The French Revolution
Background Causes
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité! Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!
• Many historians view the French Revolution as the most
important event in Western History.
Why?
• France was a leader in Europe – ideas, fashions, codes of
behaviour
• Beginning of modern age
• New ideas on role/ systems of government and citizen
rights
• Along with Industrial Revolution can be seen as turning
point as largely agricultural society transformed into an
urban , industrial one
A crossroads in History
“On Common Sense”
Thomas Paine
1776
Document #1 …
American Revolution
British
Americans
• Single Empire
• Had own representative
• Parliament as supreme authority
assemblies
• Only Parliament could make laws • Did not want King or Parliament
for all people, including American
to meddle with internal decisions
colonists
• *Taxation needed representation –
did not want taxes issued without
consent of the people
Concepts of Empire
• “Without the pen of the author of
‘Common Sense’, the sword of
Washington would have been
raised in vain.” – John Adams, Founding
Father
“On Common Sense”
Causes
1775: First battles
1776: Declaration of Independence
1780: Camden, South Carolina 1780 –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFpFHj4XfFg
1781: British army forced to surrender
1783: Treaty of Paris signed – 13 United States
A few key dates
Were the colonists justified in declaring their
independence from Britain?
What do you think?
• France wanted to support America in its struggle against Great
Britain
• Sent supplies and soldiers, invested money
• Soldiers returned to France with first-hand experience on how
a revolution could succeed
• American Revolution provided practical example to France
• Bill of Rights (1789): many rights came from ideas of 18th C
philosophes – European intellectuals saw American Revolution
as embodiment of Enlightenment’s political ideals
Connections to France?
Social Contract
Jean Jacques Rousseau
1762
“Man was born free, and he
is everywhere in chains”
The Sovereign
The General Will
Document #2 … (you’ve read before)
The Enlightenment
• Though parts of the Social Contract do not embody
Enlightenment ideals, the idea of the Sovereign being the
people and voicing the General Will makes us think of
reason, moving away from strict monarchies, and
questioning the ‘status quo’ – all ideas of the
enlightenment
What does this contemporary political cartoon say about conditions
in France under the Old Regime?
Taille,
(direct land tax)
Impôts,
et Corvées
(unpaid
peasant labour on public
projects)
Political cartoons during French Revolution.
How would these images help spur the revolution?
How would an illiterate French citizen interpret these images?
What is the Third Estate?
Abbe Sieyes
1789
1) What is the third estate? Everything.
2) What has it been in the political order up to the
present? Nothing.
3) What does it demand? To become something…
Document # 3…?
First Estate
•Clergy
•130,000
•Church owned 10% of land
•Exempt from taille
(France’s chief tax), but
agreed to pay “voluntary”
contributions
•Divided: higher clergy from
aristocratic families (shared
interests with nobility),
parish priests poor
commoners
Second Estate
•Nobility
•350,000
•Owned 25-30% land
•Exempt from tailler
•Held leading roles in
government, law courts, military
•Divided: Nobility of the robe
(status from office holding –
commoners could attain noble
rank), and Nobility of the sword
(descendants of original
medieval monarchy)
The Three Estates
The Third
Estate
•Vast majority – 98% of entire population!
•Main burdens of taxation on third estate
•Differences in occupation, education, wealth
•Peasants 75-80% of total population
• Owned 35-40% of land
• Taxes were crushing: to King, the taille, poll, tithes (produce of
land)
•Urban working class
• Artisans, shopkeepers, other wage earners living in cities/urban
areas
•Bourgeoisie (middle class) 8% of population (2.3 million people)
• Merchants, industrialists, bankers – controlled resources
• Professionals: lawyers, doctors, writers, held public offices
• Owned 20-25% of land
• Wealthy bourgeoisie could enter nobility
• Resented not having freedom to criticize unfair system of
government
The King Must Die!
Maximilien Robespierre
1792
“The King must die because the
nation must live.”
Document #4…?
Poor Leadership
(Marie Antoinette)
Louis XVI
• 16th Louis
• King of France after
death of grandfather
(Louis XV)
• Largely viewed as
indecisive and
inconsistent, incapable
of proper leadership
Marie Antoinette
•Austrian (daughter of
Maria Theresa)
•Married Louis to form
alliance between Austria
and France
•Queen of France: 1774
•Charming and beautiful,
but very out of touch with
needs of own people
•“Madame Deficit”
Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette
Travels in France
Arthur Young
1787, 1788, 1789
First-hand view of peasant life
in prerevolutionary France.
Document #5 … ?
Finances and poverty
Tax Crisis: Monarch did not tax
effectively
Problem 1: Individuals collecting taxes
from peasants only gave small amount
to government (rest kept for selves)
Problem 2: Tax exemptions for First
and Second Estates
Population increase (due to better
medicine, agriculture) = more
people to feed
Problems
France in debt (aiding
American Revolutionary
War), monarchy living in
luxury
Drought (1787-88) and severe
winter (1789) resulted in crop
failures, causing inflation of food
(wheat, bread) prices. Led to riots,
government was bankrupt and
powerless to act.
Clip -Enlightenment and American Revolution -- History
Channel documentary
• 3:29-14:40
In Conclusion…