the french revolution. political causes of french revolution expenses from developing/defending...
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The French RevolutionThe French Revolution
Political Causes of French RevolutionExpenses from developing/defending large empire
$ American Rev - no return or land
Lafayette, Franklin and Jefferson
King did not have control over parlements - royal courts - purchased
“Tax Farmers”
Cultural Causes of French Revolution
Enlightenment thinkers
did not promote revolt but often quoted by revolutionaries
Salons - often critical of corruption
Social Causes of French Revolution
3 Estates
Status over wealth
First Estate
Clergy - Approx. 1% owned 10% of land
exempt from taxation except “voluntary”
divided in upper and poor parish priests
Second Estate
Nobility - Approx. 5% owned 25-30% of land
exempt from taxation
Third Estate
85-90% of pop. highly diverse
Bourgeoisie 8%
merchants, bankers, lawyers
Craftworker, small farmer
Peasants
BourgeoisieAs a group most powerful in Europe
wealthy, well-educated
preferred laissez-faire of A. Smith
ambitious
resented arrogance of nobles
Economic Causes of French Revolution
3rd Estate responsible for tax burden
Bad harvest of 1788/89 increase $ bread
50-80% families wage spent on week supply of bread
July 1789 150,000 of Paris’ 600,000 out of a job
French Gov - bankrupt, could not borrow
Louis out of Options
June 1788 calls session of Estates-General - had not met since 1614
Revolution can be divided into 2 parts:
Liberal / Moderate 1789-1791
Radical 1791-1799
Estates General3rd Estate - no laboring poor
3rd Estate argued for proportional rep
granted but held back by traditional voting - vote by order not head
Abbe Sieyes What Is the Third Estate?
National Assembly
6 weeks of deadlock broken when Third Estate declares self “National Assembly”
3 days later locked out June 20 - Tennis Court Oath
Louis calls army to disperse
Enter Paris Hooligans and ShenanigansBread crisis and fear of aristocratic corruption revolution in hands of mob
July 14 several hundred storm Bastille
surrender not before governor of prison and mayor of Paris hacked to death head on pikes
Great Fear July-Aug 1789
Rumors of nobility waging war on peasants - peasants revolt in countryside
peasants sack and burn homes of feudal lords - burn feudal documents - reoccupy old common lands prior enclosure
Saves the National Assembly as Louis reluctantly agrees to acknowledge
National Assembly Back to Work
Aug 4, 1789 votes to abolish feudal privileges
equality in taxation and end feudal dues - peasants never to pay again
Aug 27, 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man - Life, Liberty, Fraternity
Don’t mess with a fish lady!
Women hurt by bread crisis and flight of nobility out of France (drop in demand for luxuries)
Oct 5 - Women march on Versailles
kill palace guards
lookin for da cake lady
Louis...again...out of options
Oct 6, Louis agrees to return to Paris
brings wagon of grain
Become prisoner of Paris @ Tuilleries
De-Catholization
Nov 1789 revolutionaries begin to seize church land
July 1790 Civil Constitution of Clergy
alienates clergy and loyal Catholics
creating a base for counterrevolution
Constitutional MonarchyJuly 1790 Louis agrees to Const. Mon.
head of state but laws in hands of a new Legislative Assembly (wealthy males)
Laws broadened women’s rights
divorce, inherit prop but no vote
Olympe de Gouges “Dec Rights of Women”
France divided 83 departments
Reactions to Revolution
• Edmund Burke – British Conservative
• Reflections on the Revolution in France – critical of rev
• Mary Wollstoncraft
• Vindication of the Rights of Woman - revolution should equal rights to women
So who’s running the show?New Leg Assembly composed of
bourgeoisie - from Jacobin discussion clubs
Willing to work and trust Louis...until
June 1791 tried to escape France in disguise caught @ Varennes
Aug 1791 Foreign Problems
Declaration of Pillnitz by Austria & Prussia
Leopold II of Austria - M. Antoinette’s brother
Did not want to see Rev spread
Failed to cooperate or could have taken Paris
New sheriff in town…things about to get radical dude!
• Sept 1791 New National Assembly
• Made up of more radical members
• Robespierre
• April of 1792 declare war on Austria
• Revolution vs. Counterrevolution
Aug - Sept 1792
• Paris mob attacks palace Louis prisoner
• Defeats in war & economic shortages
• Rumors of treason
• Declares France a republic and calls for a National Convention
September Massacres
• Before National Convention met Paris Commune busy purging opposition
• Sans-culottes - “without breeches”
• Thousands arrested and murdered
Poor Louis…• National Convention split into 2
factions: Girondins & Mountain
• Girondins - save the king
• Mountain - off with his head
• Mountain wins - executed Jan 21, 1793
• Counterrevolution in Vendee
Foreign Crisis
• Early 1793 - European Coalition forms
• Response to Louis’ execution
• Robespierre and Mountain organize the Committee of Public Safety
• Danton
CPS• W/ help of sans-culottes - Girondist
leaders arrested and executed
• Mass mobilization of military - a nation in arms
• Sept 1794 over million soldiers
• Price controls to aid sans-culottes
• socialism
Reign of Terror
• CPS - to protect from internal enemies
• 9 month period 16,000-50,000 brought to the guillotine
• Including Marie Antoinette
Radical gets radicalized
• By 1794 France victorious on all fronts
• March - Danton becomes a victim
• July - Robespierre also finds himself on the sharp end of the guillotine
• Thermidorean Reaction begins
Thermidorean Reaction
• CPS cut back, Jacobin club closed
• Churches reopened - religious freedom
• Economic regulations ended replaced by laissez-faire policy = prices go up
• New constitution of 1795 creates The Directory
The Directory
• 1795 New Constitution creating Directory
• Leg Assembly of 2 Chambers
• Executive authority in hands of 5 directors chosen by Council of Elders
• Directory relied on military for survival
• Nullified elections of 1797
The Directory Continued
• 1798 Directory continued a policy of military expansion
• 2nd Coalition of Europe
• 1799 Napoleon involved in a coup d etat
• First Consul
• 1802 Consul for life, 1804 Emperor