Unit 2: Revolutions- French Revolution
Before The French Revolution
Before the French Revolution: also known as the “Old Regime.”
Founded on privilege and inequality
Since the Middle Ages, life was based on 3 estates (or classes)
French Revolution: attempted to achieve enlightenment ideals
Liberty over tyranny
Triumph of reason and justice
Eliminate barriers to equality
Protect/safeguard natural rights: life, liberty, property
First Estate
Also known as the clergy
130,000 out of 27 million people
Owned 10% of land
Radically divided
Jobs like cardinals, bishops, and heads of monasteries.
Did not need to pay talle
Had class divisions (Clergy vs bishops)
Second Estate
Also known as the nobility
350,000 out of 27 million people
Owned 25 to 30% of the land
Played a crucial role in society
Leading positions in the law, military, etc
Collected maniorial duties from peasants
Third Estate
Radically divided in occupation, education, and wealth
Made up 75% to 80% of the population
Owned 35% to 40% of the land
Half of the peasants had little to no land to live on.
Owned certain duties to the nobles, fiercly resented this
Urban Craftspeople included
Struggling to survive due to consumer goods increasing much faster than wages
Bourgeoisie
Also known as the middle class
8% of the population
Owned 20% to 25% percent of the land
Included doctors, professional people, etc
Middle class was unhappy with priviledges held by nobles
Did not want to abolish nobility, but better their own position
Bouregousie and nobles both shared common goals
Upset with monarchial system built on privilege
Drawn to ideas of the Enlightenment.
Some Key Demands
Church and state positions based on talent
A written constitution
Religious tolerance
Right to a fair trial
Peasants
30% to 40$ of land owned
Those who owned land— barely surviving
Unjust system of taxes
Royal taxes
Tithes (Church)
Manorial dues
Economical Collapse
Social conditions & Enlightenment ideas formed a underlying cause to the French revolution
Immediate cause was due to the French budget.
Bad harvests in 1787 and 1788 and a slowdown in manufacturing led to food shortages, unemployment, and rising costs for food
Government spend money on American revolution, putting them into debt.
Estates-General
May 5: 1789: Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates-General
First & Second Estates had about 800 representatives
Third Estate had 600 representatives
Most of Third Estate wanted to set up a system that would make the clergy & nobility pay takes
Called this meeting due to economical collapse
Each estate had one vote, yet the first and second estates could outvote the third Estate two to one.
Third estate wanted a new system
King favored current one
National Assembly
Tennis Court Oath
June 17, 1789: Third Estate boldly declared it was the National Assembly and would draft a new constitution
Three days later, on June 20, 1789, deputies arrived at the meeting place, just to find out it was locked
Moved to a nearby tennis court and swore that they would continue meeting until the new constitution
Increasing Tension in Paris
Prices of bread increasing (laborers paying 80% of income for bread)
King Louis was planning to crush the National Assembly
Storming of the Bastille
Louis XVI wanted to use force against the Third Estate
July 14, 1789: 900 Parisians gathered in the courtyard of the Bastille
The National Assembly was saved
Symbol of old regime fell
Stormed the Bastille (a former prison) and Paris was abandoned to the rebels.
King could not trust Royal troops to shoot at the mob
Authority collapsed in Paris
Great Fear
Upheaval spread to countryside
Rumor that foreign troops were on the way to put down revolution due to nobles
Peasants raided aristocratic houses to react back.
August Decrees of National Assembly quickly acted, abolishing noble privileges
Calmed panic
End of Old Regime
National Assembly reacted to news of peasant rebellions and rumors of possible foreign invasion.
August 4: 1789, National Assembly voted to abolish all legal privileges of nobles and clergy; known as August Decrees
On August 26, National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Included “basic liberties began with the natural and imprescriptible rights of man” to “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.”
Proclaimed all men were free and equal before the law, that appointment to public office should be based on talent, and that no group should be exept from taxation
Abolished special privileges of clergy and nobles
Freedom of speech and of the press was confirmed.
Debate of if it should include women
Olympe de Gouges refused to marked the exclusion
Drafted her own constitution “Rights of Women”
Said that exlcuding women would lead to corruption of government
These actions mark the death of the old regime
Key reforms of National Assembly
Abolished Special Priviledges of nobles and clergy
Declaration of the Rights of Mand and Citizen
Subordination of the Church to state
The King Concedes
King refused to accept National Assemblies decrees
October 5, 1789: March on Versailles
Parisian housewifes marched 12 miles to Versailles
Forced Louis to accept new decrees, return to Paris, and give them bread
Church Reforms
Revolutionaries felt like Catholic Church needed to be reformed
Sold off Church lands
Able to increase state revenues
Brought under control of state
Civil Constitution of Clergy said that bishops and popes elected by the people
State would pay salaries of bishops and priests
Catholics became enemies of Revolution
New Constitution & New Fears
Constitution of 1791 set up a limited monarchy
Equal rights under the law
Still a King, but legislative assembly would make the laws
Consist of 745 representatives chosen
1791: old order destroyed
Government did not have universal support
King destested new order and lost of absolute power
June 1791: royal family tried to flee France in disguise
Almost succeeded
France relations with the rest of Europe soon led to downfall
War with Austria
European leaders feared war would spread
Kings of Austria and Prussia even threatened to use force to restore King to full power
Insulted by the threat, Legislative assembly striked first, declaring war on Austria in April of 1972
Thought war would rally the French people to the causes of the revolution: spread liberty, equality, fraternity to rise of Europe.
Rise of Paris Commune
Angry citizens demonstrated protest shortages and defeats in the war.
Paris radicals demonstrated the fate of revolution
Declared themselves a commune: popularily run city council and attacked royal palace and Legislative Assembly
September 1792: Monarchy was suspended, a National Convention was called for
Universal male suffrage elected representatives deciding nations future
Many members called themselves sans-culottles:without breeches