Headstart documents Document A Map of Europe on the eve of the French Revolution, 1789. From Richard Cobb & Colin Jones, Voices of the French Revolution, Salem House, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 16. BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 1 Document B Map of France’s main administrative, judicial and financial divisions before 1789. From Mark Fielding & Margot Morcombe, The Spirit of Change: France in Revolution, McGraw-Hill, Sydney, 1999, p. 17. Document C BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 Document D 2 Map of the main divisions for the gabelle, the salt tax, in France before 1789. Alfred Cobban, A History of France, vol. 1: 1715-1799, Penguin, 1974, p. 59. Map showing the main administrative and customs divisions in France before 1789. From Duncan Townson, France in Revolution, Hodder & Stoughton, 1990, p. 10. Document E BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 3 Map showing the boundaries for the 13 parlements and 4 conseils souverains (which had similar powers to parlements), 1789. Alfred Cobban, A History of France, vol. 1: 1715-1799, Penguin, 1974, p. 66. Document F The French monarch, Louis XVI, ruled by ‘divine right’ – the will of God. In theory he delegated some of his authority to nobles, who in earlier times had received their huge landed estates in return for providing the monarch with armed forces in time of need. In return, the nobles had been exempted from taxation. They were in fact, the major tax-collecting authority. The nobles distributed portions of their estates to peasants, who thus theoretically enjoyed the use of the land which they did not own. From this land they could grow crops and graze livestock. But they had to pay for this concession with services and taxes; either making themselves available as soldiers or unpaid labourers, or surrendering a large percentage of their produce to the overlord. H.R. Cowie, Revolutions in the Modern World, Nelson, Melbourne, 1979, p. 19. Document G BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 Document H 4 Louis XVI, painted in 1775. Marie Antionette, painted in 1788. From Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 15. Document I The Palace of Versailles, painted in 1722 by Jean-Baptiste Martin. Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 15. BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 5 Document J Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 5. BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 6 Document K Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 19. Document L Economically, the nobility was characterized by great landed wealth. Their approach to estate management was often businesslike, almost ‘bourgeois’ in its concern for profit. Richard Cobb & Colin Jones, Voices of the French Revolution, Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 31. BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 7 Document M On 20 August 1786, Calonne, the Controller-General, told Louis XVI that the government was on the verge of bankruptcy. Revenue for 1786 would be 475 million livres, expenditure 587 million livres, making a deficit of 112 million – almost a quarter of the total income. From Duncan Townson, France in Revolution, Hodder & Stoughton, 1990, p. 10. Document N Social divisions – called ‘orders’ or ‘estates’ in the ancien régime. Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 19. Document O BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 8 A box lid illustrating a seigneur’s visit to a poor family’s house. From Richard Cobb & Colin Jones, Voices of the French Revolution, Salem House, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 16. Document P As the second of the three orders, or estates, of society, the nobility enjoyed extensive rights and privileges. The most significant was exemption from personal taxation ... Some financial and judicial offices ennobled their owners, which added a nobility of the robe – named after the black robe worn by court officials – to that of the sword. ... [T]his influx of office-holders and rich bourgeoisie, who could literally buy their way into the nobility through the system of ‘venality’, or purchase of office, and go on to adopt the aristocratic life-style, was probably essential to the survival of the order as a powerful group. On the eve of the Revolution, nobility was therefore a question of life-style, honour, title, privilege, lineage and morality, rather than membership of a military group. ... [I]n 1789 about half the 30,000 or so privileged families could trace their noble ancestry back no further than the mid-17th century. Richard Cobb & Colin Jones, Voices of the French Revolution, Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 31. Document Q BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 9 Josh Brooman, Revolution in France, Longman, Essex, 1992, p. 19. BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 10 Document R The Tuileries area of Paris, from a map produced mid-18th century. From Richard Cobb & Colin Jones, Voices of the French Revolution, Salem House, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 57. Document S During the ancien régime the church was unrivalled in terms of its social, economic and spiritual power. The first order, or estate, of the realm owned nearly 10 percent of all land in France, and income from land, property and tithes totalled over 150,000,000 livres a year. As the most privileged corporation in the state, it paid no direct taxes, negotiating instead a ‘free gift’ to the crown every five years, raised by an internally levied clerical tax; in return it held a monopoly of public worship, education and public charity. Approximately a third of the 170,000 clergy in France served as parish priests. [They] resented the disproportionate share of church wealth creamed off by the bishops, canons and regular orders, all of whom contributed little in clerical taxes. Richard Cobb & Colin Jones, Voices of the French Revolution, Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 33. BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 11 Document T The 18th-century Enlightenment may be represented as a new way of thinking about mankind and the environment. The main proponents of this intellectual movement, the philosophes, were primarily men of letters – men like Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu and Rousseau – but their views stemmed from the scientific revolution of the previous century. The discoveries of Galileo, Kepler and Newton in physics and cosmology revealed a universe that was infinite, yet governed by universal laws that could be discovered by the human intelligence. The philosophes were convinced that all creation was similarly rational, so that it was possible for man to uncover laws which regulated society, politics, the economy, even morality. Richard Cobb & Colin Jones, Voices of the French Revolution, Salem House Publishers, Massachusetts, 1988, p. 24. Document U Portrait of Voltaire, 1778. E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art, Phaidon Press, 1978, p. 373. Document V BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 12 Antione Watteau, ‘Pilgrimage on the Island of Cythera, 1717. Denise Hooker, (ed.) Art of the Western World, Hutchinson Australia, 1991, p. 290. Document W ‘The Council Chamber at Fontainebleau’. Louis XV style, c. 1753. Decorated by François Boucher. Discovering Art, vol. 8, p. 33 Document X BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 Document Y 13 Jean Baptiste Chardin (16991779), ‘Girl with Shuttlecock’. Jean-Baptiste Greuze, ‘The Village Bride’, 1761. Discovering Art, vol. 8, p. 14. Denise Hooker, (ed.) Art of the Western World, Hutchinson Australia, 1991, p. 291. Document Z Jacques Louis David, ‘Oath of the Horatii’, 1784. Denise Hooker, (ed.) Art of the Western World, Hutchinson Australia, 1991, p. 289. BridgetKelly/French Revolution/Headstart for 2012 14