French Revolution --"Liberal" Phase

1789: The French Revolution
the aristocracy opened the way to the bourgeois revolution, then to the popular revolution of the peasants and found itself buried under the ruins of the Old Regime. Georges Lafebvre, The Coming of the French Revolution

The French Monarchy: 1775 - 1793
Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI

Why is it important?
The Common Slogan, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, had and still has major influence.Liberty: The revolution ended the ancien regime (old order) - feudal order in France and all of the privileges that went along with it.Equality The revolution sought to make all French citizens and French regions equal before the law; after the revolution some nations sought to create economic equality for all (i.e. socialism and communism). Fraternity The revolution sought to create a brotherhood among the French through language and culture. A Rousseauist goal, this meant that all citizens, regardless of social class, or region, shared a common fate in society and that the nations well-being could override the interest of the individual citizen. This was one of the greatest steps in the development of nationalism.

The Three Estates
Clergy (First Estate)Privileges:Its own court of lawSubject to none of the ordinary direct taxesMade donations to the king.Collected tithes on its property about a tenth of the kingdom.Bishops and abbots who were also lords of various villages also received manorial dues.Closely connected to the monarchy whose divine right was symbolized through a religious coronation ceremony.The Church also possessed a monopoly in education and poor relief and shared took part in all censorship of legally printed material.Frenchmen were all considered to be Catholic, but there were some rebellious sects.

The Three Estates
Nobility (Second Estate): 400,000 out of a population of 23,000,000Privileges:Honorific: Able to carry a swordUseful: exemption from taxes like the taille (a tax on land ownership), and from obligations for road service and quartering troopsNobles owned about a fifth of the land of France and possessed the majority of the manors and thus were able to receive feudal dues.

Nobility of the Blood These families claimed to trace their heritage back through the dark ages to Germanic tribes who exerted dominance over the weaker Gallo-Romans. While they were lords of the land they were looked down upon if they got involved in a business or profession. Thus many nobles families saw there wealth slowly slip away. However, many, like the Marquis de La Fayette were very rich earning 140,000 livres a year (a skilled workers family may earn a 1,000 a year)

The Three Estates
Nobility of the Robe As the government fell into more and more debt, French monarchs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries began selling titles of nobility along with government offices; this was good at get a large lump-sum quickly, but with nobility came the tax and other exemptions mentioned above causing financial shortfall over generation. These offices were often purchased by an increasingly well to do middleclass know as the bourgeoisie.

The Three Estates
Third Estate They were the rest of the population about 99 percent including all commoners from beggars and peasants to merchants and financiers (the bourgeoisie mentioned above). Peasants made up about 4/5 of the Third Estate and owned about owned about 2/5 of the land. Struggling peasants tried to make up for their poverty with extra work. This often came in the form of the putting out system in which women of peasant households did spinning and weaving which was sold off to be turned into finished goods.Only poor and peasants paid the taille. Nobles and the clergy through influence could also buy their way out of the income tax known as the capitation.

Origins of the French Revolution
The Cultural ClimateThe EnlightenmentUndermined confidence in tradition (especially divine right)Bad Press gossip sheets, exposes, and pornographyPortrayed the monarchy as a decadent, ridiculous despotism.

Origins of the French Revolution
Class Conflict?A growing middle class the bourgeoisie was becoming the economic backbone of France (its bankers, lawyers, merchants, artisans, and industrialists), yet they were being shut out of many pursuits like military leadership and certain industries like mining by nobles who had purchased privileges for themselves. In other words the best and most qualified were not always able to go as far as they might because the monarchy had put up roadblocks in their way. However, many of the nobles who secured these jobs were not paying many of the taxes that could have saved France from economic ruin.Both the nobles and bourgeoisie began to demand more of a say in governmental affairs, especially as economic troubles worsened.

The Seven Years War and the American Revolution
To avenge his grandfathers loss to the British in the Seven Years War, King Louis XVI provided financial and military aid to the Americans. But neither of these wars helped the people of France. Instead, they both lead to financial deficits. And the American Revolution also created future French Revolutionaries like the Marquis de Lafayette, a close friend of George Washington.

Fiscal Crisis and Political Deadlock
Jacques Turgot, a financial minister (advisor), for Louis XVI tried to turn France toward laissez-faire economics, reducing the governments interference in the economy. This would include eliminating many of the privileges for nobles and certain trade guilds (trade organizations that limited entry and knowledge of a profession to keep wages artificially high). He also sought to limit the spending on the Louis court (spending at Versailles). He also sought to lessen the burden on peasants by eliminating the corvee (an obligation of peasants to spend time working on royal roads). None of this set well with those who had benefited from such privileges, so Louis took the easy way out and dismissed Turgot.

Fiscal Crisis and Political Deadlock
Turgot was replaced by Jacques Necker, who approached the economic crisis by taking out huge loans at large interest rates to finance the government. This was only a short-term solution, however, as interest payment amounted to half of the royal budgets by the 1780s.

Fiscal Crisis and Political Deadlock
Another advisor of Louis, Charles Calonne, warned in 1787 that this was all leading to bankruptcy for the royal budget. Calonne wanted to create a new tax, the territorial subvention, to be levied on the production of all landed property. Callonne convinced the king to convene the an Assembly of Notables, who he had hoped would support this plan and give it added credibility with the people of France, but to his surprise, the Assembly of Notables (nobility) not only refused his request, they demanded that Louis convene the Estates General for the first time since 1614. The nobility was likely interested in gaining more political power for itself and maintaining their privileges.

Estates General
Estates General a body representing the three estates.Though reluctant at first, Louis was force by the economic crisis to relent. The convening of the Estates General created a great deal of public enthusiasm as well as debate. Though they were 99 percent of the population, the third estate had traditionally only voted as one of three orders. Emmanuel Sieyes wrote perhaps one of the most important pamphlets focused on this topic, What is the Third Estate? Backed by the Enlightenment and increased economic power the Third Estate demanded more representation.

Commoners3rd Estate
Aristocracy2nd Estate
Clergy1st Estate
The Suggested Voting Pattern: Voting by Estates
1
1
1
Louis XIV insisted that the ancient distinction of the three orders be conserved in its entirety.

Commoners3rd Estate
Aristocracy2nd Estate
Clergy1st Estate
The Number of Representatives in the Estates General: Vote by Head!
300
300
648

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