "bodyless, pike-head deity" before fleeing in his carriage.