French Revolution
Beginning
Class Division
• King
• First Estate: Clergy (100,000)
• Second Estate:Nobles (400,000)
– Of the sword, gown, or hat
• Third Estate: “Commoners” (26 million)
– Peasants
– Bourgeosie
Catapult to Crisis
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Louis XIV Absolute Monarchy; wars
Louis XV pleasure-seeking; wars
Louis XVI weak leadership; wars
French and Indian War (1763)
American Revolution (1776-1781)
Example of Prussia “enlightened” despotism and
England constitutional monarchy
• Enlightenment Ideals
Monarchy
• Louis XVI poor public image: too separate
from the people, wife’s reputation
• Nobles had begun to use parlement judicial
system to preempt his authority
French Finances
• Country was overburdened with debt
• Third Estate could not bear greater tax load
(nobles using force to extract money, in
addition to high taxes)
• Crown could not borrow more money because
of danger of default
• Necker’s Report: discount cost of American
war, budget okay
Calonne’s Reform Plan
• 1786 Calonne, Minister of Finance, proposed reform
through more internal trade, lowering some taxes,
peasant’s services converted to cash payments, and
NEW TAX ON LAND to be paid by all landholders
• Plan rejected by Assembly of Notables (1787), made up
of aristocrats and clergy; they demanded convening of
medieval Estates General
Medieval Estates General
• Had not been convened since 1614
• Each Estate debated and voted individually,
and king had a vote
• Power in Estates General was weighted
towards First and Second Estates
To a New Estates General
• Calonne’s replacement, Brienne, found
situation as bad as Calonne had presented;
Brienne also called for tax on land
• Parlement of Paris refused, demanded
convening of Estates General
• 1789 King agreed to convene E.G.; Brienne
resigned, Necker returned
Estates General breaks down
• Local committees selected representatives to E.G.; this made
members of Third Estate aware of inequity in representation
• Nobility and clergy had been attacking each other publicly before
convention, which roused Third Estate against both
• Third Estate requested all Estates meet together, and that Third
Estate have greater representation
• Sept. 1788 Parlement of Paris ruled that each Estate would
continue to vote independently
• Dec. 1788 royal council gave Third Estate twice as many reps as First
or Second Estates (to buy allegiance of 3rd E.)
Grievances: Cahiers de Doléances
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Government waste
Indirect taxes
Church taxes
Corrupt clergy
Hunting rights of aristocracy
Wanted regular meetings of Estates General
Equitable taxes
More local control
Unified weights and measures
Free press
Equality of rights of all subjects
Creation of National Assembly
• Third Estate refused to convene as separate Estate
• June 1 Third Estate invited clergy and nobility into a
new government body: National Assembly
• June 19 Second Estate voted to join National Assembly
• June 20 Tennis Court oath to create French constitution
• June 27 Louis XVI asked first and second estates to join
National Assembly and vote by head, not estate
Fall of Bastille
• Louis tried to cow the National Assembly by calling
20,000 troops into Paris
• Merchants, small business owners, regular people in
Paris roused by rumors of soldiers coming, sought to
protect Assembly
• June 14, 1789 stormed Bastille looking for weapons
• 98 killed; command post at Bastille killed, heads
paraded through Paris on posts
New symbols of France
• Many groups, many interests erupted in
beginning of Revolution
• Militia of Paris offered leadership to Marquis
de Lafayette, who suggested cockade, new flag
• King “bowed to force of events” and adopted
cockade
The Great Fear
• News of changes in Paris traveled to
countryside; a “Great Fear” swept
countryside, and peasants attacked nobles
• Aug. 4, 1789, in reaction to calm peasants,
aristocrats in National Assembly renounced
feudal rights, dues, and tithes—inspired
others to renounce privileges
• Now all citizens on same footing
Environmental and Economic factors
• Poor harvests in 1787 and 1788
• Winter of 1788-1789 unusually cold
• Wages had not kept pace with rising food
prices
• =People suffering severely from hunger
Problems with Assembly
• Used fear generated by popular uprisings to
intimidate the king
• Assembly was not unified; each faction fought
against each other for its own goals
• Shopkeepers and artisans best-organized
Declaration of Rights of Man
• Aug. 27, 1789
• All men born free and equal
• Inalienable rights to liberty, property, and personal
security
• Government exists to protect citizens
• Due process of law, freedom of religion, and innocent
until proven guilty
• Taxes proportional to ability to pay
• Property a right ordained by God
Paris Women March on Versailles
• Louis XVI slow to ratify Declaration
• Rumors spread that king would try to use military to
end revolution
• Oct. 5, 7,000 women from Paris marched to Versailles
to demand help to end bread shortage
• Insisted royal family move to Paris; they marched him
and family to Tuileries on Oct. 6, 1789
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
• http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues
/2006/november/marieantoinette.php