Origins of Nationalism
Overview
Synopsis
Timeline
Main Glossary
Nationalism
French Revolution
Divine Rule
Storming of Bastille
Social Factors that Shaped the French Revolution
Age of Enlightenment
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
Montesquieu
Voltaire
Rousseau
Adam Smith
Economic Factor
Estates General
Geographic Factors
Marie Antoinette
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
Article
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Reign of Terror
Olympe de Gouges
Reaction Outside France
Rise of Napoleon
Napoleonic Code
The French Revolution was a period of radical social and political change in France from 1789 to 1799. It led to the end of the monarchy, the rise of democracy, and the execution of King Louis XVI. The revolution also saw the Reign of Terror, the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, and significant changes in French society and governance.
1775 - Crowning
Louis XVI was crowned king of France and ruled from Versailles.
1788-1789 - Extreme Weather
Extreme weather conditions caused blockages of roads from snow, flooding, and droughts
5 May 1789 - The Estate General Meeting
King Louis XVI is forced to call a meeting of the Estates General to address their current economic crisis.
July 14, 1789 - Storming of Bastille
600 angry Frenchmen stormed Bastille on July 14, 1789.
17 June-9 July 1789 - National Assembly
The National Assembly had formed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
July 12, 1790 - The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
A law passed on July 12, 1790 during the French Revolution
1793-1794 - Reign of Terror
The revolutionaries cracked down on those against them as they feared opposition to their own regime
1799 - Napoleon Rise to Power
Napoleon rose to power coup d'état
1802 - Napoleon Had Full Control
Full military control
1804 - Napoleon Emperor of France
Declared himself self- proclaimed Emperor of France.
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo by surrender
Arab Spring: A series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s.
Bourgeoisie: Middle class citizens, usually merchants and business owners.
Civic Nationalism: Nation created regardless of ethnicity, culture, and language.
Class Privilege: An unearned advantage of power due to their birth or status.
Collective Consciousness: An internal consciousness, or awareness, shared by many.
Despotism: Exercise of absolute power.
Divine Right of Kings: King’s authority is from God and cannot be responsible for earthly authority.
Emigres: A person who flees their country for political reasons.
Ethnic Nationalism: Nation created by shared ethnicity, culture, and language.
Feudalism: A social system where land was exchanged for military service and loyalty.
Manorialism: Medieval economic structure which rendered peasants reliant on their lords.
Nation: A territory where people are lead by the same form of government.
Secular: Not bound by religious rule.
Tennis Court Oath: Representatives of the non-aristocrats of France who would not disperse until a constitution was established.
Civic Nationalism: Nation created regardless of ethnicity, culture, and language.
Liberal ideas play a role in national identity. i.e. American nationalism and freedom.
Ethnic Nationalism: Nation created by shared ethnicity, culture, and language.
United people of common heritage. i.e. German nationalism and linguistic. Concept explored in the French Revolution.
“Before the revolution, the king had been the focus of many French people’s sense of Nation. But the revolution changed this. People began to focus their loyalty on the idea of themselves — the people — as the nation.”
— Gardner, Hoogeveen, McDevitt, Scully. 2008.
Exploring Nationalism. Ontario: McGraw-Hill Ryerson
Divine Right of Kings:
Kings derive authority from God
Kings not accountable to earthly authority
Basis for monarchical absolutism
The height of absolute monarchy in France was declared by Louis XIV
“L’etat, c’est moi (I am the state).”
—King Louis XIV
His successor, Louis XV was a weak leader who contributed to the decline of French monarchy
Louis XVI was crowned king of France and ruled from Versailles. The King during the rebellion who was beheaded.
French society relied on feudalism and manorialism
Feudalism: A social system where land was exchanged for military service and loyalty
Manorialism: Medieval economic structure which rendered peasants reliant on their lords
The king locked up citizens who spoke out against him.
600 angry Frenchmen stormed Bastille on July 14, 1789.
Historians consider this event the beginning of the French Revolution.
This event inspired other French citizens to take arms against the nobles.
Collective Consciousness: An internal consciousness, or awareness, shared by many
A central belief of their nation state as quoted, “We are a nation. We can govern ourselves— in our own interests.”
Social Factors
Who should be considered important and who should not.
Who should lead and who should follow.
Who should be included and who should be excluded.
How groups should work out conflicts and respond to challenges.
In this society of 26 million~, 4% were aristocrats and high-ranking clergy while the other 96% were common people taxed heavily.
One of the fundamental causes that inspired the French Revolution were the ideals of the Enlightenment. On the ruins of the ‘Old Regime’, or the established power of the absolute monarchy over French society, a new era was forming that promised to realize the ideals of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was in response to absolute power and divine right of rule.
During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.
—Thomas Hobbes
His main belief is ‘the only way to escape the state of nature is to create a social contract.’
He introduced a social contract theory based on the relation between the absolute sovereign and the civil society during the Enlightenment Era.
“The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.”
—John Locke
John Locke refuted the theory of the divine right of kings and argued that ‘all persons are endowed with natural rights to life, liberty, and property’
Often credited as a founder of modern “liberal” thought
“Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest.”
— Baron de Montesquieu
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
His key ideology is ‘no power should become stronger than another.’
The best form of government to him was one with three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Montesquieu wished to keep these powers separated
Uniting those powers would lead to a monarchy like Louis XIV which leads to despotism
Despotism: Exercise of absolute power
“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.”
— Voltaire
“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
― Voltaire
Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was a French writer and philosopher. He often poked fun at the nobility and was thrown in Bastille for insulting aristocrats.
His key belief was the ‘efficacy of reason.’
Efficacy: Ability to produce a desired result.
He also criticized the Roman Catholic Church and advocated for the separation of Church and State.
Some of his work was burned by the government for going against their censorship laws
His father was part of the bourgeoisie.
Bourgeoisie: Middle class citizens, usually merchants and business owners.
“All wickedness comes from weakness. The child is wicked only because he is weak. Make him strong; he will be good. He who could do everything would never do harm.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseaus
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
He believes the Enlightenment simply created new forms of tyranny and diminished man's natural instinct toward compassion
His key ideology is ‘man was born basically good, and idea that society is what corrupts mankind.’
“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.”
—Adam Smith
Adam Smith believes wealth is created via labor, and self-interest spurs people to use their resources to earn money.
His ideology on Enlightenment laid the foundations of classical free market economic theory.
The French economy was in ruins due to wars.
Louis XVI decided to tax the aristocrats and common people into paying taxes, the aristocrats denied this plan.
On 5 May 1789, King Louis XVI is forced to call a meeting of the Estates General to address their current economic crisis. This was the first meeting in 70 years.
First Estate — Clergy
Second Estate — Aristocrats
Third Estate — Common people
The three estates vote separately that the majority vote of each group would be their one vote as the estate. The First and Second Estates always would outnumber the Third Estate by 2-1.
Members of the Third Estate were mostly lawyers and other members of the bourgeoisie.
They declared themselves at the National Assembly and swore under the Tennis Court Oath.
Tennis Court Oath: Representatives of the non-aristocrats of France who would not disperse until a constitution was established.
This defiance and news the monarchy was gathering its military inspired the storming of Bastille
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes lead one of the strongest attacks on the upper estates at the assertion of the Third Estate in 1789. He was heavily influenced by the Enlightenment ideals of personal liberty
He was elected a representative of the Third estate from his revolutionary pamphlet What is the Third Estate
People were suffering extreme weather conditions which caused blockages of roads from snow, flooding, and droughts in 1788-1789.
This caused a famine as the grain was destroyed so the price skyrocketed. Many couldn’t afford bread which is their main diet.
In August 1788, Parisians paid nine sous for two-kilos loaf of bread. By February 1789, the price rose to 14.5 sous.
“Let them eat cake.”
—Marie Antoinette (false rumor)
Society depicted Marie Antoinette as a villain as she was a foreigner who was from a country they were often at war with (Austria).
Many blamed her for the economic failing due to her extravagant lifestyle.
The French citizens believed a widespread rumour about how her response to the famine is “Let them eat cake” in place of bread.
In 1789, the National Assembly had formed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Established France as a secular republic.
Secular: Not bound by religious rule.
The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man…
Articles:
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible [unchangeable or obvious] rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body or individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation
4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injuries no one else, hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.
A law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution
France revolutionary government to subordinate the Roman Catholic Church to the state and reduce civil government.
Created a national church for France
France then had two churches - the constitutional church supported by the State, and the Roman Church, hostile to the Revolution.
France's revolutionary government wanted Roman Catholic priests to give their primary loyalty to the government.
The revolutionaries cracked down on those against them as they feared opposition to their own regime.
During the Reign of Terror (1793-1794)
200,000 people arrested
17,000 sentenced to death
The Reign of Terror ended in 1794 after 11 months. The revolutionaries split into factions which destabilized France further.
Other countries feared their own citizens rebelling due to the rumours of royal-aligned aristocrats fleeing due to unjust treatment.
From all the emigres entering different countries, tensions rapidly grew.
Emigres: A person who flees their country for political reasons
Austria sent forces to invade France in hopes they could regain control of their citizens and restrain the rebellion.
French citizens didn’t all agree on the bloody revolution and the execution of the King and Queen.
Olympe de Gouges was one of the people sentenced to death.
She wrote plays and pamphlets supporting the revolution in its earlier days.
In 1791, she challenged the Declaration of the Rights of Man as it excluded women. Olympe de Gouges wrote a pamphlet titled Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.
She disagreed with the execution of the monarchs and was arrested in 1793. They found her guilty of treason and beheaded her.
He first rose to political power in a coup d'état in 1799.
Napoleon Bonaparte united France after the revolutionaries divined into fractions
He conquered the majority of Europe by launching multiple wars.
Within France he crushed threats from both radicals and royalists who wanted to extend or reverse the French Revolution.
Backed by ideological force, military power and strong nationalism, Napoleon accomplished many reforms in France.
By 1802 he had full power and by 1804 he was the self- proclaimed Emperor of France.
He was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo by the British. He died in exile in 1821.
People remember him as a hero who strengthened French pride while others remember him as a dictator that killed millions of French people and three million Russians, Germans, British, Italians, and Spanish soldiers.
Pros
All male citizens are equal.
Nobility and class privileges are extinguished.
Class Privilege: An unearned advantage of power due to their birth or status.
Civilians are free to act without the control of the church.
Cons
Largely reduced the rights of women as it made the men’s authority stronger
Reduced the rights of illegitimate children.
Overview
Synopsis
Timeline
Main Glossary
Nationalism
French Revolution
Divine Rule
Storming of Bastille
Social Factors that Shaped the French Revolution
Age of Enlightenment
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
Montesquieu
Voltaire
Rousseau
Adam Smith
Economic Factor
Estates General
Geographic Factors
Marie Antoinette
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
Article
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Reign of Terror
Olympe de Gouges
Reaction Outside France
Rise of Napoleon
Napoleonic Code
The French Revolution was a period of radical social and political change in France from 1789 to 1799. It led to the end of the monarchy, the rise of democracy, and the execution of King Louis XVI. The revolution also saw the Reign of Terror, the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, and significant changes in French society and governance.
1775 - Crowning
Louis XVI was crowned king of France and ruled from Versailles.
1788-1789 - Extreme Weather
Extreme weather conditions caused blockages of roads from snow, flooding, and droughts
5 May 1789 - The Estate General Meeting
King Louis XVI is forced to call a meeting of the Estates General to address their current economic crisis.
July 14, 1789 - Storming of Bastille
600 angry Frenchmen stormed Bastille on July 14, 1789.
17 June-9 July 1789 - National Assembly
The National Assembly had formed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
July 12, 1790 - The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
A law passed on July 12, 1790 during the French Revolution
1793-1794 - Reign of Terror
The revolutionaries cracked down on those against them as they feared opposition to their own regime
1799 - Napoleon Rise to Power
Napoleon rose to power coup d'état
1802 - Napoleon Had Full Control
Full military control
1804 - Napoleon Emperor of France
Declared himself self- proclaimed Emperor of France.
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo by surrender
Arab Spring: A series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s.
Bourgeoisie: Middle class citizens, usually merchants and business owners.
Civic Nationalism: Nation created regardless of ethnicity, culture, and language.
Class Privilege: An unearned advantage of power due to their birth or status.
Collective Consciousness: An internal consciousness, or awareness, shared by many.
Despotism: Exercise of absolute power.
Divine Right of Kings: King’s authority is from God and cannot be responsible for earthly authority.
Emigres: A person who flees their country for political reasons.
Ethnic Nationalism: Nation created by shared ethnicity, culture, and language.
Feudalism: A social system where land was exchanged for military service and loyalty.
Manorialism: Medieval economic structure which rendered peasants reliant on their lords.
Nation: A territory where people are lead by the same form of government.
Secular: Not bound by religious rule.
Tennis Court Oath: Representatives of the non-aristocrats of France who would not disperse until a constitution was established.
Civic Nationalism: Nation created regardless of ethnicity, culture, and language.
Liberal ideas play a role in national identity. i.e. American nationalism and freedom.
Ethnic Nationalism: Nation created by shared ethnicity, culture, and language.
United people of common heritage. i.e. German nationalism and linguistic. Concept explored in the French Revolution.
“Before the revolution, the king had been the focus of many French people’s sense of Nation. But the revolution changed this. People began to focus their loyalty on the idea of themselves — the people — as the nation.”
— Gardner, Hoogeveen, McDevitt, Scully. 2008.
Exploring Nationalism. Ontario: McGraw-Hill Ryerson
Divine Right of Kings:
Kings derive authority from God
Kings not accountable to earthly authority
Basis for monarchical absolutism
The height of absolute monarchy in France was declared by Louis XIV
“L’etat, c’est moi (I am the state).”
—King Louis XIV
His successor, Louis XV was a weak leader who contributed to the decline of French monarchy
Louis XVI was crowned king of France and ruled from Versailles. The King during the rebellion who was beheaded.
French society relied on feudalism and manorialism
Feudalism: A social system where land was exchanged for military service and loyalty
Manorialism: Medieval economic structure which rendered peasants reliant on their lords
The king locked up citizens who spoke out against him.
600 angry Frenchmen stormed Bastille on July 14, 1789.
Historians consider this event the beginning of the French Revolution.
This event inspired other French citizens to take arms against the nobles.
Collective Consciousness: An internal consciousness, or awareness, shared by many
A central belief of their nation state as quoted, “We are a nation. We can govern ourselves— in our own interests.”
Social Factors
Who should be considered important and who should not.
Who should lead and who should follow.
Who should be included and who should be excluded.
How groups should work out conflicts and respond to challenges.
In this society of 26 million~, 4% were aristocrats and high-ranking clergy while the other 96% were common people taxed heavily.
One of the fundamental causes that inspired the French Revolution were the ideals of the Enlightenment. On the ruins of the ‘Old Regime’, or the established power of the absolute monarchy over French society, a new era was forming that promised to realize the ideals of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was in response to absolute power and divine right of rule.
During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.
—Thomas Hobbes
His main belief is ‘the only way to escape the state of nature is to create a social contract.’
He introduced a social contract theory based on the relation between the absolute sovereign and the civil society during the Enlightenment Era.
“The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.”
—John Locke
John Locke refuted the theory of the divine right of kings and argued that ‘all persons are endowed with natural rights to life, liberty, and property’
Often credited as a founder of modern “liberal” thought
“Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest.”
— Baron de Montesquieu
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
His key ideology is ‘no power should become stronger than another.’
The best form of government to him was one with three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Montesquieu wished to keep these powers separated
Uniting those powers would lead to a monarchy like Louis XIV which leads to despotism
Despotism: Exercise of absolute power
“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.”
— Voltaire
“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
― Voltaire
Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was a French writer and philosopher. He often poked fun at the nobility and was thrown in Bastille for insulting aristocrats.
His key belief was the ‘efficacy of reason.’
Efficacy: Ability to produce a desired result.
He also criticized the Roman Catholic Church and advocated for the separation of Church and State.
Some of his work was burned by the government for going against their censorship laws
His father was part of the bourgeoisie.
Bourgeoisie: Middle class citizens, usually merchants and business owners.
“All wickedness comes from weakness. The child is wicked only because he is weak. Make him strong; he will be good. He who could do everything would never do harm.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseaus
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
He believes the Enlightenment simply created new forms of tyranny and diminished man's natural instinct toward compassion
His key ideology is ‘man was born basically good, and idea that society is what corrupts mankind.’
“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.”
—Adam Smith
Adam Smith believes wealth is created via labor, and self-interest spurs people to use their resources to earn money.
His ideology on Enlightenment laid the foundations of classical free market economic theory.
The French economy was in ruins due to wars.
Louis XVI decided to tax the aristocrats and common people into paying taxes, the aristocrats denied this plan.
On 5 May 1789, King Louis XVI is forced to call a meeting of the Estates General to address their current economic crisis. This was the first meeting in 70 years.
First Estate — Clergy
Second Estate — Aristocrats
Third Estate — Common people
The three estates vote separately that the majority vote of each group would be their one vote as the estate. The First and Second Estates always would outnumber the Third Estate by 2-1.
Members of the Third Estate were mostly lawyers and other members of the bourgeoisie.
They declared themselves at the National Assembly and swore under the Tennis Court Oath.
Tennis Court Oath: Representatives of the non-aristocrats of France who would not disperse until a constitution was established.
This defiance and news the monarchy was gathering its military inspired the storming of Bastille
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes lead one of the strongest attacks on the upper estates at the assertion of the Third Estate in 1789. He was heavily influenced by the Enlightenment ideals of personal liberty
He was elected a representative of the Third estate from his revolutionary pamphlet What is the Third Estate
People were suffering extreme weather conditions which caused blockages of roads from snow, flooding, and droughts in 1788-1789.
This caused a famine as the grain was destroyed so the price skyrocketed. Many couldn’t afford bread which is their main diet.
In August 1788, Parisians paid nine sous for two-kilos loaf of bread. By February 1789, the price rose to 14.5 sous.
“Let them eat cake.”
—Marie Antoinette (false rumor)
Society depicted Marie Antoinette as a villain as she was a foreigner who was from a country they were often at war with (Austria).
Many blamed her for the economic failing due to her extravagant lifestyle.
The French citizens believed a widespread rumour about how her response to the famine is “Let them eat cake” in place of bread.
In 1789, the National Assembly had formed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Established France as a secular republic.
Secular: Not bound by religious rule.
The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man…
Articles:
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible [unchangeable or obvious] rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body or individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation
4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injuries no one else, hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.
A law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution
France revolutionary government to subordinate the Roman Catholic Church to the state and reduce civil government.
Created a national church for France
France then had two churches - the constitutional church supported by the State, and the Roman Church, hostile to the Revolution.
France's revolutionary government wanted Roman Catholic priests to give their primary loyalty to the government.
The revolutionaries cracked down on those against them as they feared opposition to their own regime.
During the Reign of Terror (1793-1794)
200,000 people arrested
17,000 sentenced to death
The Reign of Terror ended in 1794 after 11 months. The revolutionaries split into factions which destabilized France further.
Other countries feared their own citizens rebelling due to the rumours of royal-aligned aristocrats fleeing due to unjust treatment.
From all the emigres entering different countries, tensions rapidly grew.
Emigres: A person who flees their country for political reasons
Austria sent forces to invade France in hopes they could regain control of their citizens and restrain the rebellion.
French citizens didn’t all agree on the bloody revolution and the execution of the King and Queen.
Olympe de Gouges was one of the people sentenced to death.
She wrote plays and pamphlets supporting the revolution in its earlier days.
In 1791, she challenged the Declaration of the Rights of Man as it excluded women. Olympe de Gouges wrote a pamphlet titled Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.
She disagreed with the execution of the monarchs and was arrested in 1793. They found her guilty of treason and beheaded her.
He first rose to political power in a coup d'état in 1799.
Napoleon Bonaparte united France after the revolutionaries divined into fractions
He conquered the majority of Europe by launching multiple wars.
Within France he crushed threats from both radicals and royalists who wanted to extend or reverse the French Revolution.
Backed by ideological force, military power and strong nationalism, Napoleon accomplished many reforms in France.
By 1802 he had full power and by 1804 he was the self- proclaimed Emperor of France.
He was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo by the British. He died in exile in 1821.
People remember him as a hero who strengthened French pride while others remember him as a dictator that killed millions of French people and three million Russians, Germans, British, Italians, and Spanish soldiers.
Pros
All male citizens are equal.
Nobility and class privileges are extinguished.
Class Privilege: An unearned advantage of power due to their birth or status.
Civilians are free to act without the control of the church.
Cons
Largely reduced the rights of women as it made the men’s authority stronger
Reduced the rights of illegitimate children.
