French Revolution Part 1: Causes and Effects - HY118 Final Exam

Examples of Marie Antionette getting in the way fo reforms - Charles de Calome

-By 1785-6, the controller general of finance, Charles de Calonne, tries various ways to get France back on its feet financially. -He knows that he can't obtain a favorable credit rating because of the huge debt, and his eventual reform package, presented to an assembly of notables. The package consists of five major points: 1) Cut government spending; 2) revive free trade which will make goods more available at a cheaper price, and get rid of things like internal customs duties (i.e. screw mercantilism); 3) Authorize the sale of Church property; 4) institute something akin to flat sales tax on goods like salt and tobacco; 5) Establish a universal land tax that everyone has to pay (even nobles and clergy). -As you can guess, this too meets with opposition from the assembly of notables, which is made up of nobles and clergymen, because basically in order for getting France back on their feet, the first two estates have to give up SOME of their privileges. So they accuse Calonne of somehow being responsible for all of France's economic problems. Calonne then loses the support of the king and is exiled.

Peasant rebellions emerge in five major areas of France

-During this time, especially in the weeks following the storming of the Bastille, you have peasants throughout France, encouraged by the developments in Paris, beginning to take the law into their own hands, and from about 19 July to August 3, peasant rebellions emerge in five major areas of France, where in some places peasants are able to demand that the clergy and nobility renounce feudal dues and tithes, while in other places they simply burn the charters listing their obligations. -Moreover, as Louis has effectively acknowledged that the Third Estate has prevailed, they feel like the king supports their actions, as they thought that when the Estates-General met they were going to abolish all these taxes and privileges. -Consequently, these peasants see themselves as aiding the government authorities in demanding the abolition of these financially related privileges. So there's real miscommunication, and such miscommunication also leads to rumors of a Great Fear. -This 'Great Fear' is essentially that, with the upheaval in France, that traditionally minded aristocrats are conspiring with foreign troops to invade France to restore the old order. Consequently, you have these citizen militias and permanent committees formed in various cities to keep order.

Long term, indirect causes of French revolution. Years leading up to the revolution in France.

-France by the mid 18th century is a country of 27 million people and is grounded in the idea of privilege and traditional rights of the privileged over the less privileged -population is divided, and has been ever since the middle ages, into 3 estates in France: 1. The First Estate, or the Church 2. The Second Estate, or the nobility 3. The Third Estate, everyone else, or the commoners of society

The First Estate

-French Catholic Church consisted of ab 130,000 people. -They have a degree of privileges, including owning about 10% of the land in France -They are exempt from the chief French tax, the 'taille', although they are encouraged to pay a voluntary contribution to the French government every 5 years -clergy aren't all equal and enjoying equal privileges... -you have the higher clergy (cardinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots, etc..), who are drawn from aristocratic families who are making a whole lot of money -then you have the regular clergy, who are your parish priests who make about as much money as the peasants do, and for the most part they are drawn from poor commoners

Why are the King's finances not doing well by the 1770s and 80s?

-Louis XV, well, he spent money on things like wars and...well, things like Versailles. -Things like foreign aid to the American Revolution cost a whole lot of money, and money on the extravagance of the king and nobility isn't helping. -By the mid-1780s, the government is extremely short of money, and is near financial collapse. -The government responds by borrowing the money and by 1788, total debt of the kingdom equals that of a modern day $40 billion, and the interest on this debt alone constituted half of government spending. -Financial lenders are starting to dry up unless France pays back some of its debts. -Louis XVI, France's King by this time, is the wrong man to solve this crisis. Now, he's well-intentioned, he's not a bad guy, and like his father, he is quite intelligent. As well as basically being responsible for helping out the American Revolution, Louis also does things like revoke restrictions on non-Catholics (his Edict of Versailles makes moves to tolerate Protestants and Jews in France as well as lift employment and moving restrictions on them). But like his father Louis XV, he's weak-willed, introverted, and tends to listen a bit too much to his nobles and his overbearing wife Marie Antoinette (who is hated by a large portion of the French population because of her Austrian descent), making his decisions according to their wishes rather than what's good for France. And this just isn't something he does once. He does it A LOT. -So when France is in trouble financially, there is a succession of finance ministers who all tell him generally the same thing, but as soon as someone like Marie Antoinette sees the reforms, it's no no no.

Economy before French revolution

-Now, the French Revolution wasn't exactly the result of economic collapse and it wasn't exactly every single peasant in France demanding change -French economy had by no means collapsed, thus causing a revolution in 1789 -Despite things like expensive wars, the French economy had grown by leaps and bounds -if there was a problem amongst those potential revolutionaries, it was about how groups such as peasants were prevented from sharing in such prosperity. -if we're going to discuss how the French Revolution came about, it had both long-term causes and short-term causes.

August 26th - Declaration of the Rights of Man

-Provided by Assembly -lays out basic liberties as influenced by the enlightenment and the Declaration of Independence and declares all men equal with rights ti liberty and property amongst other things -aristocratic privileges are to be ended and they are liable to taxation. -access to public office is based on talent, not one's lineage or who you know. -powers of monarchy are restricted and all citizens have the right to a say in the legislative process -arbitrary arrests are illegal and freedom of speech and the press are declared

More changes being made to reform the old order during this time

-The Catholic Church, a symbol of the old order, also is subject to the reforms of the National Assembly. -Many lands of the church are confiscated, and attempts are being made to secularize the Church. In 1790, the Assembly passes what's called the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, where bishops and priests would be elected by the general population (even Protestants and Jews) and paid by the state. -All clergy are to swear an oath of allegiance to the Civil Constitution. -Now, the National Assembly was probably doing this as a way to curtail the power of the state church, but it is one of the hugest blunders of the National Assembly (and a bit of a departure from the U.S.'s example, as we don't have a state church). -The Pope forbids it, only 54 percent of lower clergy take the oath, and most of the bishops in France refuse to do so. -Therefore, the Revolution has created an enemy for itself by instituting this reform, that of the church and many of the French population who have a problem with such an arrangement. Indeed, the Civil Constitution causes a popular pool of opposition that gives counterrevolutionary interests (people who don't want the French Revolution to continue) a powerful popular base from which to operate.

while there is growing opposition to the old order, the monarchy in France is having its own problems at this time

-The Monarchy, for example, doesn't know how to deal with the changing socioeconomic and political realities, and for the most part they'd just like it if everything got rolled back to 1670. -Now, for the most part, the monarchy can cope with not dealing with change, and for the most part they want to ignore the increasing desire of those in France who want to reinvent the system under Enlightenment principles. -The monarchy is also deliberately trying to frustrate efforts at reform, although they are finding this harder to do. -For example, the Parlements, the law courts, which are responsible for registering royal decrees, could block them by not registering them. The judges in the Parlement, who are usually nobles, are in the 18th century increasingly using their power to block the arbitrary power of the monarchy, and unlike in the days of Louis XIV, who brought them to heel, under Louis XV and XVI, they are blocking things like new taxes. -This is trouble for the monarchy, as by the 1770s and 80s, the king's finances are not doing well.

So by 1791, France is being reorganized via a revolutionary consensus that's largely the work of wealthier members of the middle class. By mid-1791, however, this consensus shows signs of breaking

-The clergy (and the very religious Louis XVI) are opposed to the new Civil Constitution of the Clergy. -Lower classes are starting to grumble, mainly because of paper money instituted by the Assembly, which causes inflation to rise; moreover, old taxes haven't been completely abolished. -Indeed, many political clubs were emerging during this time, offering even more radical solutions to the nation's problems. -One of the most famous of these clubs are the Jacobins (called such because they first convened at a former Jacobin convent), who were initially made up of the more radical deputies of the Assembly. -They are gaining steam, and also have branches popping up in the provinces and by spring 1790 there are 900 Jacobin clubs in France. They don't think the Revolution has gone far enough, and they WILL have an effect on the Revolution in its later stages.

The common people of Paris and the provinces, who are siding with the Third Estate, rise up in July and August of 1789

-They get mobilized by revolutionary (and in some cases counter-revolutionary) politicians to become more involved in the system, and what you see during this time are people mobilizing to basically prevent the Third Estate from being marginalized. -The king, alarmed at popular uprisings, proceeds to take measures to increase the number of troops at the arsenals in Paris as well as to provide a military presence in the city as well as on the way to Versailles to intimidate the people to fall back into line. -This only pisses the people off, and as a result mobs start forming in Paris and start attacking the armories there. -One of these attacks, of course, happens on July 14 1789, when Parisians storm the Bastille, an armory and state prison which has few guns, only 7 prisoners (including 5 forgers and 2 insane people), but is nevertheless an imposing symbol of Ancien Regime despotism. -Parisian leaders form a permanent committee to keep order to get things from getting out of control. -Popular uprisings are coming up in other areas of France, and it becomes clear that the king cannot enforce his will. He cannot depend on royal troops, so he asks the Marquis de Lafayette to form a National Guard to help restore order. But in effect, Louis has acknowledged that he can't do anything about the uprisings, and that the Third Estate has the upper hand.

French are still optimistic and unified in their trust of the king to serve as a symbol for this new change... what could possible go wrong?

-Well, Louis looks at all of these changes, and is actually able to be open to most of them, but what he cannot agree upon is the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and when he sees the implementation of it by the National Assembly, as well as other measures, he seeks to flee France and recruit the help of outside forces to restore him to his rule. -He flees with his family in June 1791, and almost succeeds until he is recognized and captured at the town of Varennes, and brought back to Paris. In response, radicals in the Assembly call for the king to be deposed and a republic be established. -Others in the Assembly, fearing the radicals, are content to ignore the king's flight and end up manufacturing a story that the king had been kidnapped by fanatical counterrevolutionaries who were trying to use him as a pawn. But this appearance of the king abandoning France, acting disloyal even, will lead to a much darker, nastier revolution. -Indeed, with the storming of the Bastille, things like the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and the response to the Flight of Varennes...well, the French Revolution, step by step, is slowly becoming radicalized, and when that happens, the true violence will begin.

The Constitution written by the Assembly is completed in 1791 and establishes a limited constitutional monarchy

-While there's still a king, most of the power is vested in the National Assembly. -The Assembly are not chosen democratically, but rather by indirect system of election that keeps power in the hands of the more affluent members of society. -So here's how it works: The electorate is made up of 'active' and 'passive' citizens. Although all theoretically have the same civil rights, only 'active' citizens could vote. Now, there are 4.3 million active citizens (usually men over age 25 who pay a certain amount of taxes), but these guys don't vote directly for the assembly. Rather, they elect 'electors' who then choose the members of the assemblies. Thus, strictly speaking, those electors who choose the deputies only number about 50,000 in a population of 27 million. So it's by no means a proper democracy. -The National Assembly also decrees in its constitution that all the old local and provincial administration will be abolished in favor of a creation of France being divided into 83 administrative departments. -Departments would then be made up of districts and communes, all of which would be supervised by elected councils and officials who would oversee political, financial, administrative, judicial, and ecclesiastical affairs within their respective domains. -Although both nobles and middle class people were eligible to serve on these councils, it's the bourgeoisie, mostly lawyers, who end up being elected to them.

The Third Estate continued... other members of the Third Estate include...

-artisans, shopkeepers, and other wage earners who, unlike the peasantry, largely reside in the cities. -These groups are dealing with rapid urban growth, as well as economic growth in the cities. -The problem is, while consumer prices have risen throughout the course of the 18th century, wages did not rise at the same rate, and this causes resentment as the purchasing power of this group is declining (for example, in Paris, income lags behind food prices, and especially rent prices, which have risen by about 140% over a couple of generations). -As the French Revolution is going to be driven by the cities, then these people have the most to gain from a change, as their very survival depends on improving their economic status (raise wages along with prices, etc.). -Indeed, when you see rioting or anything amongst this group before or during the Revolution, it usually correlates to changes in bread prices (the more bread costs, the more you're willing to riot), and commoners usually spent 1/3 to ½ of their income on bread, which constituted 3/4s of their diet, so any price change is usually directly related to public order. -People expected things like the price of bread to be controlled better, and when it isn't, the only recourse they feel they have is to burn things down and fight in the streets.

One of the most famous political clubs: the Jacobins

-called such because they first convened at a former Jacobin convent -were initially made up of the more radical deputies of the Assembly. -They are gaining steam, and also have branches popping up in the provinces and by spring 1790 there are 900 Jacobin clubs in France. -They don't think the Revolution has gone far enough, and they WILL have an effect on the Revolution in its later stages.

The Third Estate

-everyone else -They constitute the overwhelming majority of the population 75-80%. -They own about 35-40% of the land, although this varies over which commoner you're talking to, so even back in the olden days things were a bit more broadened out than the 1% vs. 99% rhetoric that you hear from the OWS crowd. -Some of the third estate are made up of peasants -Serfdom no longer exists in France at this time the way it might in Prussia, Russia, or other countries, but French peasants still have obligations to their local landlords that might piss them off a bit. -These might include paying a fee for using the village facilities for their day-to-day work (flour mill, winepress, community oven), as well as tithes to the clergy. -Another bone of contention is that nobles still retained the right to hunt on peasant land.

Second Estate continued... Nobility

-if it came down to it, the nobility would be for the king, but on their own terms. That is, the nobility sought to expand its own privileges, sometimes at the expense of the monarchy, and to maintain their privileged positions in the military, church, and government. -The nobility doesn't like people coming into its ranks as they believe that their class will be somehow diluted (the Ségur Law, for example, prevented newly made nobles from getting the plum military posts, for example). -Moreover, as the nobility usually marries within its own ranks, it's a pretty closed group to join. There are rich nobles and poor nobles, but although their privileges and finances may vary from region to region, they are on the top of the hierarchy, and are exempt from the taille as well as most taxes in France.

Above this group within the 3rd estate (peasants, common city workers) is the middle class, which comprised about 2.3 million people (they own about 20-25% of the land). They include

-merchants, bankers, and have a degree of control over the resources needed for manufacturing, trade, and finance, and they're prospering after about 1730. -They also include doctors, writers, and lawyers. -Although they are trying to achieve financial security by investing in the land, they tend to be excluded from the privileges, both social and political, that are monopolized by the nobility. -Now, although the middle class resents the nobility and this has been seen as a major cause of the revolution, it's important to note that neither of these groups (the nobility or the middle class) are monolithic.

The Second Estate

-nobility -made up of no more than 350,000 people -own about 25 to 30 percent of the land -despite still being under French absolutism, the nobility is influential, and under Louis XV (1715-1774), and Louis XVI (1774-1793) they hold many of the leading positions in government, the military, the courts, and the higher church offices -nobility control much of the industry in France at this time, and derive a lot of funds from there as well. But, like the clergy, they're not united either, but rather are divided into two unofficial groups: the Nobility of the Robe and the Nobility of the Sword.

gulf between rich and poor nobles in the nobility, and the same goes for the middle class

-richer middle class people find that they can enter the nobility via the Nobility of the Robe, and between 1774 and 1789, a not insignificant number of 2,500 wealthy bourgeoisie were able to enter the nobility this way (6,500 noble families are created in this way throughout the century). -Indeed, there is little difference between the wealthy members of the nobility and the wealthy members of the middle class economically, and both are attracted to the ideas of the Enlightenment

When the Estates-General meets...

-the Church has about 300 delegates, the nobility the same number, but the third estate has about 600 delegates (understandable, as the 3rd estate makes up 97% of the population). -Moreover, the 3rd estate is being largely led by urban and legally-minded delegates, while the nobility has amongst its number some more liberal-minded Enlightenment adherents. -Therefore, when grievances are aired at the first meeting, you have the third estate as well as the liberal minded nobles and clergy making demands for a regular constitutional government that would abolish the fiscal privileges of the first two estates. -So it's essentially the bourgeoisie as well as the liberal minded nobility and clergy who are running the show, and they're heavily influenced by the Enlightenment and things like the American Revolution. -The thing is, the king and the government don't really take charge of the situation, and before you know it many in the Third Estate are demanding more of a say in the government, and there are firebrands in their numbers (including the Abbé Sieyès, who stated that the Third Estate, which was everything, had no political power and it was high time that it did). -This meets with opposition, as many in the Estates-General (some of whom are members of the third estate) do not want to overthrow the old order and want to operate within the traditional framework, giving due deference and respect to the king. -So when debate continues over these matters, the third Estate, realizing it isn't getting anywhere, votes in June 1789 to reconstitute itself as a 'National Assembly,' which will then draw up a new constitution. -When the other two estates respond by locking them out of the procedures a few days later, meets at a nearby tennis court to take the Tennis Court Oath to continue to meet until they have framed a new constitution. -This is a revolutionary act, as up to this point the Third Estate has had no legal right to meet on its own and call itself a National Assembly. -Indeed, Louis, seeing that the meeting of the Estates-General has, in his opinion, been hijacked by a bunch of idealistic middle-class lawyers, decides he's going to dissolve the Estates-General and use force to do so.

Response to the rebellions

-the National Assembly realizes it is the main power in France and proceeds to meet at Versailles to begin writing a new constitution, which it did between 1789 and 1791. -In doing so, it wanted to destroy the remnants of feudalism as well as aristocratic privileges, but practically it saw this as necessary, for as soon as the peasantry in the countryside heard that these reforms were made law, chances are the rural revolts during this period would stop. By August 4, 1789, it has voted to abolish all obligations peasants have to nobles, as well as the fiscal privileges of the nobility and the church. -On August 26th, the Assembly provides its ideological foundation by releasing the document known as the Declaration of the Rights of Man. -This document lays out the basic liberties as influenced by the Enlightenment and the Declaration of Independence, and declares all men equal with rights to liberty and property amongst other things. -Aristocratic privileges are to be ended, and they are liable to taxation. Access to public office is based on talent, not one's lineage or 'who you know.' The powers of the monarchy are restricted, and all citizens have the right to a say in the legislative process. Arbitrary arrests are illegal, and freedom of speech and the press are declared.

The French Revolution is not about nobles vs. the middle class, especially since both wealthy middle class and wealthy nobility are doing well economically, rather...

-the middle class is frustrated by the outmoded traditions of privilege which exclude them from rising past a certain point, and the nobles who favor the Enlightenment are frustrated by their tenable role in a French absolutist government. -So you do have nobles who share these classical liberal political ideas with the wealthier members of the middle class. -Both of them have something to gain from changing the old order (although they may differ on how far to take such changes). -So get away from the Marxist thought, because not everything is based on class. Indeed, the opposition to the old order is not class based, but rather politically based.

The Second Estate continued... The Nobility of the Robe

-the nobility that derives their status from officeholding, which was a pathway that allowed a lot of commoners with an opportunity for upward social mobility into the nobility. -They dominate the law courts and much of the administration of government

What stands in the way of France getting back on its feet financially?

-the privileged classes do not want to lose their privileges. -Louis only wants to solve the immediate problem of France's financial straits, which he only sees as a short term problem. -He doesn't want to institute major reforms of the government to resolve this, but at the same time he's at a dead end, and proceeds to call a meeting of the Estates-General in 1789, the French parliament that includes reps from all three estates, in order to ask them to raise taxes to solve the problem of debt. -Matters are not helped by the fact that a manufacturing depression has emerged during this time, and bad harvests in 1787 and 1788 mean that bread at Paris is scarce, and people are hungry, unemployed, and have no money to pay for rising prices. -So the atmosphere is tense.

How does Louis XVI respond? Parisian women confronting King?

-while he remains largely inactive, he does initially refuse, for example to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudal privileges and a declaration of rights. -This soon changes when crowds of Parisian women, pissed off that bread is scarce and therefore expensive, set off for Versailles on October 5 and confront the King and the National Assembly. -This has never happened before, as you have a lot of pissed off ladies in the thousands, armed with broomsticks, lances, pitchforks, swords, pistols and muskets, marching to Versailles to demand a redress of their grievances. -While Louis promises that they will get grain supplies, the women demand that Louis no longer live at Versailles, but rather that, if he cared so much about these womens' demands, he and his family should go back with them to Paris. -This Louis does, bringing wagonloads of flour from the palace stores to Paris as a sign of good will. -This is the first time that the Parisian crowds are affecting the political situation, and it won't be the last. Indeed, Louis is effectively a prisoner at Paris as a result of this action, and national politics during the Revolution would largely be decided

Examples of Marie Antionette getting in the way fo reforms - Jacques Necker

Another minister, Jacques Necker, becomes director general of the finances by trying to distribute the taille (capitation tax) more equally by abolishing smaller direct taxes on the peasantry. He also tries to keep the government going through using loans to give to the colonists of the American Revolution, usually at high interest, as a way of creating some money down the road that France can collect on. However, by 1781, when France is racking up more debt, Necker tries to educate the populace to show them that the situation isn't bad by publishing France's finances. All this does is generate further public opinion against the government, as people are now wise to what gets spent on what (although Necker argued that France had actually had a surplus during this time, it's clear he's cooked the books). So he's dismissed, largely because Marie Antoinette tells Louis to do so (that and the fact that Necker wanted to tax the nobility and the clergy).

by 1791, many in France are still angered at all of the old problems that don't seem to disappear, even with a new government and constitution

The government is still in financial straits (upheaval means that many are able to resort to tax evasion), and powers outside France are getting really uneasy about what's going on in that country

Examples of Marie Antionette getting in the way fo reforms - Turgot

Turgot, chief finance minister from 1774-76, tries to have the French government lose weight, calling his policy 'no bankruptcy, no increase of taxation, and no borrowing.' That is, the government needs to lose the weight while at the same time not raising taxes and thus pissing everyone in France off. He tries to cut spending in a lot of ministerial departments, appeals personally to the king against giving new places and pensions to his nobles (which France can't afford), and prepares a regular budget for France. Turgot also tries to establish free trade in grain to get a lower price so that if a famine does hit France (as it did in the 1770s), people won't be starving. He also tries to lift some of the old noble privileges, such as the corvée system, which required that peasants do unpaid work for their nobles, and states that the first two estates, especially the second estate of the nobility, should be subject to taxation as a way of opening up funds for the French government. He also opposed French intervention in the American Revolution, as it would be expensive as hell. But he's opposed at court, and is especially opposed by Marie Antoinette, who was offended one time at court when Turgot openly opposed the creation of new privileges for some of her favorites at court as it would cost too much. He gets dismissed as soon as Marie and her favorites whisper in Louis' ear that Turgot has to...well...go.

The Great Fear

is essentially that, with the upheaval in France, that traditionally minded aristocrats are conspiring with foreign troops to invade France to restore the old order. Consequently, you have these citizen militias and permanent committees formed in various cities to keep order.

Second Estate continued... The Nobility of the Sword

more or less comprised of the descendants of the old medieval nobility.