By
Eric Tolman

• France required a revolution to overthrow the monarch and establish rights for ordinary citizens because the monarchy was desperately out of touch with the severity of the situation
• The FR would have a profound impact in Europe and became a model for many outside its boundaries
• French rulers were out of touch, the country was heavily in debt and taxes were very high - these conditions were heightened by an outdated feudal system with privileged nobles and illiterate serfs
• The business class, known as the bourgeoisie, had many restrictions which impacted the economy
• In this atmosphere, ideas of enlightenment were being spread by the writings of the philosophes, who largely opposed absolute monarchy and favoured democracy

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• Most land was controlled by aristocrats and the Catholic Church where 4 out of 5 French citizens farmed for a living on feudal lands
• French society was organized like a pyramid with few aristocrats at the top and the vast majority of serfs at the bottom
• Ironically the wealthy paid few taxes but peasants paid a 10% tax to either the church or their lord -this tax was called a tithe
• French peasants used medieval farming methods and they produced far less in value than their English and Dutch counterparts
• Peasants suffered more than others in epidemics and famine and were fiercely superstitious
• To add insult to injury, peasants had to work part of the time on the lords property and government projects

• Paris was the largest city in Europe in the 18 th century with a population of 600 000
• Paris was a constant draw for people from the country so the city tended to be overcrowded with many slums which saw a rise in beggars, vagrants and thieves
• Juxtaposed to this destitution were prosperous merchants and aristocrats who displayed their wealth which drove up prices (inflation)of goods making flour, a staple, very expensive for the majority
• The middle classes, mostly artisans and shopkeepers, had trouble competing with guilds who held special privileges
• The varying districts of France had their own internal tariffs and tolls, and a severely undeveloped infrastructure inhibited the movement of goods and services

• Louis ruled for 72 years and was the centre of French life and culture
• He named himself the Sun king because he saw himself as the source of all light in the nation
• His confidence as the greatest monarch in Europe saw him have the palace of Versailles built and he forced important nobles to live there with him so he could keep an eye on them and make them feel in debt to him
• The court was a popularity contest where noble competed to be part of daily ceremonies like the royal breakfast, lunch and dinner and the royal ballet
• Nobles, who did not work, took ballet lessons and table manor lessons so they could be more refined around the King
• Louis was the absolute law in France and his decisions like wars depleted the treasury - his persecution of
Calvinist Protestants known as Huguenots who were often business people, along with the cost of building
Versailles left France in a huge deficit by his death in 1715

• Louis the XV came to the throne when his great grandfather died the economy continued to slide out of control
• When Louis XVI became King in 1774 he was ill prepared and left most governing to others in his court
• His disconnect with the middle and lower classes only worsened things although he was not known as a brutal leader but one completely out of touch
• Part of the trouble was that there were no national laws and different regions of France had different rules. There were also varying languages and dialects which made for poor communication in commerce
• Also, Louis did not have support of the middle class who did not understand why improvements were not taking place
• Louis was completely ignorant of the values and ideas that flourished during the Enlightenment

• In 1770, Louis married Marie Antoinette, a member of the Austrian royal family, as a way to mend bridges but the move was fiercely unpopular with the French people
• She loved the good life but she offended many French aristocrats with her attitude toward French manners and customs
• In addition, her love of jewelry and the “affair of the diamond Necklace” saw her purchases of jewels worth more than the annual income of France deeply offended people living in poverty
• In addition, Marie had strong opinions on government, a field she had no experience with, and she often would select and dismiss ministers based on her feelings toward the person and not their policies - Louis went along with it
• She had finance minister fired because he suggested an increase in taxation for nobles to help France get out of debt

• French backwardness would produce many men and woman whose writings reflected a distaste for absolutism and favoured democracy
• Woman were especially important because some held salons where ideas about society, religion and government could be freely exchanged
• In this climate the Enlightenment flourished which essentially meant that science and human intelligence were of highest importance
• If something could not stand up to reason or proven through empirical understanding then it should be discarded
• In Britain, Isaac Newton's laws of gravity and John Locke's ideas of empiricism (knowledge only possible through observation and experience) were the basis of the French Enlightenment
• These ideas would provide criticism of religion which was faith based. Who then could prove that the monarch had god given right to power.

• These three had international fame and all questioned absolutism of any kind
• Voltaire opposed the absolutism of the church and favoured freedom of thought. He despised injustice and defended those people unable to defend themselves
• Montesquieu believed monarchs should be held in check by various levels of government: i.e.. municipal, provincial and federal laws
• His ideas became the basis of levels of power in democracies, but at the time did not receive popularity amongst European monarchs
• Rousseau believed society needed a social contract, an agreement of rules that all citizens must abide by
• He went further to suggest that people have a naturally good will which is destroyed or eroded by government and modern society

• By the 1780’s the financial crisis was creating tremendous strain on the middle and lower classes who resented paying heavy taxes to support the king’s lavish lifestyle
• The models of the American revolution and the constitutional monarch in Britain made France appear even more backward
• Problems became extreme when a series of famines and crop failures occurred which broke up families because parents could not provide for their children- 40 000 children would be abandoned each year!
• Britain's industrial revolution would produce textiles cheaply which the French could not compete with- in
Paris a mob developed where the strains of empty stomachs made the mob violent and unpredictable
• Louis XVI simply punished critics or brought in the army to put down bread riots in Paris-desperate to find solutions he called the Estates General

• The EG met only by royal command and it had been since 1614 when they last met
• Within the EG there were three levels: The 1 st estate were clergy (.5%), the 2 nd Aristocrats (1.5%) and the 3 rd was comprised of the middle class (98%)
• Each estate voted as a bloc which mean the 3 rd estate could be out maneuvered by the other two whose interests were far more in line with each other
• Louis inability to compromise led to failed attempts by Turgot and later Necker, finance ministers, to make constructive suggestions for gathering taxes
• Since the 3 rd estate was 98% of the population they decided to create a new government on their own called the National Assembly
• They met in the royal tennis court after being locked out of there meeting area. The other two estates would feel obliged to join the NA

• Riots would continue over the high price of bread and the mobs began to attack prisons which housed political prisoners
• The revolution took a major turn on July 14, 1789 when a mob attacked the Bastille, a royal prison and fortress in Paris
• Troops sent by the King would join the mob and when the Bastille was captured only 7 prisoners were inside and released- the governors head was cut off and paraded through the streets
• Louis was frightened by this action and he agreed to have loyal soldiers retreat. As a result the citizens formed their own army called the National Guard which was commanded by Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution of 1776
• As the revolution spread to the country, peasants feared retribution from the King and attacked offices and burned feudal certificates that recorded their obligations to the lord- “The Great Fear”
• Chateaux’s were burned to the ground and nobles killed

• On August 4, 1789, the NA abolished all feudal rights and ended serfdom. The next day it declared all people equal before the law
• In October, crowds of women marched from Paris to Versailles to meet the King and when they arrived all muddy and tired they attacked the palace and forced to King and queen to come back to Paris
• In August the DRMC was passed by the NA which now met in Paris and guaranteed freedom of thought, speech, religion, security and property while putting limits on the power of government
• Next step for the NA was a constitution which swept away noble titles and seized church property
• In 1791 Louis, inspired by an exodus of aristocrats for England and Switzerland called emigres, tried to leave the country in disguise with his family but they were recognized in Varennes where they were arrested

• By 1791 the newly formed legislative assembly was doomed to failure as too many groups struggled for power: radicals wanted a republic, moderates a constitutional monarch, and monarchists a return of the king’s powers
• Since there were no political parties, people joined political clubs like the Girondists who were revolutionary moderates and Jacobins who were the most radical of the two-their power struggle would see the Jacobins victorious
• Sans culottes were poor people who resented reforms that benefited the business classes and they demanded the government to lower prices of goods and supply bread
• The SC were led by Marat, a fiery writer who encouraged the radical side of the revolution (those who thought current leaders too moderate) which would lead to the terror
• Marat, Danton and Robespierre were radical leaders of the revolution who wanted the king executed and critics guillotined

• rumours of foreign invasion gave pretense for the Jacobins to exploit fear in France but they did defeat Austria at Valmy in 1792
• A newly elected body called the National Convention tried the King and Queen for crimes against France and both Louis ( Jan 21, 1793) and Marie (Oct 1793) would be executed by guillotine
• Between 1793-94 all perceived enemies were executed in a reign of terror that left very few free from persecution and it is estimated that 37 000 people were killed this way
• Danton would be killed and Robespierre would rule as a dictator but there was modernization. The metric system would be introduced, army made more efficient and new schools built
• Robespierre’s dictatorship turned on him and he was replaced by the moderate Directory controlled by the middle class who gave power to people of property and special privileges returned for people with money
• It was during this time that Napoleon would rise from the ranks of the French army!