European history class 3
Explaining French revolution
theories on the causes of the French revolution
Marxist interpretation: class-competition
With the industrial proletariat pushing the bourgeois to more left-wing positions
System of production affects societal structue and dominant beliefs/ideology
Inherent conflict
Class consciousness as catalyst for revolution as cause of revolution
Bourgeois dominance would bring about the capitalist society: replacing the plurality of conflicts by a duality: bourgeoisie-proletariat
invalidated by historical evidence
false distinction feudal aristocracy and capitalist bourgeoisie
feudal system had already weakened: many privileges already weakened, noble titles for sale (by acquiring lend and/or office
Not really separate economic classes: Bourgeois weren’t budding capitalists (rentiers, traders, land-owners…), aristocracy invested heavily in trade and proto-industry
Revolution slowed down process of industrialisation
Bourgeois lacked class consciousness
Provincialism of the old ancient regime prevented from forming a generalised/uniform class consciousness; great variance across local cultures
Not main catalyst for revolution: lack of uniformity - not a basis for mobilisation
Bourgeois didn’t on average gold revolutionary aspirations
aspired to become nobles and buy noble titles
Wished to preserve rank and order: maintenance of estates-system allowed them to mark their social mobility/individual progress
Victory enlightenment ideas: popular sovereignty; reason and rights
Furet: penser la revolution Française: it was more about ideas an the meaning of important state organisation concepts
central argument = french revolution was less about social/class conflict and more a conflict over the meaning and application of norms and ideas
Explains radicalism of 2nd stage by idea of popular sovereignty
language of popular will presumes a uniformity; casting suspicion on all difference/dissent
Impact of Rousseau Social contract: general will as one and visible, the general will can only be executed not represented
Baker, inventing the French revolution
3 competing discourses
justice: social contract (constitution) as protection against state domination or arbitrary rule
Equality: reason/account giving by government (challenging divine right to rule)
Popular will: the people (not God) as source of legitimate rule
Reign of terror = result rise popular will ideal
revolutionaries as executors popular will
Dissent couldn’t be tolerated for it would expose fragility of their power base
limitations
little scholarly consensus or any direct connection between enlightenment ideas and revolution
Explains highlight of autonomy of ideas: leaving out their social origins
Toynbee: scepticism (new wine in old bottles)
indeed; revolutionaries identified new source of legitimate authority (God replaced by the people)
But few changes made to the general estates-based system and its structures of oppression
Linking social and ideational theories: changing income and wealth patterns and strategies/rates of upward mobility; re-shaping dominant beliefs regarding power and governance
a focus on interaction political and social history:
rise mercantile class from 16th c onwards: changing economic relations and powers, upward social mobility
Was accompanied by spread bourgeois beliefs- meritocracy
merit-based society (as opposed by hereditary system)
Reason/account-giving (as opposed to divine right to rule)
Spread meritocratic ideals facilitated uptake of enlightenment ideas, such as popular sovereignty
A conservative backlash
continental Europe after French revolution
regicide & replacement of monarchy by a republic
Terror, prosecution and bloodshed
Napoleonic wars - mass armies, mass casualties
Wider European context
Conservative reaction to french revolution
Edmund Burke: reflections on the revolution in France
predicted radicalisation of the revolution and the reign of terror under Robespierre
Foundational contribution to European conservative thought
central arguments:
French revolution = too radical divorce from its own past: English tradition of constitutional monarchy is result of its own history, cannot simply be imported
Rights aren’t universal but originate from particular historical context, as result of a particular history (rights of men vs rights of Englishmen)
Society = a historical edifice: not product of human design; resists enlightenment optimism and belief in the perfectibility of man and society
Rights need to be balanced with duties
man is imperfectly rational and moral (passions, emotions, dependency)
Natural aristocracy- able to place much-needed constraints on the masses
Conservatism: not reactionary (as in, restoration ancien régime)
Instead: change to preserve
embrace of modern elements to restore/stabilise (traditional) power
Modern bureaucracy and administrative centralisation
public office = way of appeasing revolutionaries
Centralisation = heightened control and censorship
Congres of Vienna
peace treaty: France + great victors, delegations from Sweden Spain and Portugal
2 main aims: restore international peace (create new equilibrium among great European powers to prevent war) and restore domestic stability (instrumentalisation of monarchic dynasties: divine right to rule + family ties across Europe)
why was France not punished more severely for the Napoleonic wars:
control of French power:
reduced to approximately size 1792
Creation 2 buffer states: kingdom if Netherlands and piedmont &Sardinia
France = a reduced major European power
fear that a punished France would seek revenge
Break up of France could strengthen one country to such en extent that it would become threatening in return
Liberal challenges (1830 revolutions)
Result july revolution France: fears renewed age of terror under Republic; constitutional monarchy under Louis Philippe
recognition of popular sovereignty
white flag of the Bourbons was replaced by the people’s flag (tricolour)
Title: king of the French in constitution; no legislative powers; limited executive authority
Democratisation
chamber of Peers transformed from a hereditary body into a nominated house; doubling suffrage
Doubling of suffrage/franchise; but still predominantly wealthy men
Yet, rather conservatipolitics
by 1830, Europe will split by:
conservative states:
revolt Poles against Russian tsar ruthless suppression
Little succesful revolts Italy and Germany kingdoms
Liberal, constitutional states
Portugal became constitutional monarchy
Drafting of constitutions in Swiss cantons
Reactionary revolt against king in Spain
Belgian revolution- independence from united Kingdom of the Netherlands, and creation of a constitutional monarchy with very liberal constitution
Radicalisation (collapse of the conservative order)
1830 made a breach with conservative order, yet most revolutionaries were liberals, committed to constitutional reform and, much like conservatists, anxious about the danger of social unrest
Urban workers and peasantry remained largely disposed and disenfranchised
Hungry forties would pave the way for a new series of revolutions (agricultural disaster, potato blight Ireland, population growth)
The social question
report on housing of the poor in life
Yet,
poverty was still conceived as a sign of individual flaws and lack of morals (alcholoism, vandalism, prostitution seen as causes of poverty, not consequences
Policies reflected in this attitude: able-bodied labour forces should be discouraged from idleness / public works for the unemployed AND nobless oblige: charity work but little structural/guaranteed support for the poor
the endings of the july monarchy
1840s: social crisis and chronic political instability
agricultural and industrial crisis: workers insurrection in Lyon, denonstrations in Oaris
Plural attenpts To murder the kings
King refuses social reform or an expansion of voting rights; restricts political freedom
1848: workers revolution; end of the French experiment with constitutional monarchy; return of the republic and universal male suffrage back
1848 revolutions
the year of the revolution
a series of political upheavals throughout Europe; widespread revolutionary wave; led by ad hoc coalitions of middle-class and workers
Succeses: serfdom ended in Austria and Hungary, end of absolute monarchy in Denmark, introduction of universal male suffrage in afrance
Great-Britain and Russia weren’t affected
Russia: absolute rule; lack public sphere (freedom press); difficulty of communicating across country
Great-Britain: Chartist movement had perished by 1848 + some economic recovery
only real successful in France, yet rapid polarisation and conflict among revolutionaries
liberals: constitutional reform, universal male suffrage, political and civil rights, economic freedom
Radicals: greater democratisation and fundamental sicial reform, equality
Growing alignment liberals and conservatives:
conservatives fuelled anxiety towards workers millitancy - dependency of liberals on forces and popular support of conservatives
Roll back of political liberties: legal restrictions on the press, forced closure of various newspapers, repression political clubs
France: bloody street clash June 1848; december 1848: presidential election: Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew), 1851: second French empire (till 1870)
Impact 1848 revolutions
while being a victory for conservative power, also crucial steps in a process of democratisation
A consolidation of the role of parliaments: few liberal constitutions introduced in 1848 survived yet some formerly absolutist monarchies retained a form of parliamentary government
Equality - abolition of serfdom and seigneurial rights in central Europe
Unprecedented levels political participation: basis political parties and ideological families
Gradual extension of right to vote
France: reintroduction universal male suffrage (triumph of democracy; never reversed)
Mid 19thc: gradual integration of middle-class, workers and peasants in the electoral system
19thc: slow democratisation
elected parliaments yet right to vote was still limited to qualified men
educated, property owning men (tax paying men 21+)
Qualifications served to ensure that the poor masses wouldn’t use parliament to confiscate property from the rich
By 1900, only New-Zealand had universal suffrage, and 17 other countries had universal male
Composition of parliament reflected old powers
parliamentarians weren’t a professional class (unpaid MpS)
System of plural voting to balance extension voting rights
Uk, 1840: 80% of parliamentarians still represented the landed interests of bourgeois entrepreneurs
Campaigns for suffrage reform were mainly the initiative of middle-class reformers
competition with aristocracy
Lawyers and doctors outraged by the excesses of industrial capitalism