Harrison 1 The Lasting Influence of the Bourgeoisie First French Revolution Katie Harrison Professor Kathleen Walkner: History 104 April 2, 2020 One thing we can be sure of when reading history is that the middle class is always rising. The France of the late 18th century was no different. As technology advanced, intelligent workers were needed to manage the labor force and transportation of goods. these advancements gave rise to the Bourgeoisie; A class all its own that emerged from the Third Estate as a group that was wealthier than the peasants but did not have a claim to the title of Noble or Clergy. With their increase in wealth came the desire for an increase in power. The Bourgeoisie wanted more say in government and, when the king wouldn’t give it to them, they revolted and created their own national assembly and constitution. When the king tried to stop them, the peasants rose to defend the assembly and overthrew the king. After that, there was a time of terror where the Harrison 2 Committee of Public Safety (created by the national assembly) killed many who opposed them and, some who did not, and formed an army that saved France from foreign powers but caused economic chaos internally. In the end, power was given to the military which, was led by Napoleon Bonaparte and the country went from an authoritarian regime to an authoritarian regime. Even though it seemed as if nothing changed, the ideas that the revolution uncovered still had a lasting impact on the world thanks to the efforts of the Bourgeoisie. The Bourgeoisie played a major role in the outcome revolution and flow of new ideas that came with it because of three actions; They instigated change in the government, created a sense of nationalism, and saved France from invasion by foreign powers. The first reason why the Bourgeoisie were so influential was that they instigated change in the government by forcing the monarchy to call the National Assembly of the Estates-General. By 1783, taxes were crippling the Third Estate peasants, since devasting famines had destroyed the land, the desperate poor farmers, labor workers, lawyers, and merchants of the 3rd estate started to cry out 1 . Evidentially, it was not until 1786 when, in trying to quench the rising spirit of revolution, the king called to order the National Assembly. However, when the First and Second Estates elected in favor of voting by group rather than by head, it became clear that the nobles and clergy had no intention of relinquishing their power or privileges. Knowing that what they were about to do was a direct and public revolt against the king, the Third Estate representatives, made up almost entirely of Bourgeoisie, left to form their own National Assembly2 . At this assembly, the constitution, known as the Cahier of the Third Estate of Versailles was penned. An eloquent script that spoke out against the privileges held by the other 1 “THE MODERN PERIOD, 1789-1914 - THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND EUROPE, 1789-1914 - THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1789-1799 - CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION..” 2 Fitzsimmons, “Privilege and the Polity in France, 1786-1791.” Harrison 3 two Estates, the Cahier called for a just system of voting, and more importantly for the advancement of the revolution, served as a rallying call for the common people 3 . Without this rallying point, the leaderless, peasants would probably never have stormed the Bastille, an event that caused the king to surrender and relinquish power to the new National Assembly4 . The second reason why the Bourgeoisie were so influential in the outcome of the revolution and aftermath was that they created a sense of nationalism that emphasized a government by the people and for the people. Before, nationalism was tied to the class a person was in and extended little in the way of social interaction between individuals, of differing incomes. This was in part, due to the lack of a common language and social distancing practiced at the time. In a way, it was hard to look in the face of someone who paid twice as many taxes as you even though their income was half the size of yours. Until the National Assembly, there was no common ground between the people. The people needed a cause to fight for that put all on an equal playing field 5 . This great equaling came about on August 26th 1789 when the members of the National Assembly published the “the declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen” a document that laid the foundation for the idea that a person has rights because he/she for no other reason than that he/she is a person6 . This, combined with the Cahier of The Third Estate of Versailles, did more than just rile up the people. Talk of equal taxation and the tearing down of social privileges, placed within its readers a nearly physical yearning to be a part of the new nation 3 Whitcombe et al., “Cahier of 1789, The Third Estate of Versailles.” Alpaugh, “A Self-Defining ‘Bourgeoisie’ in the Early French Revolution: The Milice Bourgeoise, the Bastille Days of 1789, and Their Aftermath..” 5 Alpaugh, “A Self-Defining ‘Bourgeoisie’ in the Early French Revolution: The Milice Bourgeoise, the Bastille Days of 1789, and Their Aftermath..” 6 Warman, “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, 1789.” 4 Harrison 4 envisioned by the Bourgeoisie7 . It was this sense of unity that saved the revolution when the other countries started to invade because the people who fought felt as if they were fighting for their brothers and not some lord their parents pledged fielty to. This leads to the third and final reason why the Bourgeoisie played a major role in the revolution. Finally, we see that the Bourgeoisie were instrumental in the saving of France from invasion by foreign powers8 . As stated by Goldstone, author of Revolutions; A Very Short Introduction, one of the near essential ingredients to a successful revolution is favorable international relations since, it is almost impossible to fight two battles, foreign and domestic, at the same time and win both9 . And yet, the Bourgeoisie were able to do just that. However, they did not succeed because France had a strong ruling family for every else to hide behind, not because they had the funds to pay an army-- although they did have quite a bit of wealth after they took the land from the clergy and nobles, soon after August 11, 1789 the day the national Assembly completely abolished feudalism in all it’s forms. But, because the Bourgeoisie managed to unify the people and land that once was held under the nobles' and clergy's controlling hand 10 . The tipping point in France’s history was on April 20th , 1792 when after months of heated debate, the National assembly declared war on Austria. Napoleon was ready to begin his conquest; volunteers were flooding the ranks and citizens- turned- soldiers were the norm and the grip of the new regime became implacable. Without the French army, formed by the Bourgeoisie near the end of the revolution, tumultuous France would have been crushes by 7 Warman, “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, 1789.” Daly, “War in the Revolutionary-Napoleonic Age:” 9 Goldstone A, A Very Short Introduction. 10 Robinson, “The Decree Abolishing the Feudal System.” 8 Harrison 5 foreign enemies such as Austria and Prussia. The revolutionists would have been smothered and the old regime reinstated, leaving little chance of redemption for the Third Estate peasants11 . As we can see, the Bourgeoisie left a lasting impact on the revolution and world because they instigated and succeeded in changing the government, they created a sense of nationalism within the people of France and saved France from invasion by foreign powers by building an army for and by the people. 11 Daly, “War in the Revolutionary-Napoleonic Age:” Harrison 6 Bibliography Alpaugh, Micah. “A Self-Defining ‘Bourgeoisie’ in the Early French Revolution: The Milice Bourgeoise, the Bastille Days of 1789, and Their Aftermath..” Journal of Social History 47, no. 3 (2014): 696–720. Daly, Gavin. “War in the Revolutionary-Napoleonic Age:” In Violence and the State, edited by Matt Killingsworth, Matthew Sussex, and Jan Pakulski, 15–39. Manchester University Press, 2016. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18dzqxx.7. Fitzsimmons, Michael P. “Privilege and the Polity in France, 1786-1791.” American Historical Review 92, no. 2 (April 1987): 269. Goldstone A, Jack. Revolutions. 198 Madison Avenue, NY 10016: Oxford University Press, 2014. Robinson, James Harvey. “The Decree Abolishing the Feudal System,” 2:404–9. Philadelphia, Pa.: The Department of history of the University of Pennsylvania, 1906. https://history.hanover.edu/texts/abolfeud.html. “The Modern Period, 1789-1914 – The French Revolution and Europe, 1789-1914 - The French Revolution, 1789-1799 – Causes of the Revolution..” Encyclopedia of World History, January 2001, 431–431. Warman, Caroline, ed. “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, 1789.” In Tolerance, 1st ed., 3:11–13. The Beacon of the Enlightenment. Open Book Publishers, 2016. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt19b9jvh.6. Whitcombe, Merrick, Matilda Davis, Aaron Gulyas, and Jonathan Perry. “Cahier of 1789, The Third Estate of Versailles.” In Typical Cahiers of 1798, 4:24–36. Philadelphia: Dept. of History, Univ. Of Pennsylvania, 1898, n.d. https://history.hanover.edu/texts/cahiers3.html.
