TRIAL OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
TEACHERS:
ISABEL MAINER BAQUÉ
PILAR CANCER POMAR
SCHOOLS:
IES “MEDINA ALBAIDA”
CPR “JUAN DE LANUZA”
DESIGN OF THE ACTIVITY
A) JUSTIFICATION AND OBJECTIVES
B) THE PROCESS OF TEACHING-LEARNING
B.1.SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES. HOW IT IS DEVELOPED
B.2. THE WORK TEAMS
C) SOURCES: DOCUMENTS AND IMAGES FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES
D) EVALUATION
E) SOME OBSERVATIONS OF THE PROCESS AND THE FINAL RESULT
MATERIAL FOR THE STUDENTS
A) THE PREPARATORY CLASSES
B) THE TRIAL
C) TASKS TO CARRY OUT THROUGHOUT THE ACTIVITY
1. UP TO 1798.
2. OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION AS A CONSEQUENCE OF A
CRISIS
3. THE STAGES OF THE REVOLUTION
4. THE CLASSROOM TRIAL
5. CONSEQUENCES, CONCLUSIONS AND OPINIONS
6. SELF-EVALUATION
ANNEX: DIFFERENT VOICES FROM DIFFERENT STAGES OF THE
REVOLUTION
I.
II.
SOME TEXTS TO READ
BIOGRAPHIES
DESIGN OF THE ACTIVITY
The activity consists of preparing and carrying out a TRIAL OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS AND
FAILURES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
A) JUSTIFICATION AND OBJECTIVES
The “theme” of the French Revolution is studied in year 4 of secondary education. It is apparently
academic and subject related, but it can respond to certain social problems that the
student lives; at the moment of teaching-learning contents with values it can be posed
as a theme of interest.
FIRST QUESTION:
We understand historical contents as an analysis and study of social problems (about equality
and differences; about individual and collective rights, about identity, about the exercise of power
in all areas and … a long etcetera) and not as a mere learning of historical facts which give the
student a certain cultural varnish. This means that we are talking about reconstructing the present
using problems as a starting point and teaching the students to think historically rather than
“teaching history”.
The work method, the process of teaching-learning, has to be in line with the way the social
problems are treated and, possibly with something more basic, which is the object of education
and teaching; as it is from this direction and not the other way that the selection of social
problems has any sense. These problems have to be analysed in their complexity and it is
important to take into account that the contents are full of values; therefore they
should be treated neither neutrally nor with a simple solution.
SECOND QUESTION:
We aim to introduce communication and dialogue into the process of teaching-learning
as tools which provide the young person with critical argumentations and help to educate their will
to participate, improve and change.
Justification of the activity:
Think historically about the French Revolution in the fight for the ideals of liberty and equality.
The main aim is the understanding of how (revolutionary process) the bourgeoisie gained political
control in the French Society at the end of the XVIII century: why does this revolutionary change
occur, who were the main players, what were the dimensions of this so-called revolutionary
process and what consequences did it have for the subsequent historical trajectory, taking into
account that the current bases of the democratic systems of the West have their roots firmly
embedded in this revolutionary movement.
With the trial of the Revolution we will try to answer the question:
Liberty and equality for all?
Justification of the activity reconstructing the present using problems as a
starting point: To take advantage of this dichotomy between theory and practice of the rights
of liberty and equality, we will be able to cover present situations of inequality, showing the
existing contradictions, even within a legally liberal and equalitarian frame.
TRIAL OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
OBJECTIVES
1.
Detect in different societies (the present
society, the society of the Old Regime)
some type of relation between political
and economic power, which
exacerbates the social problem that
these relations provoke.
2.
Explain the construction process of
human rights and liberty and the
difficulties to achieve them from the XVIII
century up to the present day.
3.
Evaluate the importance of human
liberty and equality, constructing a
critical and compromised conscience
with the situations of oppression and
injustice, derived not only from the nonfulfilment of these principles but also the
contradictions themselves which have
been posed by the theory and practice.
4.
Understand the revolutionary fact due
to a complex process where different
types of causes and factors meet, of
interests and motivations, and interpret a
historical fact in its entirety,
understanding its meaning according to
the explanation in the present.
STAGES
I. Detect a problem in its historical dimension (the
relations between political and economic power
as a cause of the conflicts).
TYPOLOGY OF THE ACTIVITIES


II. Analyse a revolutionary process which has
contributed to the configuration of modern
western society.
(Were these relations always like this? Why did
the revolution occur? What dimensions did the
revolutionary process have?).


III. Propose questions and formulate judgements
in relation to how far-reaching the revolution was
(liberty for all men and women?).

IV. Critically evaluate and apply the questions and
judgements previously worked on to the present
problems.

Presentation Activities, with the aim to describe the
sense of the activity. They acquire special meaning at
the beginning and they are very important for
motivation.
Reception of information actividades: there is an
abundance of very structured information (verbal and
non-verbal) which is transmitted to the student.
Example: exposition classes with the support of iconic
information.
Analysis of information activities which require the
handling of more or less structured documentation by
the students.
Confrontation of ideas activities; in these different
ideas and opinions are expressed, worked upon and
debated, generally through the participation of the
students in situations of open dialogue. Example:
evaluation of the facts, opinions and sources of
information.
Synthesis activities, designed to restructure and
reorder the information. Example: carrying out flow
charts, summaries, final reports.
Consensus activities, through which the students
publicly express and communicate the results obtained
from their individual and group work.
B) THE PROCESS OF TEACHING-LEARNING
B.1 SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES. HOW IT IS DEVELOPED
1. UP TO 1789...
In the first part of the activity a series of specific didactic objectives are sought: firstly, the
student must be aware of the need for political “change” in the organisation of the Absolutist
State faced with the new social situation of the bourgeoisie influence and secondly that the
student understands the mentality of the bourgeoisie in relation to the new ideas of liberty
and equality developed by the “illustration”. It is also a case of presenting existing internal
contradictions in the society of the Old Regime as a whole.
Learning Situation: With the initial tasks, we aim to develop procedures of empathy through
which the student is able to get closer to the situation of the social groups of the XVIII century.
2. IS THE OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION A CONSEQUENCE OF THE CRISIS?
In this activity we look at the background that provokes this revolutionary outbreak of 1789 in
France. This way the students will start to understand the multiple causal phenomena in
the study of a certain historical fact, according to a complicated relation of diverse factors. The
students will have to recreate the situation of general discontent in the French society towards
1780 through the analysis of a series of documents of different types, so as to start discovering
what the different causes were that prepared the revolutionary phenomena. The task consists in
the elaboration of a schematic form that the students must fill in according to the level of
knowledge, degree of comprehension and capacity for synthesis.
Learning Situation: Explanation and directed reading of the documents. The synthesis
(schematic form) is carried out with a lot of teacher intervention, taking down comments on the
blackboard and reaching a consensus in the conclusions.
3. STAGES OF THE REVOLUTION (CHANGES AND “RE-CHANGES”)
This part of the activity aims to present the how the process is carried out, analysing the
historical fact due to the convergence of a series of causes that, at a certain moment in
time, crystallised giving rise to a certain event. We will concentrate in a special way on the
development of the procedures related to the multi-causal explanation and of the
comprehension of the change in the historical process, in this case of a sudden change
produced in a very short period of time; this way the students can get closer to understanding the
concept of Revolution or revolutionary process, as opposed to periods of very slow or continuous
change over time.
The students have at their disposal a repertoire of selected historical texts and of four
supposed examples of a newspaper in which through images they can start recognising the most
important events in the process of the French Revolution. The students must work on each
newspaper and its respective texts from the explanation and from the help of the teachers.
Learning Situation
The recommended method is that the teacher proceeds to explain in very general terms
what happened at each of the “revolutionary stages” supported by images from the
newspaper and commenting on the corresponding texts. In any case, it might be convenient
to remember that that the aim of this activity is no that the students should understand the
process of the French Revolution in all its complexity, but to discover how, in the context of the
passing from an aristocratic order to a bourgeois society, the change of power, despite reaching
expectations and illusions in the majority of cases, end up being reduced to the substitution of
one form of domination for another.
Resources and complementary material.
The didactic resource we have used is the confection of some supposed newspapers that
take in the main events of the revolution and biographies of characters of the era.
The biographies of characters are inspired by literary personalities by Balzac
Orienting index card of the illustrations of the newspapers:
YEAR I. NUMBER I.
Front cover:
Scene of "The swearing in of the Jeu de Paume".
Scene of the “Taking of the Bastille".
Burning of the Coats of Arms.
Central Pages.
Engraving in wood published in Orleans, 1791, which summarises the history of the
Revolution in the first two years.
Translation: "Memorable paintings which have given rise to the revolution, arriving in France
in the years 89, 90 and 91. 1.- Rates, taxes, personal loans. In the past, the most useful ones
were trampled on: the third state stood all the weight. 2.- The awakening of the third state. I have
been living long enough under the oppression of my enemies: I want to break free of these
chains. 3.- Suppression of the coats of arms. The nobility is abolished for good: the titles of
Prince, Count, Marquis, Baron, Gentleman, and Monsignor are suppressed. 4.- National Debt.
The present time demands that all put up with the heavy weight of the taxes of France.
Back Page.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the citizen.
Identity card as an “Active Citizen” who is authorised to vote in the elections.
Placard titled "The future legislator": this was a protest placard against the decision of the
constituent assembly according to which, only those who pay a direct tax called marc d’argent
could be elected in the future legislative assemblies. The translation is: "With frequency a certain
type arrives who knows the secret that five and four makes nine, take two away and you have
seven. After the past two years in France, you would stand out for your spending, you would
possess common land. Ah! So you will be as they are. You will be; the merit is in the possession
of wealth. Without this there is no more wisdom. By your actions you will prove it so. Ah!, you will
be, of course you will be. Although you have no brain you will dictate the new law because you
are worth a marc d’argent. Ah! naturally you will be."
New comic strip that the fleeing King Louis XVI narrates and his subsequent detention.
The detention of the King in Varennes, on 22nd June 1791.
YEAR IV. NUMBER II.
Front cover
King Louis XVI is made to toast the Nation.
Aristocrats meet to conspire against the Revolution.
Score of the “Marseillaise” by Rouger de Lisle, French Engineering Corps Captain, composed
for the Rhine Army. It was given the name of “Marseillaise” when it was heard in Paris due to a
battalion of volunteers from Marseille.
Central pages
May Celebration of Libetry. The planting of liberty trees was a very common form of showing
the popular joy of celebrations by the success of the revolutionary movement.
Two scenes of the popular revolution of 1792 in the Palace of the Tuilleries.
A “Sans Culottes” republican with his pick.
A company of revolutionary soldiers.
Back Page
The French have gained their liberty.
YEAR V. NUMBER III
Front cover
Louis XVI on the guillotine.
The revolutionary fashion.
Equivalences between the Revolutionary and the Gregorian calendar.
Allegorical scene of the Republican Liberty in the background and the faces of Danton,
Robespierre and Marat.
Central pages
Delacroix: "Liberty guiding the people ".
Thermidorian scene criticising the “abuse of the guillotine".
Bust of Robespierre, "The incorruptible".
Document from the revolutionary tribunal condemning the death penalty on the guillotine to a
group of eighteen herbetitas.
Back page
David: "The death of Marat "
YEAR IV. NUMBER IV
Front cover:
Formal closing of the Paris Jacobean party offices.
The civil uniforms of the directory: members of the executive directory, member of the council
of elders, member of the council of five hundred, member of the regional administration.
Central pages:
Record of the plebiscite vote of 1801: the vote was not secret and consisted of signing a
register.
Caricature which translated the deception that provoked the double requirements of age and
fortune to be able to vote. Neither the young person reaches 25, nor does the old person reach
the three hundred francs of direct taxation.
Coronation of Napoleon as the Emperor of France in Notre Dame in Paris
Back Page
Scene entitled: "We are all the same people as before".
Scene of a revolt faced with the excessive price of bread, brutal reprimand by the armed
forces: in the foreground, a child powerlessly waves his arms.
4. THE TRIAL IN CLASS
This activity which aims to make the students elaborate their own interpretation and
explanation of what the revolutionary process has meant. There will be an evaluation of what
has remained of the revolutionary process, what has changed, what remains the same as before,
what the revolutionary y process has meant for people who lived this historical period, who
benefited from it, and which interests came out on top..
It is important that, before the judgement is made, the students adjust the arguments
that the different protagonists will use to defend their positions. In the preparatory meetings,
they will have to use resources such as note taking of what they propose, explain themselves and
clarify the arguments.
As well as this work (history of the past) there will be a necessary link up with the
implementation of the problem based study of the present world that they will have as a
constant reference. And, when mentioning the present world I am not only referring to the social
problems in capital letters on a world scale, but also on a social scale which is much closer to the
students.
This activity can also serve as an evaluation of the teaching-learning process, when
collecting information elaborated by the students on the consequences of the revolutionary
process for the French Society emitting a series of related judgements, opinions and
interpretations. We will therefore obtain information on how the meaning of this revolutionary fact
has been assimilated and understood.
5. CONSEQUENCES, CONCLUSIONS AND OPINIONS
The conclusion of the activity aims for a fundamental objective:
The analysis of the concepts of political liberty and equality, and the contradictions, which
are presented between the theoretical and the practical plan. We have to show how this
liberty and equality (grand ideals of the bourgeoisie) do not affect all the social groups with the
same intensity in practice; this results in a series of conflicts between the high bourgeois, the
victor of the revolutionary process, and the common proletariat: country folk, , workers, small
bourgeois, who end up on the fringes of the political power.
This activity entails difficulties if we want to find an explanation and interpretation of the reach
of the revolution. With the majority of the students it is difficult to go from than the descriptive
state to the interpretative; the tasks proposed will facilitate the first and it will be a good idea to
reach small conclusions in class from the description of specific cases.
B.2. WORK TEAMS
These will be chosen in a heterogeneous way, with objectives proposed (not only academic)
but to then reflect on the grade of consecution. The aim is that the setting up of the work should
stop there being a sharing out of the tasks among the students (I’ll do this, you do that…)
meaning that it really turns into a collection of individuals’ work. It is vital to facilitate the
implication, the interchange of ideas and the cooperation of all the components; also because this
way of understanding teamwork – cooperative – allows for equal participation even for those who
know less about the history of the revolution (data, events, etc).
C) SOURCES: DOCUMENTS AND IMAGES FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES
1. VIDEO: We start the sessions with a video that shows the importance of the French Revolution
even today and what it was able to represent for the common people in these times. Every year,
a group of people (there are agricultural workers, a baker, the teacher, the mayor, etc) from a
small village in Normandy carries out a representation of its predecessors, commemorating the
events occurring in the summer of 1789 in their village. They give their opinions while they dress
up in the clothes of the era and show that they believe they should feel like the character that
each one represents. In order to do this, they have looked through archives and libraries;
therefore they show the need and the satisfaction of the recuperation of the memory. It is a short
documentary which turns out to be very informative to begin with...
2. NEWSPAPER: The newspaper is put together with illustrations of the time, but without
footnotes for the images, which allows us to work on time: sequences, facts, succession, process,
consequences, etc. We use it to explain the complex “advance” of the revolutionary process,
including the Napoleonic era.
3. CHRONOLOGICAL AXIS, SCHEMES OF A CONSTITUTION IN GENERAL AND OF THE
FRENCH ONES. These were used as a reference and support to set up certain tasks.
4. TEXTS WHICH ARE SPECIALLY IMPORTANT FROM DIFFERENT WRITERS: COLLECTIVE
(bourgeois, sans culottes, peasants, women, enragés, etc) and PERSONAL (Louis XVI,
Robespierre, Marat, Babeuf, etc.) Some were read in class and others were made available for
individual and group consultation.
The (invented) fictitious character biographies were especially consulted, which expressed
worries and results obtained.
5. PRESENTATION OF POWER POINT SLIDES integrating images commented on, texts and
schemes, which serve to articulate the contents of the activity.
(Part of the materials elaborated have been published by the “Grupo Ínsula Barataria” which I
belong to, however, their use in the didactic unit is different from its treatment here. For example,
the work is not designed to make a judgement on the French Revolution and its results)
D) EVALUATION
For the evaluation of the process of learning, we highlight only some of the activities which can
favour the carrying out of partial synthesis during the development of the unit:
a) The enumeration of the problems of the society of the Old Regime and the explanation of
the chart on the causes of the French Revolution.
b) The commentary of the examples of the revolutionary newspaper (a newspaper or some
news item of each one) and the elaboration of a chronological axis on the French Revolution.
c) A comparative analysis of historical sources:
TEXT A: Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen
Art. 1. Men are born and remain free and with equal rights. The social distinctions can only be
made from common utility.
Art. 2. The aim of all political association is conservation of natural rights and essential for
men. These rights are: liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.
Art. 6. The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to personally
participate or through their representatives in formation. It must be the same for all, for
protection as well as the punishment. All citizens, being equal, are equally admissible to all
dignities, posts and public employment, according to their capacity and without any other
distinction than that of their virtues and talents.
TEXT B
Art. 1: The woman is born free and has the same rights as the man. The social distinctions can
only be made from common utility.
a) What are the main ideas of text A? What relation do they have with the achievements
of the revolutionary process?
b) The
second
text
belongs
to
the
document
entitled..................................................................,
and
written
by...........................................,
c) What is the relation between the two texts?
d) How would articles 2 and 6 of Text B be written? Write them.
e) Why was it necessary to write text B? (Remember certain questions that point to the
pending problems after the revolution and write them down).
F) SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE PROCESS AND THE FINAL RESULT
The implication of the student in the groups was generally very good. The exceptions: one group
in which they worked “individually”; I could not get them to debate and interact. Also, in another
two groups, one student (quite distance from the academic work) did not incorporate on this
occasion and only two of the group carried out the tasks. In any case, these people worked and
got involved more (and one other student) than on other occasions.
A negative point was that the previous work went on too long; among other things, it was
interrupted by the study trip, by the Easter holidays…, which makes it obligatory to go back
reminding everybody of the previously done work.
The trial in the two years was interesting and their comments a posteriori or during the work was
quite well reasoned. Reflections that went beyond the purely academic and that dealt with the
feelings which came out when defending or attacking the revolution, when taking different roles;
on the need to listen and follow the rules that the students themselves made up for the debate; on
the difficulty of sometimes finding rational arguments and not implicating themselves emotionally.
I believe that in general they have extracted a complex (to a certain extent) vision of the
revolutionary process, its factors, interests in play, etc.; also and up to a certain point, it has
motivated them to learn more data about the revolution and finally, it has made them think about
further themes in this type of historical reflections and interpretations. The results written in a
subsequent written test prove this.
In my opinion, it has been shown that the students have interpreted it as a short circuit in the
dynamics of the classes, which always favours learning. In following years this experience can be
carried out on two or more historical stages, given that once the dynamics are acquired the
process can be much easier.
MATERIAL FOR THE STUDENTS
IES MEDINA ALBAIDA
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
The activity consists of preparing and carrying out a JUDGEMENT OF ACHIEVEMENTS AND
FAILURES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. We are going to analyse and judge a historic
process which is fundamental to the history of humanity and which also is the starting point for
the modern age.
A) THE PREPARATORY CLASSES
1. PROPOSED WORK:
What you have to do fundamentally in the previous classes in the first place is to collect a varied
selection of information about the situation in France at the end of the Old Regime (of the
country and its political, economic and social organs, of the critical voices of the “Illustrated” of the
different social groups…). Many questions will be reflected in the videos and the slides we
are to see: others from the documents we are to read (such as the “complaints book”).
In second place you will work, in groups of three, the pretensions and complaints of each
social group at the end of the Old Regime (court nobility, bourgeoisie, sans culottes, peasants
and women)
2. THE GROUPS:
They are selected heterogeneously and I ask all of you for a personal compromise of
cooperation.
This means that all students can give their opinion and bring many things to the group work
(from centring the work and not allowing to be interrupted by distractions, up to summarising what
has been said and taking notes or looking for information and explaining it and a very long
etcetera).
I don not want you to share out the tasks in a “you do this and I will do that way among the
members of the group which really turns it into a collection of individual pieces of work. What you
have to do however is involve yourselves, exchange ideas and cooperate with all the
components. I want you to find reasons and arguments among yourselves; I will pose
questions, you must reply and therefore find arguments for the trial. At the end we make an
evaluation of the work carried out, of which responsibilities have been fulfilled and which have
not, what has been learnt, and what could have been done better. The evaluation will be
carried out individually and by the group as a whole.
You will work in groups of three on the pretensions, complaints and affronts of each social
group at the end of the Old Regime (Court and Aristocratic Nobility, Bourgeoisie, Sans Culottes,
peasants, high and low clerics and women of the people and of the other groups); but you must
also look carefully at the accusations the others make to be able to counter-argue in the
trial.
When you get to know characters (real or generic), their actions and the motivations and
interests which drives them I will explain a lot of what happened and what the revolution meant
for the French.
Finally, aim to understand what changes caused the revolution in their lives which will allow
you to intervene in the trial with arguments in favour and against such a revolution (what
improved and up to what point); you will also be able to call these personalities as witnesses in
the trial.
It is fundamental that before the judgement you will prepare and adjust your arguments: ideas
that the “Illustrated” bring to the era, justifications of the tradition and the church of the moment or
approvals or rebuffs with the mentality and the justice of the present day. You will use them
(through the different witnesses-players in the French Revolution) in order to defend the positions
(keep the Old Regime or change it). The arguments must be backed up and all the details given
(there are not usually black and white, but rich nuances of greys) or your opponents will take
advantage of it... In the preparatory meetings you will make a collection of resources taking notes
of the video, which the documents we will revise propose.., and searching for data and clarifying
ideas.
B) THE TRIAL
You will prepare the sessions, organised in three groups:
THE DEFENCE, which will highlight the achievements of the Revolution,
THE PROSECUTION, which will accuse the Revolution
and the JURY (a group that will have to control the debate, keep the order in the trial and emit a
final report with the conclusions). The other two groups will be able to add to and change the text
which must have the general approval of all involved.
I hope and trust that this work (of past history) will allow you to constantly relate it to the present
(to a large degree heir of the French Revolution) in order to understand that things could have
turned out differently if it had not been for the French Revolution.
ENJOY THE WORK!
C) TASKS TO CARRY OUT THROUGHOUT THE ACTIVITY
1.- UP TO 1789...
1.1. DIFFERENCES, INEQUALITIES...
a) Who had the economic power in the society of the Old Regime?
b) Who held the political power and how did they do it?
c) What conflicts were contained in the relations of both powers of the time?
d) Has anything changed with this relation of the two powers?
1.2. ANALYSIS OF THE SOCIAL GROUPS: COMPLAINTS, MENTALITY, POLITICAL
OPINIONS...
a) BOURGEOISIE in France of the XVIII century: how many of them were there?, what were
there ideas, their projects, their political pretensions...
b) If we asked a famous merchant of the XVIII century in France if he agreed with the situation in
the state society, what would he have said? (use arguments which the characters in the video
and the authors of the documents give):
-- I am really happy because I am really quite rich, Recently, I have accumulated a lot of money
and I do not care who is in charge.
-- I work more than anybody, I am paying more taxes than anybody and this is why I think I have
the right to participate in the State Government.
-- The rights and the obligations in this society are badly shared out. Some people have all the
rights and no obligation and the majority of us have obligations and no rights. This has got to
change.
-- Draw up another possible answer.
c) And if this question was made to a peasant working the land of a Nobleman, what would he
respond?
d) And if we ask a NOBLE?
e) Imagine you are a wealthy industrialist from Paris and through your effort you have amassed a
fortune: Your father is a cobbler, your mother a seamstress; you now have a house and a cloth
factory in which you have ten workers employed. Imagine you are made to fill in a questionnaire
and you are asked your written opinion on the following subjects:
--Absolute Power
--Liberty
--Ownership
--Equality
--The Aristocracy
Seeing what you have written, is your opinion different from that of a bourgeois of the XVIII
century?
f) THE THIRD STATE in XVII century France; how many were they, what posts did they fill? Can
you imagine what their ideals, their projects, their political pretensions were? (could they have
been unanimous)
g) Would all the social groups we have seen have the same opinion of how to govern the society?
What type of political regime would a noble, a bourgeois, etc, want? Would these questions of
government be the same for all?
2.- DOES THE REVOLUTION BREAK OUT AS A CONSEQUENCE OF A CRISIS?
2.1. Could the problematic relationship between the political and economic powers be the cause
of the crisis in the French society of the end of the XVIII century? Or do you believe that the
revolution occurred due to the conspiracy of Masonic people or of other ideas?
2.2. Relate all the events which exacerbated the situation and help to understand the starting of
the Revolution, remember the video, the texts, the book…
2.3. In your opinion, put in order of most important to least important these problems you have
found.
2.4. Could you design a schematic grid of the CAUSES which were influential in the outbreak:
You must distinguish between the background and the detonator, and the socioeconomic and
ideological politics?
3.- THE STAGES OF THE REVOLUTION (CHANGES AND “RE-CHANGES”)
3.1. What are the Constitutions? How are the political powers separated? Who is in charge of
each of the powers? How can the suffrage be?
3.2. Can you compare that of 1791 and 1793 Highlight the differences and the similarities
3.3. Look for the names of the phases and stages of the French Revolution, the events and what
started them, the dates each one started.
3.4. Fill in the Chronological axis.
4.- THE CLASSROOM TRIAL
You must form three groups with the following roles:
a) THE DEFENCE: through different evidence, they will try to demonstrate the achievements of
the Revolution
b) THE PROSECUTION: through different evidence, they will try to demonstrate where the
Revolution went wrong.
c) THE JURY: must take notes of the process and emit a final report.
If you are in group a or b you must use: texts, images and testimonies of characters of the time as
evidence. Group c will examine these in order to emit the final verdict.
5.- CONSEQUENCES, CONCLUSIONS AND OPINIONS
5. 1. Go over the texts and images and recall the arguments of the trial before answering:
What do you think were the principle achievements regarding political liberties in the French
Revolution and who were the main beneficiaries?
Which social groups do you believe did not accede with the same conditions to the political
power?
Are the rich the only citizens?
5.2. Reread the text of the petitions of the sans culottes to the assembly and synthesise them in just
one paragraph.
5.3. Go through the newspapers of the revolution and select a scene in which you can see what the
political interpretation of the ideas of Boissy d'Anglais was. Explain them.
5.4. Why did Babeuf distinguish between equality of fact and rights? What equality did he aspire to?
What specific proposals would you make to achieve this?
5.5. And women, what are they?
* Look for the events related to the participation of women in the revolution.
* Write a report about this subject in which you present:
a) the situation of women at the start of the revolution.
b) their principal claims
c) some relationship between the situation of women in present day society and the claims of
French women at the end of the XVIII century. What has changed? What has not changed?
6. SELF EVALUATION
What did you find interesting?
Something you learnt easily
Something new you have learnt
A challenge you gave yourself. Have you achieved it?
Have you found out new information?
Have you had enough material to be able to argue and discuss your subject?
What have you achieved by working in a team? What was the main difficulty you encountered?
What would you change if you had to start the work now?
Has this work widened your vision of history in any way?
Do you think you have learnt something about the present? On a personal, familiar, citizen,
international level…
ANNEX: DIFFERENT VOICES FROM DIFFERENT STAGES OF THE REVOLUTION
I. SOME TEXTS TO READ...
Text 1: "Complaints book" of the peasants of Guyancourt (village of about 600 inhabitants
near Versailles). 1789.
"That all the taxes are paid by the three orders, without any exception, each one according
to their economic means.
That there is a single law for the entire kingdom.
Total suppression of all the rates and taxes.
Suppression of all types of payment in kind.
Destruction of the birds that do a lot of damage as much in the time of sewing as in the
harvest.
That the rights of ownership are sacred and inviolable”.
Text 2:
Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen
(26th August 1789) (Fragments)
The National assembly recognises and declares, in presence and under the auspices of
the Supreme Being, the following rights of the man and the citizen:
Art. 1: Men are born free and equal in rights, and the social distinctions can only be
founded on the common utility.
Art. 2: The object of all political association is the conservation of natural and essential
rights of men. These rights are liberty, property, security and the resistance to oppression.
Art. 3: The principle of all sovereignty essentially resides in the Nation (...)
Art. 6: The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to
personally participate or through their representatives in formation. It must be the same for all,
for protection as well as the punishment. All citizens, being equal, are equally admissible to all
dignities, posts and public employment, according to their capacity and without any other
distinction than that of their virtues and talents.
Art. 16: All society where there is no assurance of the guaranty of rights and determined by
the separation of power, is lacking in Constitution.
Art. 17: As ownership is a sacred and inviolable right, nobody can be deprived of it but
when the public necessity, legally justified, evidently demand it and providing there is a fair and
previous indemnity.
Text 3: Some articles of the Constitution of 1791.
"The Constitution irrevocably annuls the institutions that harm the liberty and equality of
rights. There is no nobility, nor hereditary distinctions, nor feudal regimes... There is no privilege for
any region of the nation nor any person, nor is there any exception to the common right of all the
French. There are no guilds or professional corporations of arts or professions.
Title I:
All the citizens have access to charges and jobs without any other distinctions than their
merits and aptitudes.
The same crimes will be punished with the same penalties without the distinction of people.
The Constitution guarantees the inviolability of private property.
Title II:
Chapter 1, Art. 1: The National Assembly, that forms a legislative body is permanent and is
made up of a single Chamber, formed by temporary representatives, freely chosen by the people.
Chapter 1, Section.2, Art. 2: To be an active citizen it is necessary to be a male proprietor,
to be over 25, pay in any part of the Kingdom a direct contribution at least the same in value to
three days work and not to be a salaried worker.
Text 4: Some phrases of the Chapelier Law, 1791.
"If (...) citizens belonging to the same professions come to agreements or meet to not
attend work, or decide to ask for higher salaries together, such deliberations are proclaimed as
being anti-constitutional and a crime against the principle of liberty. As such, they will be penalised."
Text 5: Petitions of the Sans-Culottes to the Assembly in 1793.
"That all the prices of the articles of prime necessity are fixed according to those of the
years preceding 1790.
That the prices of the prime necessity materials are also fixed in a way that the benefits of
industry, salaries of work and the earnings of the merchants and endeavour that the worker has not
only the most indispensable and necessary things to survive, but also of that can help him to enjoy
himself.
The agricultural workers for any cause whatsoever loses the harvest is compensated by
the state.
A maximum for fortunes must be fixed.
Nobody can have more earth rented than are necessary for a quantity determined for the
labour tools.
That the citizens themselves can not have more than one shop or a single workshop.
The section of the sans-culotte thinks that all of these measures will lead to the abundance
of tranquillity, they will make the excess inequality of the fortunes slowly disappear and the number
of proprietors will increase."
Text 6: Fragment of the Manifesto of Brunswick, 1792.
"If the Parisian people infringes the slightest outrage of the royal family, the Prussian and
Austrian armies will carry out a exemplary revenge and never forget, plundering without conditions
into Paris, and shooting the National Guard and even anyone who dares to defend themselves
from our attack. It is our obligation to try to stop the anarchy in the interior of France; end up with
the attacks on the throne and the altar; re-establish the legal power and return the King in the army
of the absolute and legitimate authority".
Text 7:
Song of the Sans-Culottes, 1792
"If they do not see each other any more in Paris
The insolent little marquises
Neither tyrants with cassock
destroying this infernal yoke,
if the poor man is equal to the rich man
is thanks to the sans-culottes.
Despite the 14th July
We were wrong, effectively,
For false patriots.
We needed Saint Laurence (the storming of the Tuilleries in August of 92)
And of this day, the event
Is not due to more than the sans-culottes.
Traitors sat on the Assembly
And they named themselves men of State,
But they would serve the despots.
Paris en masse arose
All disappeared: nothing remained
But the true sans-culottes."
Text 8: New rights declared in the Constitution of 1793.
"The public assistance is a sacred debt. The society owes assistance to the wretched
citizens, either by giving them work or assuring the subsistence who are not in conditions to work.
(art. 21)
Instruction is a common necessity. The society must favour and make instruction available
to all citizens. (art. 22)
When the government violates the rights, the insurrection is the most sacred and inviolable
obligation for the people. (art. 35)"
Text 9: Robespierre justifies the use of Terror.
"If the force of the people’s government in peace time is virtue and honesty, the force of the
people’s government in the Revolution is at the same time the virtue and the terror. Virtue without
which, Terror is ill-fated; Terror without which virtue is impotent. Terror is nothing more than rapid,
severe and inflexible justice. It is therefore a result of virtue and it is not an exceptional and special
situation, but the application of democracy to the present urgent needs of the Land in danger ".
Text 10: Boissy d'Anglas presents the Constitution of 1795.
"You have to guarantee the property of the rich (...) Absolute equality if a pipe dream (...) A
country governed by the proprietors is within the social order. If the proprietors do not govern, we
would be in a state of Nature ".
Text 11:
Opinion of a bourgeois after Napoleon’s “coup d’état”
"France needs something great and permanent. Instability has been our downfall, it is
security we want. We do not want royalty for it is written: we want unity in the action of a strong
power that correctly holds up the law. We want a legislative body with conservative and pacific
legislators and not turbulent innovators. Finally we want to reap the reward of 10 years of sacrifice".
II. BIOGRAPHIES
BIOGRAPHY 1: The peasant.
Mathurin Vernin, son of Toussaint, oxen worker, share-cropper tenant of the land of de
Pierre Buignon , lord of Beelles-Foyes and inhabitant of Parthenay. The great great grandfather of
Mathurin was the first of the family to receive the land as a lease: since then the contract has been
renewed every seven years and the family has been obliged to give half of the harvest to Lord
Buignon.
In 1785, weighed down by the taxes and noble charges (that year his lordship is obliged to
give two kids, six chickens, six geese, two capons, twelve cheeses, four loads of firewood, etc) and
severely affected by the bad weather, is detained for poaching three pigeons on the lord’s hunting
ground and condemned to two years in prison.
In the summer of 1789, he joins together with other peasants and they storm the lord’s
mansion which is burned thus destroying all the files and accounts books. As feudalism is
abolished in the August of 89, Mathurin becomes the free owner of the land that since 1649 had
been cultivated by his ancestors. In 1792 he is forced to sign up in the revolutionary army at the
age of 27. His wife Arlette who is 25, is forced to take charge of the estate and her two daughters of
one and two years old respectively.
Mathurin dies on the battle field; a wealthy bourgeois from Poitiers who is an important
landowner of the area harasses Arlette so much that by 1796 he manages to make her sell the
small family estate, two years later she ends up working as servant in the house of the estate
together with her two daughters in exchange for a wage which allows them to get by.
BIOGRAPHY 2: The Noble.
Count Montaudoin, from Nantes, was made a noble at the end of the XVI century. He
possessed an important manor, but his fortune was also due to his shipping and slave trading
businesses, and having been named as the general tax-collector of King Louis XV in the generality
(district). When the Revolution breaks out he is a member of the Provincial Parliament and his
support for the royalty makes him a suspect. In 1790 he decides to emigrate from France (he and
part of his fortune) to Austria where he is taken in by relatives of the Duke of Brunswick. From there
he is informed of the comings and goings in France and with his money he supports the AustroPrussian army. As an emigrant he loses all his land which are put up for sale as part of the national
wealth.
In 1796, a brother who lived in Paris and who was the owner of a textile company that
supplied the revolutionary army, manages, thanks to his friends and influences in the government
of the Directory, to “recover” the count’s property under a false name. After the “Coup d’état” by
Napoleon in 1800, Count Montaudoin returns to Nantes with the property of his land assured; the
majority of his friends who had stayed in France had died on the guillotine.
BIOGRAPHY 3: The servant.
Nanon was 16 years old when the Revolution began and had been in service since she
was 12 in a house of the Cardinal of the Paris Catholic Church. After the events, the cardinal
emigrates from France and as she is now without work, is obliged to rent a room in the Saint
Antoine neighbourhood with the help of her insignificant savings and a tiny sum of money that her
previous “master” had left her.
In 1791 she meets Pierre and moves in with him. Pierre was an apprentice cobbler,
member of the Societé Fraternelle des patriotes de l'un et de l'autre sexe. In the neighbourhood,
she gets in touch with the club of republican and revolutionary citizens founded by Claire Lacombe
and Pauline León. She learns to read and write and she marries Pierre with the Republican
ceremony. In 1794 they get divorced by mutual agreement and Nanon decides to actively dedicate
herself to politics. For two years, she lives a very hard and semi-clandestine existence in which she
shares in the suffering of many of her colleagues.
In 1796, during the repression of the Conspiracy of the equals, she is condemned to 15
years imprisonment for participating in the revolts and demonstrations of the women, as well as
being a member of the Tribun du Peuple edited by Babeuf. She died in prison in 1800 beofre she
was 27.
BIOGRAOHY 4: The bourgeois.
In 1789, Grandet was a teacher of the trade of Cooper in the city of Saumur. He lived a
comfortable life, he knew how to read, write and count. In 1791, when the National Wealth” was put
up for sale, he was 40 years old and had just got married to the daughter of a wealthy merchant in
the timber industry. Grandet, using his savings and the marriage dowry of his wife, managed to
acquire the best vineyards of the area in the auctions, an old abbey and some country houses, until
then inhabited by peasant families who worked for the abbot, at a very good price.
During the most radical time of the Revolution, as Grandet was a first line republican, he
was named member of the district and subsequently mayor of Saumur. He was very skilled
politically: on the one hand he protected the supporters of the fallen regime who had emigrated
stopping their land from being sold, so as gain their friendship just in case things changed sides,
and on the other hand, earned a lot of money providing low priced wine to the revolutionary armies.
Using his position as mayor and as he said, in the interest of the city, had some excellent roads
built which led to his properties. His vineyards and production of fizzy beverages soon gained a lot
of fame throughout France and out of France too.
The culmination of his glory as a businessman and as a French patriot was when he was
57 years old: Napoleon granted him the title of Cavalier of the Legion of Honour. This was in the
year 1806.