the french revolution section 9.41: background of the french revolution
TRANSCRIPT
The French Revolution
Section 9.41: Background of the French Revolution
July 14, 1789
Crane Brinton & The Anatomy of Revolution
• Moderate Period
• Limited Change
• Constitutional Monarchy– Liberal
moderates in control
• Limited enfranchise-ment
• Restoration Period
• Monarchy restored
• Radical Period• Major Change• Republic
– Strong central government
– Radicals in control
• Total enfranchise- ment
• Terror• Command
economy• Utopian/
idealized vision
• Thermidorian Period
• Reactionary stage
• Oligarchy– Moderates in
control
– Bourgeoisie government
• Idealized visions of Rev forgotten
• Free Market economy– High Inflation
• Reliance on Strong Man
The French Revolution
1787 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1799 1804
Assembly of Notables
call for Estates General
8th of Brumaire Napoleon
leads coup
Napoleon crowns himself
Emperor of France
-Directory eliminates
radicals
-Louis XVI executed-Comm of
Public Safety begins Terror
-Marie A. executed-Cult of Reason
Robespierre executed on
9th of Thermidor
-September Massacres
-Year One of First Republic
Proclaimed
-Flight to Varennes
-Declaration of Pilnitz
-Estates General-Tennis Court Oath-National Assembly
-Bastille stormed-Great Fear
-Declaration of the Rights of M & C
-March on Versailles
Civil Constitution
of Clergy
• Old Regime (Ancien Regime) was aristocratic and feudal
• France• Population of 25 million• Estates system was
medieval system rigid legal orders
– But no longer an economic or social reality
• First estate = the clergy• Second estate = the nobility• Third estate = everyone else
– wealthy business class to poorest peasants
The SettingEstates System
Was the Estates System cause the Revolution?: Class Tensions
• Traditionally Marxist historians– believed that Revolution caused by class
tensions– Bourgeoisie of Third Estate v Nobles of the
Second– Third grew sick of baring economic burden &
privilege of 2nd– Bourgeoisie led 3rd Estate against others
• Modern Scholarship dismisses this– Nobles and Bourgeoisie had lots in common
• Land, capitalism• Noble class was open to rich• Both groups generally supported Parlements
– Peasants of France had it much better than Russian serfs
– Third Estate really only represented interests of the bourgeoisie
The SettingEstates System
• Estates general had not be called since 1614
• No longer corresponded with the distribution of wealth
• nobility was open to those who could afford it
• 66% of nobility had acceded since 1600
– 50, 000 new nobles were created since 1700
• talent of nobility was from 3rd Estate
First Estate: The Church• 100 thousand members • collected tithe
– 10% of income
• Owned 10 percent of the land (greatest single landowner)
• Paid “voluntary gift” every 5 years
• played political role – but so did English
Church
Second Estate: The Nobility• About 400 thousand members• Owned >20% of land• Retained Medieval Manorial Rights
– Banalities • Exclusive rights to hunt, fish, monopoly on bread
baking, pressing grapes, etc.– Eminent property
• fees paid to the noble for lands held by peasants (transfer fees, when land changed owners by sale or death)
• Retained Medieval Honorific Rights– Right to carry a sword
• Monopolized higher offices in the military, government, and church
• Exempt from direct tax (taille), – bourgeoisie greatly resented this (even thou they got out
of paying also)• Divided into:
– Nobles of the Sword (noblesse d’epee) more distinguished ancient
– Nobles of the Robe (noblesse de robe) purchased the title of administrative of judicial (robe)
The Third Estate• Everyone else• 97% of population• Paid 100% of tax
– Taille (land tax)• Doctors, lawyers, merchants,
peasants, laborers, artisans,…• Peasants
– 80% of Population– Owned 40% of land
• Upper class bourgeois• 2.3 million• 8% of population• Owned 20% of land
Cause 2: Political Culture and Public Opinion• The Enlightenment
– writers created a culture that encouraged political and social criticism
• Natural rights• Historical progress• A language to communicate dissatisfactions
– philosophes did not cause the revolution but they gave it a conceptual context and a theoretical language to describe dissatisfactions
• book production reached peak in 1788• many newspapers and periodicals• parlements-courts of record used periodicals
to voice their opinions against ministers of the monarchy
• theories of Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire circulated– Voltaire resented privilege– Locke favored private property– Mont- 3 branches would favor parlements
Critical Spirit• Developed in salons, coffeehouses and
spread to the public sphere of political debate
• Pamphleteers– Stripped away the “sacred”
image of the nobility and the church
– The Necklace Affair• Public airing of courtroom
activity– Corrupt noble against
oppressed peasant became recurrent theme
• Campaigns to influence public opinion became a force in the French Revolution– Reason, justice, rights